Joel Embiid drops 1-word reaction to describe Pacers-Knicks head-scratching calls in crunch time
Joel Embiid reacted to a couple of late questionable calls in Game 1 of the Indiana Pacers-New York Knicks series on Monday night. Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers were a victim of those questionable calls in their first-round series loss to the Knicks.
In a post on his X/Twitter account, Embiid dropped a one-word reaction to the kickball and illegal screen violations called against the Pacers. It didn't look good for the officials, as the Knicks came out with the 121-117 win to take a 1-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
"LOL," Embiid wrote.
What were the calls Joel Embiid reacted to?
Joel Embiid and many basketball fans saw two questionable calls against the Indiana Pacers late in Game 1. The first one was a kickball violation with under a minute remaining when the score was tied at 115-115.
Jalen Brunson's pass was deflected by Aaron Nesmith but was called a kickball violation. The Pacers wanted to challenge the call because Nesmith's hand hit the ball and seemed to be a clean steal.
However, kickball violations cannot be challenged, which might be changed based on what happened in Monday's game.
The Knicks retained the ball, and it led to Donte DiVincenzo's go-ahead 3-point shot with around 40 seconds left in the game.
The second poor call was an illegal screen on Myles Turner with around 10 seconds remaining with the score 118-117. Indiana challenged the call, but it was unsuccessful.
It was a moving screen, but fans, as well as some analysts, thought that it should have not been called because it was a playoff game.
Joel Embiid critical against referees in series vs. Knicks
The Philadelphia 76ers were unhappy with referees in their series against the New York Knicks. Game 2 of the series was heart-pounding, but there were also some questionable calls made that favored the Knicks, who got the win in the end.
Joel Embiid was critical of referees after Game 2 and called the way they officiated the game as "unacceptable." He added:
"(Maxey) did his job. That's on the league. That's on the NBA. That's on the frigging referee. I hate to put the game on them. But I am sure the two-minute report is going to come out and we are going to see what happened. But ... that's unacceptable.
"That's not on him. That's not on any of us. We fought for 47 minutes and whatever 20 seconds. For that to happen ... that's not OK," Embiid said. [H/T Sports Illustrated]
Embiid turned out to be right, as the league revealed on their L2M report that the referees made incorrect calls in Game 2.