Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond has hit back at Joel Embiid following his counterpart's claims of owning "real estate in his head."
Drummond was the victim of an unwarranted technical and subsequent ejection from the match between Detroit and the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night, a game Embiid dominated by dropping 33 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks.
However, his efforts coincided with a moment in which Blake Griffin hit 50 to lead the Pistons to a close win.
RELATED: JOEL EMBIID SAYS HE OWNS REAL ESTATE IN ANDRE DRUMMOND'S HEAD AFTER LATE-GAME EJECTION
"The whole game there were a lot of cheap shots taken," Embiid told Philly.com after the game. "The next one (referee) Tyler (Ford) said he was going to get a technical foul.
"Obviously, on the second (technical), you can see that he hit me and his hand actually touched my face. So that's his problem.
"I feel like I own a lot of real estate in his head."
Drummond wasted little time after watching a video of Embiid saying the above.
“LOL does he? If that’s so he wouldn’t be so excited to have me off the floor?" the Pistons big man tweeted in response to said video. "Think about it that’s a silly statement! I’ll take the W though. Enjoy flight home #Emmyaward winning actor.”
So it appears we have a full-on center beef cooking in the East. And, of course, Embiid was always going to be involved, given his knack for getting into it with rival big men.
Detroit head coach Dwayne Casey, though, has urged his guys to keep their heads and focus on the basketball.
"One thing we have to do is keep our heads," he said. "I told our team, ‘We hurt ourselves as much as they hurt us.’ We got to keep our heads.
"We are learning; we’re young. I love our guys but we get excited in those moments and we just have to maintain our focus, maintain our poise and don’t let a guy talking stuff to you take you out of what you want to do.
"Those are the winning plays you have to make and stay disciplined in those situations. Not just Andre, but everyone: myself, the coaches. We just have to be a disciplined organization in those quarters."
The Pistons have a perfect record out East so far, having started 3-0 under the former Raptors coach. They play the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night.
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