The Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets turned up the intensity as soon as Thursday's marquee matchup started. There was a lot on the line in this contest, and the revenge narrative for the Sixers and Nets only added more fuel to the fire. The lingering “beef” between Joel Embiid and Kevin Durant was on full display early on as well, and even Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James was loving the action.

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Embiid and Durant exchanged pleasantries early in the game after a physical play. Durant did not seem to appreciate Embiid going at his chest at full strength so KD started jawing at the Sixers big man. There's no way Embiid was backing down so it resulted in a heated moment between the two superstars.

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LeBron James was tuned in for Thursday's big game and he could not help but react to the mini-altercation. The Lakers star quickly took to Twitter to commend the referees for their role in the squabble, or rather, the lack thereof:

Durant and Embiid were going at it for a good 10 seconds (and maybe more) and the referee was standing right beside them for pretty much the entire time. The game official was nodding his head as if to say that he was going to allow this heated exchange between the two stars. It was just some good old competitive spirit spilling out and for his part, LeBron was absolutely loving it.