Joel Embiid, Hassan Whiteside trade barbs via social media

The preseason finale between the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers featured a matchup between two of the top centers in the NBA, Hassan Whiteside of Miami and Joel Embiid of Philadelphia. Neither had a standout performance, with Embiid's 76ers defeating Whiteside's Heat 119-95 at the Sprint Center in Kansas City; Embiid finished with 5 points on only 1-of-7 shooting in 14:33, while Whiteside finished with 7 points on 2-of-5 shooting in 10:54.

But the two socially engaging big men weren't shy about bringing their trash talk from the game to social media.

Whiteside and Embiid each blocked the other's shot within the first two minutes of the game. Whiteside picked up his third foul of the game with 9:39 left in the first quarter, and Embiid called for Whiteside to be subbed out.

Whiteside responded to a Heat fan after the game who took exception to Embiid's trash talk after such a poor shooting game, saying, "The media won't show that." Whiteside then responded to a Bleacher Report post highlighting Embiid getting Whiteside in foul trouble.

It didn't take Embiid long to clap back at Whiteside, and Embiid dug a little deeper to do so, bringing back criticisms of Whiteside's conflicting on-off court numbers with the Heat. In each of Whiteside's three seasons with the Heat, the team has had a better defensive rating with him off the court than on the court. In 2016-17, the Heat allowed 105.3 points per 100 possessions when Whiteside was on the court, and only 102.2 points per 100 possessions when Whiteside was off the court, according to NBA.com.

Embiid also alluded to Kevin Durant's Twitter snafu from this offseason to finish his salvo against Whiteside.

Whiteside ended his response to Embiid by knocking his unreliable durability. Embiid recently signed a contract extension with Philadelphia despite playing in only 31 games since being drafted third overall out of Kansas in the 2014 NBA draft.

Embiid has taken jabs at Whiteside before, as he retweeted his own tweet from January 2017 mocking Whiteside's criticisms of the All-Star voting.

Embiid and Whiteside caught the attention of other players around the league Friday night. The Heat and 76ers will begin their four-game regular season series on Feb. 2, 2018. The location of that matchup is in Philadelphia.