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2026-27 · Regular season
NBA assesses Joel Embiid a postgame flagrant foul penalty 1 for a first-quarter play in the 76ers’ win at Detroit
The league office upgraded a first-quarter sequence from Wednesday’s 76ers-Pistons game to a flagrant foul penalty 1 on Joel Embiid, announced Thursday night. Embiid had already drawn a technical in the second quarter after a dustup with Tolu Smith.
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The NBA has assessed Joel Embiid a flagrant foul penalty 1 after the fact for a play in the Philadelphia 76ers’ 112-106 win at Detroit on Wednesday, Nov. 4. The league office reviewed the sequence and announced the ruling on Thursday night. The foul is charged at 5:32 of the first quarter. It was not called a flagrant during the game.
What a postgame flagrant means
A flagrant foul penalty 1 is unnecessary contact. It is worth one flagrant point. A player who accumulates five flagrant points in a season is suspended for one game, with every additional point after that bringing another game. Embiid had not been assessed a flagrant in the game itself; the league office can upgrade contact after review even when the crew on the floor handled the play as a common foul or no foul at all.
The announcement sits next to a separate call from the same night. With 1:25 left in the second quarter, Embiid was assessed a technical foul after a brief altercation with Detroit’s Tolu Smith under the basket. Officials reviewed that sequence with the Replay Center and charged Embiid with the technical for initiating the contact. Cade Cunningham made the free throw. That technical and the postgame flagrant are different rulings from the same game.
The night in Detroit and what comes next
Embiid finished with 26 points and 15 rebounds in 33 minutes, as we covered in our story on his painful right foot and the minutes restriction he described earlier in the week. The 76ers improved to 8-1. Philadelphia plays at Cleveland on Friday in NBA Cup group play, a 7:30 p.m. ET tip that is 2:30 a.m. Saturday in Cairo.
We will follow any further league-office rulings, including last-two-minute reports and flagrant upgrades, on our Around the league page.
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