The Nets will be fighting for their playoff lives on Saturday and they’ll have to deal with Joel Embiid in order to survive.
Embiid will play Game 4, The Post confirmed Friday.
The NBA reviewed the flagrant 1 foul for which the 76ers star was called early in Game 3 and opted to not suspend him for Game 4 of the first-round playoff series on Saturday at Barclays Center.
Embiid was allowed to stay in Philadelphia’s Game 3 win despite having kicked the Nets’ Nic Claxton below the belt after the two became tangled and Embiid fell to the ground.
Before the ruling Friday, the Nets and Sixers remained on different sides of the argument.
“I don’t really get it,’’ Cam Johnson said of Embiid being allowed to stay in the game, in what turned out to be a third straight Nets loss to start the series.
“I thought precedent was set just a day or two ago,’’ Johnson said, referring to the Warriors’ Draymond Green being tossed earlier in the week for stomping on the chest of the Kings’ Domantas Sabonis. “I don’t want to get into it because I don’t know what I can say and what I can’t say, but I thought that was a surefire one.”
Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn stood by what he said Thursday, that he had “never seen” a player remain in a game after “intentionally” kicking an opposing player in that area.
Joel Embiid kicks Nic Claxton during Game 3 of the Nets-76ers series. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post“I know my stance [on the Embiid play] hasn’t changed,’’ Vaughn said Friday. “It’s the same as [Thursday]. I am looking forward to hearing the league’s response. I’ll wait to hear that. [Thursday] night, I focused on watching the film and getting [the team] ready to get a win on Saturday.”
Not surprisingly, 76ers head coach Doc Rivers had a different view than Vaughn regarding Embiid’s status.
“If we’re going to start punishing the retaliators and not the instigators, then we’ve got a problem in this league because … as a coach, and I love Jacque, but I can’t believe we have coaches campaigning for guys not to play,’’ Rivers told reporters. “That’s just nuts to me.”
Embiid went on to make several plays Thursday night that helped tip the scales in the 76ers’ favor, but the Nets did catch a break when James Harden was ejected for hitting Royce O’Neale in a similar sensitive area to the one in which Embiid had kicked Claxton.
Dorian Finney-Smith said Harden’s ejection was “a makeup call a little bit.”
Joel Embiid kicks Nic Claxton during Game 3 of the Nets-76ers series. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post“I don’t think James’ [foul] was as serious as Joel’s,’’ Finney-Smith said. “It’s not my decision to make.”
Rivers called Harden’s ejection “a joke” on Friday, acknowledging that Embiid’s play could have gone “either way.”
And Finney-Smith followed up with a sentiment that didn’t seem to be shared by too many of his teammates.
“I hope [Embiid] plays,’’ Finney-Smith said. “You always want to play against a team at full-strength. It’s not something we’re worried about. If he plays, he plays. If he [doesn’t], he [doesn’t].”
Johnson called Embiid’s play against Claxton “excessive and unnatural and not basketball-like. I thought it hit all those, but I guess they saw it differently.”
He also said the Nets aren’t looking for any help in trying to win Game 4.
“We’re not going to rely on somebody getting kicked out of a game,” Johnson said. “That’s not how we want things to go. We’re going to play against whoever they put out there. We’re not going to ask for anything extra. That’s not our call and not our concern.”
