PHILADELPHIA — In the history of bad foul calls, the one that was whistled against Russell Westbrook on Joel Embiid with 14.9 seconds remaining Saturday qualified for the Bad Foul Hall of Fame.
Whether there was even contact made was questionable as Embiid attempted a 3-point shot with Philly trailing by three. If there indeed was contact, it was trifling at best. And it was Westbrook’s 6th foul, DQing him for the third time this season.
Embiid made all three free throws to tie the game, and the Thunder won it when Paul George converted a four-point play with 5.1 seconds remaining (the foul on Jimmy Butler was legit) and Butler then missed a buzzer beater at the other end, giving Oklahoma City a 117-115 victory on national television that made it 19 consecutive wins for OKC against Philadelphia.
Embiid and Westbrook have a checkered history, to say the least, and one of Embiid’s fouls against Westbrook could have been called a flagrant after he basically steamrolled him on a breakaway.
No, they are not friends.
Safe to say that @russwest44 and @JoelEmbiid are not cool. pic.twitter.com/S83AOEFhn1
— Chris Sheridan (@sheridanhoops) January 20, 2019
The Sixers have not defeated the Thunder since the first season after the franchise moved from Seattle, so the Thunder’s dominance dates back to when Embiid was just starting high school.
On the questionable call, Embiid lured Westbrook into possibly swiping him across the arm, and the Thunder were incensed.
“They told me it was a foul,” coach Billy Donovan said when asked what explanation he was given by the officiating crew.
Oklahoma City is now third in the Western Conference and has a slight head of steam heading into their matchup with the New York Knicks on Monday at Madison Square Garden, where Enes Kanter will dust off the cobwebs and return to the court for the first time in more than a week — provided the Knicks haven’t traded him by then.
Kanter stayed in New York during the Knicks’ trip to London out of fears that Turkish intelligence agents would assassinate him. The Turkish government has filed an extradition request with the United States, where Kanter is seeking citizenship. Several family members are imprisoned in Turkey.
The Thunder were 3 1/2-point underdogs against the Sixers, and the game was a good one that could have gone either way.
What it does to each team’s championship odds remains to be seen. The Sixers remain the fourth choice in the West to win the NBA championship at 16-1, while the Thunder are 24-1 — higher odds than the LeBron-less Lakers (20-1).
The only other development of note Saturday in Philadelphia was the return of Markelle Fultz, who will continue his rehab for a shoulder injury (there is skepticism about whether he truly has a shoulder injury or an extreme case of the yips) in Philadelphia after spending nearly a month in California.
The Sixers are eager to trade him, but teams around the NBA want to see him string together four or five decent games before they will make anything resembling a reasonable offer for him.
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