Joel Embiid unhappy with LeBron James' flagrant foul as Philadelphia 76ers beat LA Lakers 107-106

Embiid had an injury scare during the game [Image: NBA.com]

The Philadelphia 76ers kept their composure down the stretch to give the LA Lakers their first road loss of the season. Tobias Harris drained the game-winner at the Wells Fargo Center as the hosts won 107-106. Harris ended the night with 24 points of 62.5% shooting from the field.

Joel Embiid set the tone for the Philadelphia 76ers once again with 28 points and six rebounds. LeBron James led the scoring for LA Lakers with 34 points, 22 of which came in the first half. Anthony Davis had 23 points and eight rebounds of his own.

Joel Embiid speaks out about LeBron James' flagrant foul

One of the talking points of the game was a hard foul from LeBron James on Joel Embiid that saw the latter suffer a scary fall. LeBron was slapped with a flagrant 1 but Embiid felt that the LA Lakers talisman deserved a tougher punishment.

“That was a very dangerous play. I guarantee if it was me I would have been thrown out of the game,” Embiid said.

Joel Embiid was visibly in pain and went down hard on his back after being fouled.

LeBron was called for a flagrant 1 and Embiid stayed in the game. pic.twitter.com/LSOVsgVy5f
— ESPN (@espn) January 28, 2021

Tobias Harris, meanwhile felt that this was a statement win for the Philadelphia 76ers and was beaming with confidence after scoring the game-winner.

Tobias Harris on game winner vs Lakers

“Some people think we haven’t played anybody. We wanted to play against the champs. And see how we matched up”

“Confidence. I visualize myself in those spots. That’s I shot I work on time and time again” pic.twitter.com/iUuzCNTY3H
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) January 28, 2021

The Philadelphia 76ers are now 13-6 on the season and lead the Eastern Conference standings.

LeBron James happy with LA Lakers' effort against Philadelphia 76ers

LeBron James wasn't too miffed about the LA Lakers' performance as they lost their fifth game of the 2020-21 campaign. Outside of the first quarter, he was happy with the team's effort against the Philadelphia 76ers.

"I loved our fight. Just got to do a better job of keeping our hands out of the cookie jar." @KingJames on the #Lakers comeback and his takeaways from tonight's tough loss. pic.twitter.com/6BKOb7bLPu
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) January 28, 2021

The LA Lakers closed down a 14-point deficit late in the fourth while playing Davis at the five with every other player on the court carrying the ability to stretch the floor. LeBron addressed the benefit of such a lineup. He explained:

"It's always good to know that you can go down the stretch and go to AD at the five and me kinda like that point forward and then surround us with guards and shooters, defenders even if need be. ... Having KCP [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope] out there with AC [Alex Caruso] and Dennis [Schroder] just gave us a lot of dimension both offensively and defensively."

LeBron James particularly showered praise on Alex Caruso who came up clutch against the Philadelphia 76ers down the stretch.

"AC is whatever we need. He’s a Swiss Army knife, to be honest. ... He can do it all, he just helps our ballclub in so many ways," LeBron said.

LA Lakers take on the Detroit Pistons in their next game.

Also read: LA Lakers 106-107 Philadelphia 76ers: 5 hits and flops as Joel Embiid outduels LeBron James with MVP-like performance