Joel Embiid came back against Jacque Vaughn and took an interesting reference to match the Brooklyn Nets head coach’s officiating complaints last Game 1 of their best-of-seven first-round series.
The Sixers were called for 13 personal fouls, which went on to become 17 foul shots for the Nets (11 made).
“I saw, after the game last time, they kind of took the Nick Nurse route of begging for free throws and calling out the referees, and they did come out,” Embiid said in postgame. “They got a lot of calls, which I guess is good for them.”
Vaughn notably ranted in his post-game availability last Saturday Game 1 that he hoped referees “would be calling travel and three seconds” against the 76ers superstar heading to Game 2.
As such, the referencing made by Embiid came from the protest made by Nurse in the opener of their first-round matchup last year. The Toronto Raptors coach expressed his dissatisfaction with the lack of foul calls favoring them following Game 1, and Embiid went on to call him out. The 76ers went on to win the series, 4-1.
After a rusty first half wherein he tallied eight points while Philly trailed by as much as 10, Embiid came alive to finish the evening with 20 markers, 19 boards, and seven assists en route to his franchise’ 96-84 Game 2 win.
“I think we didn’t play our best basketball, but what happened in the second-half, we just figured it out,” said Embiid. ” … We just kept doing it over and over and over. That stuck to the game plan and make a little adjustments and we just figured out to just keep playing together.”