Raptors: Pascal Siakam calls out Joel Embiid’s “fake toughness”

Pascal Siakam and the Toronto Raptors made sure that the brooms didn’t come out on Saturday afternoon, as Canada’s All-NBA star led his team to a victory over Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers behind a playoff-best 34 points. Siakam showed how lethal he can be when he gets hot early against elite competition.

This was the first playoff game in which Embiid, who was bothered by a thumb injury, was not such a dominating force. His trademark efficiency disappeared as Toronto’s array of similarly-sized defenders gave him some fits. This led to Embiid letting off his frustration in some less than productive ways.

Embiid was not only so frustrated with the referees that he gave a sarcastic golf clap when the game was over, but he shoved Siakam at midcourt and received a technical foul. Plays like that did not sit well with the Raptors star, who gave Embiid a piece of his mind in his postgame press conference.

Siakam said that he loves to compete on the postseason stage and is more than fine to chirp back and forth with some of his competition, but he is not cool with “dirty plays” akin to what Embiid did. Siakam called moves like that “fake toughness” in his most direct challenge yet to Embiid.

Toronto Raptors star Pascal Siakam is not thrilled with Joel Embiid.

Embiid is taking a much different tone towards officiating than he had in any of Toronto’s wins. He famously told Nick Nurse and the rest of the Raptors to stop complaining about referees when they took issue with some of his foul calls. A few games later, Embiid is trying to paint himself as the victim.

If Siakam went off against me as he did with Embiid, I’d probably feel the same way. After getting shut down in a very disappointing Game 3 home loss, Siakam supplemented his 34 points on 10-19 shooting with eight rebounds and five assists. The Siakam hype trade is riding once again after helping avoid the 4-0 sweep.

Even though Embiid is going to be wounded for the remainder of this series, he is going to be dangerous enough to potentially take over any individual game and win this matchup for Philadelphia. It’s incumbent upon Pascal Siakam to make sure that Embiid is kept relatively in check.

The officiating is undoubtedly going to play a huge role in who decides this series, as a quick whistle could lead to the 76ers ending up at the charity stripe more often. If that doesn’t happen, however, Embiid has no right to complain about not getting the benefit of some calls.