After Four Games and $65k in Fines, 76ers are up 3-1 over Nets
By: Kevin McLaughlin
BROOKLYN - There’s nothing like playoff basketball, and the opening round series between the Brooklyn Nets (1-3) and the Philadelphia 76ers (3-1) sure lives up to the drama filled expectations of the NBA playoffs. Tracking back to game 2 in Philly, where 76ers’ Joel Embid was charged with a hard flagrant one foul against Brooklyn’s 20 year old center Jarrett Allen, hostility has been high. Especially after Embid was caught laughing about the hard foul in the postgame interview after game 2. The physicality has been present by both teams, and the tension has been rising each and every possession.
Game 4 in Brooklyn made many headlines Saturday afternoon due to an on court altercation involving Joel Embid, Jarrett Allen, Jared Dudley, and Jimmy Butler. Embid had a hard flagrant one foul against Jarrett Allen yet again, and Brooklyn’s veteran Jared Dudley came to defend his young center. Dudley pushed Embid after the foul, which then led to a scuffle on the court, where Philadelphia’s guard Jimmy Butler then pushed Jared Dudley in retaliation to Dudley’s initial push on Embid. After the coaches and players managed to break up the fight, the referees decided to eject Jared Dudley and Jimmy Butler from the game. Dudley was later fined $25,000 by the NBA, while Butler was fined $15,000.
The game was back and forth for all four quarters, with Brooklyn managing to maintain a small lead throughout most of the game. It came down to the final two minutes where turnovers and missed shots made the difference. Philadelphia was able to force Brooklyn into a turnover, while then finding an open Mike Scott for a go-ahead three point shot with 20 seconds left. Down 2 points with only one possession left, Brooklyn again turned the ball over with an inside pass to Jarrett Allen, where three 76ers’ defenders were there to meet him. The 76ers then got the ball back and nailed two free-throws to end the game with a 112-108 Victory in Barclays Center, but the drama doesn’t stop there. After the game, Brooklyn’s head coach Kenny Atkinson displayed his frustration with the final play of the game, claiming the officials didn’t call a foul on Tobias Harris (PHI) for wrapping Jarret Allen’s (BKN) body after a pick and roll, restricting Allen’s movement. The official Two Minute Report by NBA league officials stated that Atkinson was right, there was a foul that wasn’t called on that last play. If Brooklyn received that foul call and got another possession, the game could have ended with a different result, which is why the Nets organization showed clear frustration after the game. In fact, the two players mentioned earlier weren’t the only people who got fined in game 4 of this series. Sean Marks, the Brooklyn Nets general manager, also got fined $25,000 and suspended for game 5 for entering the referees locker room after the game to complain about the officiating down the stretch.
Philadelphia enters game 5 on Tuesday night with a 3-1 lead and a high probability of winning the series. Expect nothing less than a hard fought battle from the Brooklyn Nets team, as they have shown over the course of this season that they do not give up. Especially with all this drama surrounding this series, game 5 might be the most exciting of them all.