Nick Nurse's honest take on 'strange' officiating, ejections in 76ers win vs. Spurs
Yesterday at 11:25 PM
PHILADELPHIA — No one had seen anything quite like the Philadelphia 76ers’ win over the San Antonio Spurs. Given the choice, no one would request to see it again.
The ejection of Andre Drummond, the reversal of that ejection and the ejection of Joel Embiid that stood turned a competitive, exciting game on its head. The Sixers’ 111-106 win was gusty. It featured only 14 minutes of Embiid and injuries to Drummond and KJ Martin. But no one will remember this game for the home team in white or the away team in black. The three other people on the court in gray colored this game as much as, if not more than, any player.
Drummond and Victor Wembanyama fighting for position led to two technical fouls on the 76ers center, though Wembanyama was clearly not pushed in the second instance. The referees, to their credit, reversed the incorrect call. But flipping it into a flopping call on Wemby that was then overturned after a review only made the whole thing more difficult to follow.
"Thewhole thing wasreallystrange," Nick Nurse said. "Withoutlookingatthetapeto see whatwas actually goingonthere, I doubtthathewasgoingdownbecauseof such aggressive pushing that there was a probably a little bit of…whatever, you know what I mean? Just seemed reallystrange.All three of the callsseemed really strange to me, but on we go."
Nurse said that he did hear referee Jenna Schroeder admit that she messed up the Drummond situation. He figured as much when the second technical foul was overturned. But he never got clarity on the Embiid ordeal.
"Ididn’treally get anexplanationforit," the 76ers’ head coach said. "Icouldn’teverreallyget to the referee that called it so I was asking the other guysand they were saying, 'Ask her,' and Ineverreally got a chance as the game was going. Never did findout. I justassumeitwasarguing and whatever."
76ers defeat Spurs despite Joel Embiid ejection
According to the NBA’s pool report with crew chief Curtis Blair, contact between Embiid and Schroeder was just "incidental" and he was ejected because he drew two unsportsmanlike penalties. No further details were provided as to what Embiid did that was specifically defined as unsportsmanlike.
Tyrese Maxey, who iced the game with a strong fourth quarter and totaled 32 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and three steals, kept it diplomatic in his breakdown of the officiating.
Tyrese Maxey: "I thought it was amazing. Great game. It was lit. It was fun." pic.twitter.com/L7YKeWfA2V
— Sam DiGiovanni (@BySamDiGiovanni) December 24, 2024
"I thought it was amazing. Great game. It was lit. It was fun," Maxey said. "I didn’t get to see what happened to Joel so I was sitting down, then they said he was gone. So, that's life. Guys rallied around it."
The 76ers still have only made it through two games with all of their three stars in tact. Their latest attempt failed in that regard but it did end in a victory. The fact that it failed because of ejection is much better than any type of injury. They’ll head into their six-game road trip, which begins on Christmas against the Boston Celtics, happy that this game is simply over with.
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