Did Joel Embiid Make The World’s Most Subtle ‘3-1 Lead’ Joke While Praising The Warriors?

When the Sixers sprinted out to a stunning 47-28 lead during the first quarter of their primetime showdown against the Warriors on Saturday night, it seemed like it would be just the latest notch on their belt as arguably the hottest young team in the NBA right now.

But young teams also have to learn difficult lessons, and in this case, that lesson was that no lead is ever safe, especially against a team like the Warriors that can catch fire quickly and erase a deficit in the blink of an eye. That’s precisely what they did in the third period with a 47-point quarter of their own to help them take the lead for good.

Joel Embiid understands that it’ll take time and experience to learn how to maintain composure in those scenarios.

And if you squint hard enough, it’s hard not to interpret that line about “blowing a big lead” as a subtle reference to the interminable 3-1 lead jokes that will likely follow the Warriors’ to their graves. But as he’s wont to do, Embiid took to Twitter soon after to express his confusion as to why everyone was interpreting it that way.

JoJo takes to social media basically any chance he gets, and after the game, Kevin Durant admitted that he wanted to beat the Sixers in part so that Embiid wouldn’t immediately start talking trash on Twitter (and we all know how much it affects Durant when people say unkind things about him on Twitter).

But Embiid, of course, is going to talk trash regardless, both on the court and on social media, and his penchant for incessant chattering, win or lose, has apparently helped him earn the respect of legendary trash talker Draymond Green.

What’s abundantly clear from all of this is that the Sixers can compete with any team in the NBA. The only question is how long it will take before they put all the pieces together and start dominating the rest of the league.