CAMDEN, N.J.–The Philadelphia 76ers and the Toronto Raptors have exchanged blows over the first four games of their Round 1 series, but things got a bit chippy and overblown a bit in Game 4 on Saturday.
The Raptors were able to come away with a 110-102 win to avoid elimination and they were able to frustrate Joel Embiid and the Sixers all afternoon. Embiid even got into it with Pascal Siakam which led to the Toronto star calling out Embiid and criticizing him for making dirty plays and putting on what he called “fake toughness”.
As the team prepared for Game 5 at shootaround on Monday, Georges Niang was surprised to hear that.
“I think those two are friends, one, but this is playoff basketball,” said Niang. “Nothing that I’ve seen has been dirty. This is a fight. This is going to be a war. If you expected it to be touch fouls and stuff like that, then this isn’t the game for you, but to hear that come out of him, that’s actually surprising for me.”
Considering that this is the playoffs, as Niang explained, things are going to be tough as teams continue to fight for their lives and their opportunity to win a championship.
“I think at the end of the day, this is playoff basketball,” he added. “It’s gonna be physical, it’s going to be intense. Everybody wants a championship so there’s not going to be any touch fouls. There’s not going to be any helping people up off the ground. This is what guys have worked the whole 82 games for so nothing is going to be light or easy.”
At the end of the day, Embiid and Siakam will look to move on in Game 5. Siakam’s comments may have been a bit out of line, however, as there really wasn’t anything that would be classified as “dirty”.
“For him to say that, I think that’s a little ridiculous,” Niang finished. “I mean, things get chippy at times, but nothing where anyone’s maliciously trying to hurt someone. So I think that was just a little overplayed.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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