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It feels as though ever since the Philadelphia 76ers drafted Joel Embiid back in 2014, the team has struggled to find an adequate backup for its oft-injured superstar. There were the Dario Saric years, followed by experiments with Boban Marjanovic, Al Horford, Dwight Howard, and Andre Drummond, but none seemed to properly act as a stop-gap at center when the team needed it most.
And for much of this season, a similar problem plagued the team. Montrezl Harrell’s defense was always shaky, but after posting a career-low in conversion rate at the cup, Doc Rivers went hunting for another option. Ultimately, Philly declined to bring back Drummond or Nerlens Noel at the trade deadline, instead opting for an internal promotion of Paul Reed.
And Saturday’s win over the Brooklyn Nets validated Rivers’ decision to go Reed. With Embiid sidelined with a knee issue, Reed earned the start and never looked back. The big man finished with 10 points and 15 rebounds, including eight on the offensive glass, that helped propel the Sixers to its first four-game sweet in over 30 years.
“Paul Reed had a great game tonight just coming out with playing with great energy and not getting rattled by whatever expectation he had for starting tonight, but all those little things, they add up at the end of the day to help us win,” Tobias Harris said of Reed’s big night after the win.
Harris was also key for the Embiid-less Sixers, putting up 25 points and 12 rebounds.
James Harden Praises Paul Reed After Sixers Beat Nets
It wasn’t always this way for the former DePaul center. Reed’s youth was widely expected to be his downfall, especially given Rivers’ penchant for veterans.
But Reed quietly put in the work, sharpening his defensive game and lessening his clumsy offensive misfires.
“He listens. He plays hard. So you got to give him credit for that,” James Harden said of Reed in his postgame press conference, per House of Highlights. “In the first half, he was getting really good offensive rebounds. He was just trying to go up and over to make difficult shots. I keep telling him, ‘Obviously if you have a putback layup, then take it, but if you feel like you don’t have a layup, get the ball out, we can get a better shot’. In the second half, he did a better job of that, and that generated more opportunities for our guards.”
To Harden’s point, the Sixers were able to generate 25 second-chance points, thanks in no small part to Reed’s excellent rebounding. Surprisingly, the Sixers have led the way in second-chance points this postseason after finishing 27th in the stat during the regular season.
Tobias Harris Praises Sixers’ Toughness After Win
Those second-chance points come from a place of toughness on the glass, something Harris noted the Sixers have been working through all season.
“I think, for the whole group, we’ve shown through the year different occurrences of sticking with it,” Harris said. “You look at our record on the road as well, different guys in the lineup from time to time and being able to just find a way to get victories. It’s not always pretty at different moments, but I think for the most part, we’ve done a great job of battling and fighting through and to be honest, there’s still going to be a lot more adversity to come. We’re on a team that’s fighting for a championship, those types of hurdles you’re going to have to fight.”
The Sixers will now wait to play the winner of Celtics-Hawks, a series that will take at least two more games to complete. As a result, Philly will get at least a week of much-needed rest before round two.
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