Getty Joel Embiid #21 of the Philadelphia 76ers.
ESPN analyst Jay Williams sided with the New York Knicks that Joel Embiid made a dirty play on Mitchell Robinson that warranted an ejection in Game 3.
Embiid escaped with only a Flagrant Foul 1 and went on to drop a playoff career-high 50 points to lift the Sixers to a 125-114 win over the Knicks on Thursday, April 25, at Wells Fargo Center.
“As much as I love that [Embiid’s 50-point game], in the first quarter when he grabbed Mitchell Robinson’s legs — now look I want to see the players determine the game more than anything and I know the referees feel like they would have not gotten out of that arena in Philadelphia had they called Flagrant [foul] 2 — that play alone on Mitchell Robinson while he was on the ground grabbing the knee of another player while he is in the air … deserved a Flagrant 2,” Williams said on “Get Up” on April 26.
“Joel deserved to be ejected. That’s how I feel about it. I think that would have been the case for anybody else but I know they wanted to see Joel play but that deserved a Flagrant 2 that would have obviously changed the outcome of Game 3 in Philadelphia.”
Robinson, who entered Game 3 questionable with his surgically repaired left ankle nagging him, did not finish the game and left the arena in a walking boot.
Flagrant Foul 1 Was a Unanimous Call
Crew chief Zach Zarba said in the pool report that all three referees unanimously ruled it as a Flagrant 1.
“In that situation, the crew gets together, we go and review the foul. In this instance, the crew was unanimous along with the replay center official in Secaucus that this foul was unnecessary but did not rise to the level of a flagrant 2,” Zarba said. “The unnecessary contact rose to the level of a flagrant 1 but we were unanimous that this did not rise to the level of excessive contact, unnecessary and excessive, which would have been a flagrant 2 ejection. That’s why we kept it a flagrant 1.”
Joel Embiid Defends Himself
Embiid explained he was just protecting himself from the Knicks center landing on his knee, citing a past incident imvolving Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga.
“So I kind of had some flashbacks, when he came down to it,” Embiid told reporters after the game. “It was unfortunate. I didn’t mean to hurt anybody.
I just … in those situations I gotta protect myself, because I’ve been in way too many situations where I’m always the recipient of the bad end of it. So yeah, it was unfortunate, but physical game.
They want to bring the physicality. We can be physical too, and we are. So it goes both ways. I get bumped all over the place, and I just keep playing and I’m not going to take it. I gotta keep my mind and make sure that I don’t get outside myself. But yeah, I just gotta keep being myself, being aggressive and physical.”
With Robinson’s playing status uncertain for Game 4, the Knicks will have to be more than ready to defend Embiid and be wary of his antics.
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