Joel Embiid brought every bit of his game to the TD Garden, where he was showered with boos and trash talk by rowdy Boston Celtics fans, something the Philadelphia 76ers admitted to enjoying after his team grabbed a 115-109 win on Thursday.
“The loudest game I’ve been a part of was here in Game 2 a few years ago,” Embiid recalled, according to Taylor C. Snow of Celtics.com. “We were up 20 and they made that run. It was so loud my ears were popping … They got good fans. They talk a lot of trash and I like that.”
Embiid has been battling mostly himself this season, battling between his chase of personal accolades (DPOY and MVP), playing in 70 games, and his desire to make a deeper playoff run and avoid the heartache he felt after a deflating last-second buzzer-beating loss to the Toronto Raptors.
The Sixers big man recently got a wake-up call by the TNT duo of Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal, who called for him to dominate games the way he can.
He admitted they were right and responded with 38 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists — his best all-around output this season that helped propel the Sixers to 19-7 and a full game over the Celtics for third place in the East.
Embiid feeds off the crowd energy, be it cheers from home fans at the Wells Fargo Center or the hostility of a venue like the TD Garden, which bullishly supports the Celtics at all costs.
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