Joel Embiid and Myles Turner are two of the best young centers in the NBA. Embiid is turning into one of the league’s biggest stars, while Turner has been churning away in Indiana, putting forth a really productive season for a Pacers squad that currently sits in third place in the Eastern Conference.
The two went head-to-head on Tuesday night, and while Embiid had the bigger individual night (29 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks to Turner’s 25 points and six rebounds), the Pacers came out on top, 101-98. After the game, we learned that Turner is starting to get kind of annoyed playing against the Sixers’ big man.
Turner accused Embiid of flopping, and said that it takes away from the fun he has when the two take the court.
Via The Indianapolis Star:
“I always have fun playing against Joel, because he’s so versatile and does a lot of great things. I hope he’s listening,” said Turner, smiling. “He needs to stop flopping. It’s just annoying man.”
Turner didn’t mention if this was in response to a specific moment in the game or if this is a more general thing that pops up when he faces off against Embiid. Tuesday’s game was rather chippy — Embiid fell on Domantas Sabonis’ leg and picked up a technical foul for shoving Lance Stephenson — which isn’t a massive surprise when two teams gunning for a top-4 spot in the conference play.
The bad news is that the teams don’t play again during the regular season, so we won’t get to see if Turner has the opportunity to accuse Embiid of embellishing some stuff on the floor. The good news, though, is that we may get seven games of Pacers-Sixers in the first round of the postseason, as the two teams would play one another if the season ended today.
