Brooklyn Nets star D'Angelo Russell comes to the defense of veteran teammate Jared Dudley, who was ejected for in Game 4 for pushing Joel Embiid and starting a fight with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Embiid was whistled for a Flagrant 1 after a hard foul on Jarrett Allen midway through the third quarter. Dudley, however, has had enough of the big man's dirty plays and pushed Embiid.
Jimmy Butler then escalated the situation by shoving Dudley, and a fight broke out although no punches were thrown during the incident. Both Butler and Dudley were ejected for the scuffle.
During the postgame presser, Russell defended Dudley for his reaction and said that it ‘was necessary' as they needed to show they won't be bullied by the Sixers.
“We've seen hard plays, we've seen hard fouls go against Jarrett Allen the last few games. It just happened to be from the same player. For Jared Dudley to step up and react like that, I thought it was necessary,” Russell explained, per Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.
“Because we're getting the bottom end of that and the results of it. So for one of our players to be on the ground after every hard play like that, that's not what it's going to be. If those guys aren't seeing it from our perspective, we see it from that perspective. We're going to handle it in our own ways.”
To remember, Joel Embiid was called for a Flagrant 1 as well when he elbowed Jarrett Allen in the face in Game 2. He further drew the ire of Jared Dudley and the Nets when he apologized while laughing during his postgame press conference.
Sure enough, Dudley could have handled things better. After all, the Nets needed him to stay in the game, serving as an anchor for the team and a spark plug off the bench.
D'Angelo Russell, nonetheless, makes a good point. In a playoff series, Brooklyn can't allow themselves to get looked down upon. Hopefully, that fire will be enough for them to stave off playoff elimination after going down 1-3 in the series against the Sixers.
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