Watch: Sixers stars hit Nets players below the belt

Despite the intentional nature of the act, Embiid stayed in the game, escaping with just a Flagrant-1 call. That's much less than the punishment for Green, who was ejected and suspended for one game after he stepped on the chest of Sacramento's Domantas Sabonis, after Sabonis grabbed his ankle.

Granted, Embiid did not follow up his unsportsmanlike act with dancing around and taunting the crowd, which included NBA commissioner Adam Silver. But Charles Barkley thinks Embiid's act was worse than what Draymond did.

"I think he should have been ejected," Barkley said on "Inside the NBA", drawing a shout of agreement from Shaquille O'Neal. "I think his was worse than Draymond's. He tried to kick the guy in the junk!"

Barkley argued that Embiid shouldn't have been spared ejection "just because he's a bad shot."

Perhaps that was on the officials' minds in the third quarter, when James Harden hit Royce O'Neale in a sensitive area, and did get a Flagrant-2 and an ejection.

From our perspective, the Embiid kick was much more blatant and obviously intentional than Harden's contact with O'Neale. Perhaps the idea is that justice was served as long as one Sixers superstar got ejected?

Perhaps motivated by the constant groin shots, the Nets outscored the Sixers 35-18 in the third quarter. Going forward, the Nets might want to wear protective cups.