MILWAUKEE -- Eric Bledsoe was fuming.
He knew better than to be baited by Joel Embiid -- one of the league's most notorious trash-talkers -- but the game was physical. It happened so quickly: jostling for the rebound, the shove, Embiid tossing the ball at Bledsoe, who fired it back into Embiid's gut, the whistle. Just like that, Bledsoe was ejected.
The Philadelphia crowd taunted him as he walked down the corridor and back to the visitors locker room in Wells Fargo Center, flanked by two security guards. Bledsoe understood that the Milwaukee Bucks pride themselves on being a team that is calm and collected.