Sixers

Montrezl Harrell Tossed, Sixers Climb Back Above .500 After 21-Point Road Win

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Dec 27th, 2021 · 8:12 AM EST

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The Sixers beat the Wizards by 21 points on the road Sunday night, and they were due for one of those. They were due for a beatdown of a team missing a couple of guys, and they delivered that beatdown on the strength of a 15-0 third quarter run.

Joel Embiid had 36 and 13 in the win, shooting 12-17 from the floor and 10-11 from the foul line while getting Montrezl Harrell tossed after a couple of kerfuffles. At the risk of sounding blunt, he really just bullied Harrell twice in the post, and Harrell didn’t want to be clowned, so he committed a couple of minor infractions that got him ejected.

Here’s the first clip:

https://twitter.com/BrodesMedia/status/1475267306179727364?s=20

Foul? Embiid said he thought Harrell flopped there, and then obviously the retaliation version of a take foul to avoid being dunked on.

Here’s the second tech:

Montrezl Harrell gets ejected with his second technical on this shove pic.twitter.com/dPepu2Gu3e

— Hoop District (@Hoop_District) December 27, 2021

And look, you can sit there and talk about whether that’s a foul or not a foul. The arm isn’t exactly slapping down on Embiid, like we saw Enes Freedom do about 15 times in the Boston game.

But it doesn’t matter what we think, because the refs blew the whistle, and the shove gets him a second technical and an ejection.

Harrell spoke after the game, saying this:

“If you’re so tough, stand on that my dude. Don’t start nitpicking or pointing or wanting to do the telling when the ref walks in. Stand on that, because as you see, I am. I got tossed and it is what it is. I wish it wouldn’t have been in the situation it was in, but I don’t regret it. I don’t want to take it back. It is what it is bro. I’m not gonna change how I play for nobody. I’m not going to back down from nobody.”

Yeah? Well I think it’s pretty obvious that the refs see everything that’s going on. They don’t need Embiid to point to Harrell or whatever because they are well aware of the shove or push that now has THE ENTIRETY OF BOTH TEAMS in a tussle. Embiid can be a troll at times, and he’s good at getting under people’s skin, but in this case the infractions were multiple, obvious, and right in front of everybody. It wasn’t like these were some off-ball sequences that took place behind the play, off camera.

More importantly, the Sixers just played better overall. They shot 50% from the floor and 38% from three. Tobias Harris chipped in 23 on a better shooting night and Furkan Korkmaz (remember him?) reappeared with a 14-point effort despite going ice cold prior to his recent non-COVID illness. Tyler Johnson hit a couple of shots and the return of Georges Niang to the bench really helped.

This Sixers season has largely been a farce because of the Ben Simmons hold out, and the assorted COVID absences and other injuries. Regular season NBA is a joke in general, but this team has had a couple of opportunities to fall below .500 and they always rise to the occasion to make sure that doesn’t happen. They’ve got winnable games against lame opponents coming up, so if you’re one of those people who believes this season can still have meaning once the Sixers trade Ben, then you feel better about them coming up for air here and clawing their way to 17-16 as we head into January. They’re 6th in the East and 3.5 games out of fourth place and home court in the first round.

Finally, Joel Embiid made some history in the win:

Joel Embiid joins legendary company with his 7,000th career point. pic.twitter.com/p3QG5Q2TTc

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) December 27, 2021