Celtics guard Marcus Smart was not happy with 76ers center Joel Embiid following Boston's 126-117 victory over Philadelphia on opening night. Smart and Embiid got into a bit of a kerfuffle early on in the third quarter of the contest. The two players got tied up on a rebound opportunity and both players ultimately ended up on the floor. Smart was assessed a technical foul for grabbing Embiid's leg on the play, which you can see below:
Smart and Embiid getting chippy 👀🍿 pic.twitter.com/xkTEFj2NgU
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 19, 2022
While speaking with media members after the game, Smart made it clear that he was unhappy with being the only one hit with a technical, as he thought Embiid made a dirty play. He also added that he could have inflicted further harm on Embiid, but showed restraint.
"I went for a rebound, basketball play," Smart said of the incident. "Went for the steal, basketball play. Referee blows his whistle, calls a foul. I stop play. My arm's still stuck in there and he tries to break it. And then I'm the only one who gets a tech. ... If I did that, I'd probably be ejected, suspended three games, four games, fines. But the fact that I was the only one that got something out of that is kind of beyond me.
"[I'm the] defending [Defensive Player of the Year], and that's how I get treated? It's tough. But, like I said, it's maturity. I could have cracked his head open, but I didn't, and that's the maturity we have. So, we move on from it. It is what it is."
Embiid, unsurprisingly, seemed to view the situation a bit differently, and he wasn't quite as fired up about it as Smart was postgame.
"Honestly, I don't know," Embiid said of the exchange. "They had called a foul and I walked away, next thing I know, my foot is getting caught up, and I slipped. Next thing, Jaylen [Brown] was on top of me and I don't know. Basketball, emotions, first game of the season, rivalry, Boston-Philly, a lot of intensity. It's all good."
This isn't the first time that Embiid and Smart have gotten into it on the floor, and it probably won't be the last. Both guys play with extreme intensity, and both also happen to have a flair for the dramatic. The fact that they play on opposite sides of one of the NBA's oldest rivalries only adds fuel to the fire.
