PHILADELPHIA, PA – APRIL 03: Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the Minnesota Timberwolves tries to get past Joel Embiid #21 of the Philadelphia 76ers in the first quarter of the NBA game at Wells Fargo Center on April 3, 2021 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)
Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns got a bit chippy during Saturday’s game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Minnesota Timberwolves.
Saturday was a big day for the Philadelphia 76ers, as star center Joel Embiid returned from a bone bruise in his left knee suffered on March 12. In his first game back, Embiid had to face off against the last-place Minnesota Timberwolves and a familiar rival in Karl-Anthony Towns.
In the second quarter of the game, Towns posterized Embiid with a vicious one-handed is sure to make the top plays of the week list. One quarter later, the 76ers big man did get some revenge on Towns in the form of a hard foul. Following video replay, officials assessed Embiid with a Flagrant 1 foul.
Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns duel in Saturday’s 76ers-Timberwolves game
There is no love lost between these two stars. Back at the start of the 2019-20 season, Embiid and Town got into a heated fight that saw both teams and security try to pull the two apart.
Besides the two aforementioned instances, Embiid did troll Towns after a successful fadeaway jump shot that resulted in an and-one. Then, the Timberwolves trolled Embiid with a photo of the Towns dunk with the caption reading “we like our dunks processed.” Of course, that is dig at the 76ers’ “trust the process” motto.
Embiid had missed the past 10 games due to the aforementioned knee injury, which looked to be a lot worse than determined based off the hyperextension. Entering Saturday’s game, Embiid had been averaging 29.9 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists all the while shooting 52.5-percent from the field.
As for Towns, he recorded 24.1 points, 10.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists and a 48.9 completion percentage through 29 games prior to Saturday night.
One thing we can takeaway from this is that Embiid and Towns had one entertaining battle.