Joel Embiid got his Sixers back in the series with a 50-point masterpiece in game three, but many Knicks players wondered if the former MVP should have even been in the game to drop a playoff career-high on Thursday night.
Embiid was whistled for a flagrant one foul on Mitchell Robinson after grabbing Robinson’s ankle on a putback attempt while Embiid was on the ground, and the Knicks center eventually had to leave the game before leaving the arena in a walking boot, his availability for the rest of the series in doubt.
It wasn’t the only questionable foul by Embiid, as Tom Thibodeau argued that Embiid extending his leg into Isaiah Hartenstein’s groin area, which was called as an offensive foul on Embiid, should have also been a flagrant. Needless to say, the Knicks took exception to the flagrant.
“Happy Mitch didn't get a serious injury on that,” Josh Hart said. “I'm all for tough fouls or tough playoff fouls, but that's something that can put a guy out for a significant amount of time.
“Lucky he didn’t get seriously hurt.”
Hartenstein added that it “wasn’t a basketball play,” while Donte DiVincenzo was even more blunt about it.
“The ankle grabbing on Mitch was dirty,” DiVincenzo said.
The Knicks were frustrated, but not all that surprised with how game three unfolded.
“We knew what game three was gonna be. Come on now,” Hart said of the physical game that ended with Philly taking 33 foul shots. “Especially with how game two ended. We knew what it was gonna be. Am I surprised? Not at all.”