Russell Westbrook believes he was fouled by Joel Embiid in Sixers win
With the Philadelphia 76ers leading by a point lat at Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles Lakers star guard Russell Westbrook had a full head of steam as he began to make his way toward the basket.
Westbrook is one of the more explosive players in the history of the game so despite having two timeouts, coach Darvin Ham allowed Westbrook to so his thing out on the floor.
It ended poorly as he was blocked by Sixers star big man Joel Embiid in order to preserve a 113-112 win for Philadelphia. Embiid also got some help as Georges Niang stepped up to provide some more defensive coverage.
Russell Westbrook "game winner" pic.twitter.com/oXH2psiYgk
— That's a highlight (@ClipIt_NBA) January 16, 2023
Afterward, in reaction to the play, Westbrook claimed that he was fouled by Embiid on the play. He stated that Embiid pulled his arm down and he couldn’t get the shot off.
Russell Westbrook explained in the postgame locker room that he was attempting to shoot the game-winning shot and had his arm pulled down by Joel Embiid – a foul that was not called, he thinks. “I couldn’t get my hand up to shoot because he was grabbing it,” Westbrook said.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 16, 2023
It was a bang-bang play at the end so that’s a tough play for the officials to call, but the Sixers were on the right end of it in this one. Philadelphia is now 2-0 to begin the five-game road trip and they will now look to keep going in the right direction against the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday.
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Player grades: Joel Embiid leads Sixers past short-handed Lakers
