On December 17, Beijing time, the NBA regular season ushered in a strong dialogue in the East, and the Nets defeated the 76ers 114-105 at home. During Harden's absence, Durant single-handedly led the team to win 3 consecutive wins, and after this battle, he continued to sit in the first place in the East with a record of 21 wins and 8 losses.
In this game, as many as 9 people on the Nets side cannot play, including Harden, 7 people triggered the health and safety agreement to be isolated, Joe Harris was absent due to injury, Irving was banned by the team for refusing vaccines, and on the 76ers, except for Simmons, it was almost a complete lineup. Therefore, it is difficult for the Nets to win this game, and even in the final fourth quarter, it has caused some controversy.
In the final 29 seconds of the game, the 76ers trailed by 9 points, the result of the game has lost suspense, the Nets offensive round consumed a 24 seconds of offensive time, this time the 76ers head coach suddenly called a timeout, according to reporter Tim Bontemps, when Rivers was not to lay out the tactics, but walked to the center of the court, staring at the three referees, compared to a "0" gesture.
After the game, Rivers said: "I have to let the referee see this, I think Embiid's last three low-post attacks were fouled, but the referee did not blow a single penalty. How a team can play in a quarter without 1 foul, I totally don't understand. We've been breaking through and attacking at the low post, but they've got 0 fouls on the whole team, and it's really unusual not to foul in the NBA quarter, and I'm absolutely surprised by that. It is worth mentioning that according to reporters, Rivers has been chanting about the Nets' fourth quarter 0 foul when he left the post-game press conference.
In the fourth quarter of the game, the 76ers trailed 26-29 in a single quarter, with seven fouls committed by the 76ers - 0 for the Nets. According to statistics, the 76ers' 7 fouls in the fourth quarter, including four offensive fouls, one scrambling foul, one foul (full of free throws), the only shooting foul was Durant's 3+1; throughout the game, the 76ers led the Nets 20-16 with free throws, and Embiid alone had 11 free throws.
To be honest, I think the 76ers lost to Durant because he was too strong, he didn't have a half-cent relationship with the referee, and Rivers was just fine. Durant scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, Griffin scored 10 points, and Durant scored 3+1 at the crucial time, and also assisted Griffin to shoot 3 points in the open position, laying the victory in one fell swoop.