Brooklyn Nets learn NBA justice much like the real world

The Brooklyn Nets literally and figuratively took one on the chin in Game 2 Tuesday against the Philadelphia 76ers as NBA justice remains star-powered.

Joel Embiid nearly delivered a knockout blow to the jaw of Brooklyn Nets center Jarrett Allen in the final minute of the first half.

Given a reprieve from the officials in the wake of the play, the Philadelphia 76ers All-NBA big man then delivered the knockout blow to the Nets to start the second half.

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For his trouble, Allen got a split lower lip and two free throws after officials reviewed the play and determined Embiid guilty of a Flagrant 1 foul, contact ruled unnecessary but not excessive.

In the TNT studios at halftime, Hall of Famers Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal locked horns — surprise! — over the play, with Barkley insisting the contact should have resulted in a Flagrant 2 call and Embiid’s ejection.

To be ruled a Flagrant 2, the contact must be determined to have been both unnecessary and excessive.

Barkley argued Embiid threw his left elbow into Allen’s face. O’Neal’s counter-argument was that Embiid was “turning with power” the way NBA bigs are taught to do.

There’s only one problem with O’Neal’s analysis. Embiid had already performed his spin move and was facing the basket when his elbow crashed into Allen’s jaw.

Using O’Neal’s logic, Embiid planned on doing one more turn and … shooting the ball over his head with his back to the rim, perhaps?

Allen made both free throws, tying the game for the Nets with 35.6 seconds left in the second quarter after Philadelphia had been up by as much as 13 points.

Embiid’s reaction, at about the 2:00 mark in the longer video clip from Bleacher Report shown below, tells you he did not think he did anything wrong.

This is, however, how NBA justice often works. It’s much like the real world — the more rich and famous one is, the better chance one has of getting off easy.

The context of the game needed to be taken into more consideration in the review.

Embiid had missed some easy shots at the rim in the first half because his gimpy left knee was limiting his lift. He had a chance to throw a frustration strike at Allen and took it.

But two things happened to the Nets — neither one which worked out well for Brooklyn — in the wake of the call.

The first was that rookie Rodions Kurucs, while defending his position under the defensive backboard against Ben Simmons, retaliated when Simmons took a quick shot at him.

Kurucs’ response was an elbow to Simmons’ face. The resulting Flagrant 1 call gave Simmons two free throws, of which he made one, and demolished any momentum the Nets might have gained from Embiid’s foul that allowed them to tie a game in which they had been down big.

Not going to get an argument here that the action by Kurucs against Simmons was unnecessary, fitting the criteria for a Flagrant 1. But it was an absolute love tap when compared to the Embiid shot to Allen that drew the very same penalty.

That is to say that if it hadn’t been an All-NBA center playing on his home court, the review of the Embiid-Allen play would likely have resulted in the more severe Flagrant 2 call and an automatic ejection.

There was no way the officials were going to toss Embiid in the first half of a game at Philadelphia with the 76ers trailing in the series. Not unless, you know, a coroner had to be summoned.

It’s one thing to eject Kevin Durant for a dust up in the fourth quarter of a playoff game that had essentially already been decided (at least in that innocent time before No. 1 seeds blew 31-point leads at home to No. 8 seeds).

But it’s another to eject a team’s superstar in a home playoff game when their team holds a scant two-point lead over an underdog and is already trailing 1-0 in the series.

That’s the way NBA officiating works, for better or worse. Stars will always get more rope and the length of that rope increases in a home game.

This brings us to the second ripple effect from the Embiid play that hurt the Nets. Not only did Embiid disagree with the Flagrant 1, much of his protestation seemed to indicate he believed Allen’s face should have been whistled for blocking Embiid’s elbow while the star was on the way to the rim.

So Embiid, still on the floor rather than watching on the CCTV feed in the dressing room, came out angry to start the second half and poured in 11 points during a game-changing 21-2 burst by the 76ers that turned a one-point halftime lead into a 20-point hill that Brooklyn proved unable to climb.

After the game, Embiid delivered a sincere apology to Allen for the elbow.

Well, it was almost sincere … right up to the point where Embiid burst out laughing.

Would the 76ers have been able to knock out the Nets without Embiid in the second half? We’ll never know.

The NBA’s version of justice for all made sure that question was moot.