Joel Embiid’s second game back from his sinus fracture didn’t go well.
Embiid erupted and berated an official just before halftime of their 111-106 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night. Things got so bad at one point that it took multiple 76ers teammates and assistant coaches to hold him back before he left the floor.
Just before halftime at Wells Fargo Center, Embiid drove right at Spurs star Victor Wembanyama and crashed into him uncontrollably at the free throw line. Wembanyama drew the charge, and Embiid was livid.
He jumped up and immediately started yelling at the official, which earned him the first technical foul. That didn’t slow him down any, and he quickly picked up the second tech and automatic ejection. Multiple people had to hold Embiid back after his second technical foul, too, as he kept berating the official who threw him out.
Joel Embiid got called for charging, then got a tech for berating the ref, then got ejected for yelling at the refs and had to be held back from going after them pic.twitter.com/zkFVgNUU3U
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) December 24, 2024
Embiid eventually was walked off the court. He finished with nine points and three rebounds in 14 minutes, and he shot 2-of-8 from the field. The ejection was just the second of his career.
“I didn’t really get an explanation for it,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “I couldn’t really get to the referee that called it. So I was asking the other guys, and they were saying, ‘ask her.’ … I never did find out, just assumed it was arguing.”
Crew chief Curtis Blair said after the game that, while there was “incidental contact” between Embiid and the official, it was two “unsportsmanlike technical fouls” that led to his ejection. The contact between them was “just incidental in nature.”
The game marked the second back for Embiid, who returned from a sinus fracture in their win over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday. The 30-year-old has appeared in just eight games this season, and he didn’t make his debut until mid-November due to a left knee injury and a three-game suspension for shoving a local reporter.
Wembanyama and Andre Drummond got into it briefly in the second quarter, too, and Drummond was hit with a technical foul after he shoved Wembanyama. He was nearly ejected, but a second technical foul was rescinded after a review.
That incident, Blair said, was caused simply after Drummond stepped on Wembanyama’s foot. That was also deemed incidental contact.
The 76ers took a three-point lead into halftime after the Embiid incident, and then they powered ahead to the five-point win after closing the game on a 9-3 burst.
Tyrese Maxey led the way with a near-triple-double in the win for the 76ers, who now sit at 10-17 on the season. He finished with 32 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, and shot 12-of-25 from the field. Paul George added 19 points and nine rebounds, and Guerschon Yabusele finished with 17 points off the bench.
Wembanyama led the Spurs with 26 points and nine rebounds in the loss. He had eight blocks, too, seven of which came in the first half. Stephon Castle added 17 points off the bench, and Jeremy Sochan finished with 15 points and eight rebounds. The Spurs sit at 15-14 on the season, and they’ve won four of their last six.
The 76ers will be back in action on Christmas Day when they take on the Boston Celtics at TD Garden.