Whenever the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics match up, things get a little chippy. These are two historic rivals and there is always bad blood between these two teams no matter what is going on concerning their records.
Things got chippy right away in the first quarter when Matisse Thybulle got into it with former Sixers teammate Josh Richardson who was called for a flagrant-1 foul after a Thybulle steal and layup attempt. The two of them got into a bit of a shouting match and they had to be separated after the two of them got tangled up.
After the 111-99 win for the Sixers, Tyrese Maxey reacted to what happened.
“I don’t think Matisse said anything,” said Maxey. “They got tangled up and sometimes when you tangle up, you try to get a guy off you. Guys are sweaty and nasty so it’s just—nah, I’m playing.”
Normally so stoic, it was a bit surprising to see Thybulle react the way he did. He is normally a very even-keeled player.
“Matisse is Matisse,” Maxey added. “He’s pretty monotone. He keeps the same emotion pretty much all the time. He doesn’t get too high, he doesn’t get too low so when things happen like that, when I ran over there, and I saw it, he just started laughing. Doing what Matisse does.”
There was another flagrant-1 foul called on Dennis Schroder when Thybulle had a steal and a dunk. He took a hard foul after it looked like Schroder pushed him in the back and he was on the ground for a bit. He, understandably, wasn’t happy about that one either.
He had to leave the game with right shoulder soreness.
“Usually, he doesn’t respond to anything, but you can tell on both fouls, if he’s reacting, something must be wrong,” said Joel Embiid. “I hope he’s OK and we can continue to have him and help us win some games.”
Initially, it did appear that Thybulle was alright. He actually followed that up with a triple and he then took another 3-pointer before having to leave the game.
“He made a 3,” said coach Doc Rivers. “I think he took two more. I actually asked him did he get his shooting hand fixed when he fell because he started shooting more. I’m sure it’s hurting. I didn’t see the fall. I saw after the fall so I’m not sure if he was supporting himself or not so we’ll wait and see.”
The Sixers do now have to travel to Miami to take on the Heat on Saturday night.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=57101]
[lawrence-related id=57290,57284,57281]