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It was midway into the third quarter when the crowd witnessed a heavy weight brawl between Timberwolves’ leading star Karl-Anthony Towns and Sixers All-Star Joel Embiid. The two big men went hard on each other, scuffled and dragged down to the floor before they were separated and ejected.
Sixers ended up winning the game 117-95 and held serve on their home court.
But the real questions were:
What if it wasn’t just a hot-blooded altercation boosted by the moment?
What if it was a territorial statement form the top 2 big men in the league?
Let’s not forget that it’s not the first clash between them, there’s a history for that beef.
To understand the full picture, we’ll go over some previous incidents.
Two seasons ago, the Sixers faced the Wolves and won 118-112 in overtime. Embiid led the Sixers score sheet with 28 points and at one point of the game, he taunted Towns after the officials called him for a technical by applauding his decision.
Then, Embiid posted on his Instagram after the game a picture of him making a lay-up while Towns watched and captioned:
Euro stepping our way through Minnesota and we ended up “Raising the cat” (ouch!)
Towns responded by commenting:
“That caption was as trash as your picture quality”
Embiid replied: “Better quality than your defense”
The following year, the Sixers traded for Jimmy Butler from Minnesota following his infamous incident when he took a group of 3rd string players and thrashed out the starting five. Butler and Embiid became buddies and who knows what he told him!
That brings us to last Wednesday, even though they both promised that nothing would happen in this game.
Coming into the game, the Wolves started the season 3-0, quickly catching the media attention and showing early signs of a successful run to the playoffs, while the Sixers were pushing to establish themselves as the East’s dominant team.
And here we go…
They played a very physical first half but still no signs of anything to come. Then, midway through 3rd quarter, Embiid double-teamed Towns along with Simmons to force him to turn it over. After that they went at each other causing the officials to stop the game to separate them and both players were ejected.
After the game they took the fight to social media causing a frenzy around the internet.
Embiid threw the first jab, posting his picture on Instagram with the caption: “Great team win!!I was raised around lions and a cat pulled on me tonight LOL #fightnight#Iain’tNoB****”
Then, Towns responded by posting a couple of pictures including Embiid crying with the caption: “I ain’t no B**** raised around lions #B****Talk”
Finally, Embiid replied by posting a picture that says everything he could’ve said to Towns.
So what now?
The chances of seeing the two teams in a playoff series could only happen if they were to reach the finals.
BUT, there’s still on more regular season game to be played in Minnesota on March 24th.
Mark your calendars.
