After missing Game 3, Joel Embiid made sure to make his presence felt in the Philadelphia 76ers' Game 4 win over the Brooklyn Nets.
Embiid was a last-minute decision to play in Game 4 but you wouldn't have been able to tell from his final box score. The dominant All-Star centre stuffed the stat sheet with 31 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists, six blocks and two steals, proving to be too much for anyone on the Nets to handle.
MORE: Takeaways from 76ers' Game 4 win over Nets
Embiid had an eventful game aside from his busy stat line, as a hard foul on Jarrett Allen led to the massive scrap that got Jared Dudley and Jimmy Butler ejected from the contest.
In Embiid's post-game interview with TNT's Ros Gold-Onwude, he didn't hesitate to let everyone know how he felt about the altercation.
"First of all, he's a nobody. And when opponents try to do stuff like that it's just to get us out of the game." He didn't stop there either, "I'm too valuable for my team and that's why I didn't react."
He disagreed with the call in the first place, but kept his composure anyway, "I also didn't think that was a flagrant foul because I played the ball but in that type of situation I was just trying to stay composed and be mature."
That maturity went out the window, in a playful manner, in his postgame press conference after his team took a 3-1 lead over the Nets, just one win away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.
"It feels great to be up 3-1 but we definitely don't want to be in a situation like the Warriors two years ago," Embiid told the media.
Sixers' Jimmy Butler immediately exits podium after Joel Embiid cracks joke about series lead over Nets: "It feels great to be up 3-1. We don't want to be in the situation like the Warriors two years ago. I was kidding, man." pic.twitter.com/Vc74NfecZ7
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) April 20, 2019
His response generated laughter amongst the group while also forcing his teammate Jimmy Butler to leave the press conference immediately in a joking disbelief that Embiid would take a crack at the defending NBA Champions.
Embiid, Butler and the 76ers will be back in action on their home court in Philadelphia on Wednesday for Game 5 as they try to end the series with Brooklyn.
