The Philadelphia 76ers were able to come away with an impressive 110-102 win over the Brooklyn Nets on the road on Thursday where Joel Embiid once again had a big game. The big fella poured in 34 points and it is the seventh straight road game where he has scored 30+ points in.
Toward the end of the contest, Embiid and Nets superstar Kevin Durant got into it a bit when Durant began going at Embiid with some trash talk. Of course, Embiid was going to back at him and they were hit with double technical fouls with Embiid yelling “go home” in the direction of Durant and the Nets.
This was due to the fact that Durant did the same thing to the Sixers towards the end of the Nets win back on Dec. 16. Embiid just wanted to return the favor while also respecting his friend, Durant.
“That’s the best team in the conference,” said Embiid. “Obviously, I respect them a lot. Judging by the way he was acting last time, that’s the same thing he told us. Basically, we returned the favor, but there’s a lot of respect. I always tell people, I think I can do everything on the basketball court. There’s not a lot of guys that are able to do it and if there was one player that I think is more talented than me, it’s definitely him. I have a lot of respect for him and admire his game.”
Durant echoed the same message when asked about it from the Brooklyn perspective.
Kevin Durant on trash talk with Joel Embiid: "If you've been watching Joel and I play against each other, it's been like that every game, even the All-Star Game. We just respect each other so much that natural competitive fire comes out." https://t.co/ByVSFrnoNB
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) December 31, 2021
“We’re just competitive,” Embiid added. “Wins matter. Every single one of them. It’s always good to beat the best in the conference.”
The Sixers will end the 2021 portion of their schedule at 19-16 with this win and they will now move on to 2022 when they host the Houston Rockets on Monday. This gives them an opportunity to build some momentum for the future.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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