Joel Embiid Trash Talked Celtics' Ime Udoka in Crunch Time on Monday

When the Philadelphia 76ers took on the Boston Celtics Monday night, both teams missed a handful of players due to COVID-19, physical setbacks, and other illnesses. While the Sixers and the Celtics both lacked depth, the teams' stars managed to play.

Sixers center Joel Embiid put his team on his back on Monday night. While he got a lot of help from his supporting cast, such as Tobias Harris and Seth Curry, Philly's bench struggled to produce more than one point.

Therefore, Embiid stepped up and produced double his usual amount of points to fill the void. And when crunch time came around, the Sixers center was absolutely unstoppable. As he was feeling himself on Monday night, Embiid let Celtics head coach Ime Udoka know that he couldn't be stopped.

What Did Embiid Say?

The Ringer founder Bill Simmons was sitting courtside on Monday night to check out the action. While Simmons is a well-known die-hard Celtics fan, the veteran podcaster and writer issued props to Embiid as he revealed what the Sixers big man said to Udoka during the fourth quarter.

"[Joel Embiid] scored every single time down the stretch and Philly ended up winning. There's this incredible moment coming out of a timeout -- I think Philly goes up four, there's like 11 seconds left, Boston calls timeout and coming out of the timeout, Embiid comes off the bench starts walking over to Ime Udoka, the Celtics coach who they know each other because Udoka was at Philly for at least a year. And he walks to Udoka and is like, 'Hey, hey,' Udoka like thinks he's gonna say something profound. He's like, 'I'm a mother [expletive] monster.' And then in nodded at Udoka, just to make sure he heard him."

Udoka, a former Sixers assistant, spent just one season coaching Embiid in 2019-2020. While he wasn't there for a long time, Udoka revealed that he grew close with Embiid during his short-lived stint in Philadelphia.

Therefore, Embiid's trash-talking late in the game on Monday was most likely just some friendly fire. While his NSFW statement might not be received well by Boston fans, Embiid had every right to talk his trash as he dropped 41 points on Monday night, with 17 of his points coming in the fourth quarter alone as the Sixers took down the Celtics for the first time this year.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.