NEW YORK — With his Philadelphia 76ers trailing by nine points to the Brooklyn Nets and three seconds left in the fourth quarter Thursday night at Barclays Center, coach Doc Rivers called timeout.
His goal, however, wasn’t to try to draw up a play. Instead, it was to deliver a message to the officials.
So he walked out to center court, stared at the three game officials and held up a “0” — the number of team fouls called on the Nets in the fourth quarter of what became a 114-105 Philly loss, its third in four days, all to teams missing star players.
“They needed to see that,” he said.
Rivers gave the same message to the officials after the buzzer sounded. His biggest issue? Joel Embiid should’ve gotten more calls down the stretch.
“I thought Joel got fouled the last three post possessions, and-ones, and none was called,” said Rivers, whose team is now 15-15 after an 8-2 start. “I don’t know how a team can play the fourth quarter of a game where we’re driving the ball and posting the ball and they have zero fouls. It’s hard to play a quarter in the NBA and commit no fouls. Very surprised by that.”
Embiid, who had a game-high 11 free throw attempts but none in the fourth quarter, agreed.
“I mean, they’re the home team,” said the All-Star big man, who had team bests in points (32), rebounds (9) and assists (6). “I thought we got fouled a few times, especially down there. But, I mean, it’s frustrating when they’re calling fouls for the other teams down there and you don’t get any. I can see what he (Rivers) was talking about.”
After getting blown out Monday in Memphis with Embiid sitting out with abdominal soreness, Philadelphia has now lost games on back-to-back nights to opponents in Miami and Brooklyn that were missing key pieces due to injury or COVID protocols.
Those losses added up to a missed opportunity in Embiid’s eyes.
“It’s extremely frustrating to lose,” he said. “I hate losing. It sucks. We’ve just got to do a better job of…
Source : espn
