Devin Booker moves quick to defuse any Joel Embiid beef

The Phoenix Suns might have gotten both Devin Booker and Jalen Green back on Saturday for a meeting with the Philadelphia 76ers, but it wasn't enough to pull out a win.

The Suns going down 109-103 at home to their Eastern Conference opponent, while Amir Coffey surprisingly did not make his debut for the team despite looking like ideal cover for the injured Grayson Allen.

Booker has no desire to start war of words with Joel Embiid

It would be fair to say that 76ers' center Joel Embiid had a kind whistle in The Valley, and it clearly frustrated the Suns team over the course of the game.

Particularly Booker, who we all know loves to trash talk, and who by halftime was getting sick of the antics of his Team USA teammate out on the court.

In the aftermath of the defeat when speaking to the media however, rather than double down on his annoyance at some of the calls Embiid got, Booker cleverly went in the other direction.

"I told him he's too good a player to be flopping like that. But we have Olympic experience together, so that’s somebody I have high respect for, it’s just competition."

This is Booker realizing that both Embiid and himself may one day be on the same international roster together, so there is no need to make it awkward over a regular season meeting.

The wording of what he said also shows that he cares and wants to win, but is going about it in a way that will have the referees think twice about blowing fouls on Embiid in the future.

You might remember Minnesota Timberwolves' head coach Chris Finch using a similar tactic against the Oklahoma City Thunder earlier this season.

He made a point of telling the media that the whistle they received was crazy, and for an extended period of time they ended up not getting the calls that they had been used to.

Don't be surprised if that now happens to Embiid, although really the Suns only have themselves to blame for letting him dictate the action inside the paint.

We know he is one of the most intimidating bigs in the league as a result of his sheer size, but by the end of the game head coach Jordan Ott had put Dillon Brooks on him instead of Mark Williams.

A tactic that was certainly worth trying, and as Brooks himself said should have been used sooner, but which highlights the fact Williams struggles to contain the most physical centers in the league.

This was a learning experience for Phoenix, and one which should remind fans that they need to stop looking at how many games behind the third seed they are, and focus on each game as it comes.