Joel Embiid returned to the Philadelphia 76ers for Game 2 vs. the Boston Celtics. Coming off the heels of winning the 2023 MVP award, many expected Embiid to have a dominant game.
Instead, Embiid wasn’t aggressive enough and struggled to help his team. But what he did was embarrassingly flopped during one play of the game.
Flop or foul?
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) May 4, 2023
The referee blew the whistle in Embiid’s favor, and it was undoubtedly a questionable call. NBA fans on Twitter weren’t kind to Embiid after seeing the clip.
A fan questioned Joel Embiid about winning the MVP award.
This seriously y’all mvp ??
— Tay (@NoWeyJose420) May 4, 2023
Another fan posted a hilarious gif.
Flop pic.twitter.com/FpC1M3K9Ma
— Ricky Chu (@RikDaddy) May 4, 2023
Another fan claimed it was definitely a flop by the 2022-23 NBA MVP.
Definitely a flop. Quite embarrassing actually.
— Momin Malik (@Mmalik77) May 4, 2023
A fan went as far as saying that Embiid is ruining the game of basketball.
https://twitter.com/supszns/status/1653922898569211904
A fan wants the league to issue a technical foul for such blatant flopping, and more than 1.7K people agreed.
💯% flop, they should start issuing techs for this. It’s ruining the game.
— Viktor Bezić (@viktorbezic) May 4, 2023
This is not the first time NBA fans have called out Joel Embiid for his embarrassing flops. In fact, in the first-round series vs. the Brooklyn Nets, fans were surprised after seeing Embiid’s ridiculous flop.
There is a difference between tricking the referee into giving a foul call in his favor and simply flopping around. Embiid has a tendency to be the latter more often than not.
Doc Rivers Reacts To Joel Embiid’s Game 2 Performance
The expectations were high for Joel Embiid in Game 2, but many also understood that it’s not easy to get back in rhythm after returning from injury.
Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers labeled Embiid’s Game 2 performance against the Boston Celtics ‘rusty’ in the postgame interview.
“Rusty. Early on, I thought he got a rhythm a couple of times, and I thought we were out of rhythm as well. But we expected that,” Rivers said. “We knew there was going to have to be some kind of growing pains. I’m glad we got it out of the way today. … I thought he moved fine. I thought there were several times that he had matchups that he was looking to pass. Especially early in the game, he was really trying to defer. We really don’t want him to do that, but I get it.”
Joel Embiid has always been a great player in the regular season, but his numbers have gone down in the postseason throughout his career.
He is averaging just 18.8 PPG, 9.3 RPG, and 3.0 APG in the 2023 NBA playoffs. It’s a huge dip from his regular season numbers where he averaged 33.1 PPG, 10.1 RPG, and 4.2 APG.
The 76ers will hope that Embiid finds his rhythm in Game 3. Otherwise, they can kiss goodbye to advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
