Brooklyn Nets: Game 4 controversies loom large looking ahead to Game 5

1. Will the bad blood spill into Game 5?

The blowup in the third quarter between the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers Saturday in Game 4 had been a long time coming.

The Nets had been incensed after a Game 2 incident in which Philadelphia center Joel Embiid elbowed Brooklyn big man Jarrett Allen in the face, a play for which Embiid was called for a Flagrant 1 foul.

After a hard foul by Embiid on Allen in the third quarter of Game 4, Jared Dudley gave Embiid a shove, which led to Jimmy Butler shoving Dudley as a scuffle broke out and spilled into the seats behind the Brooklyn basket.

Dudley and Butler were ejected and fined and Embiid was less than amused that a player of Dudley’s caliber would come after him, calling the Nets veteran leader a “nobody.”

Per ESPN, Embiid didn’t hold back in his postgame comments to TNT.

"“First of all, he’s a nobody. And when opponents try to do stuff like that, that’s just to get us out of the game. Especially, I’m too valuable for my team. That’s why I didn’t react. I did not do anything and I did not think that was a flagrant foul because I played the ball, too. “But in that type of situation, I just got to stay composed and be mature.”"

Embiid has two flagrant foul points in the playoffs, two away from invoking an automatic one-game suspension. A Flagrant 1 adds one point to a player’s tally, while a Flagrant 2 is a two-point addition.

If one thing has been established through the first four games of this series, it is that the teams don’t care much for each other. That adds credence to the old theory that rivalries are forged in the playoffs, when teams see each other day after day and can develop a definitely dislike for the other.

The question is how much of the Game 4 extracurriculars will carry over to Game 5.