PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers have two big men they can rely on behind Joel Embiid to give the big guy some rest in the form of Montrezl Harrell and Paul Reed. Through the first 26 games of the season, the Sixers have been toggling between the two as they look to find the right combination.
On Sunday, the Sixers turned to Harrell and he had a solid night with nine points and it was a plus-6 in relief of Embiid.
Obviously, Embiid didn’t need much rest on a night in which he dropped 53 points in a win over charlotte hornetsbut having Harrell produce like he did was important.
Switching back and forth can be difficult for players and is something both Harrell and Reed need to understand. That’s where Embiid comes in.
“All the time,” Embiid said of Harrell. “He’s always in my ear about staying aggressive and attacking.
I do the same for him. I try to keep him involved. Especially when he doesn’t have minutes. Whether Paul gets minutes, I try to do the same for both of them because you never know when they’re going to be needed.
Tonight, Paul Reed wasn’t needed.
Some other night, it might be necessary. He just tries to keep them involved.”
Embiid isn’t normally the most vocal guy in the world, but the fact that he’s talking to both Harrell and Reed is a very good sign for Philly.
“It’s been great,” Harrell said. “I only have conversations with him on the sidelines when he comes out of the game. He asks me different things that I see, and then what they’re doing on the defensive end of the floor, so he’s been great…he’s been someone who leads by example.”
The Sixers will need Harrell and Reed to provide good minutes off the bench behind Embiid, so it’s good for Philly that the big guy is being a leader.
Tobias Harris on Embiid
“Dominant. Big fella does that. His presence out there, he was able to just get any matchup that he wanted to exploit. 50-point games like that, I’ve seen it all. It’s spectacular, but I’m used to it, you know what I mean?”
James Harden on Embiid’s big night
“He was in attack mode for the entire game. He made scoring look easy tonight, you know what I mean? He was just in attack mode, getting to the basket, his jumper was falling, he had an aggressive night tonight.”
Montrezl Harrell on Embiid
“He’s a helluva player, man. He does so much on both ends of the floor for us both offensively and defensively. For him to go out there and carry the load on both ends of the floor and still put up 50 and shooting a great percentage just shows the character of the player and the type of work he puts into his game.”
Doc Rivers on Embiid
“Joel, he literally scored in every way that you can possibly score a basketball tonight. Even the last play was a slot drive and we do that drill every day, but we do it for the guards and I don’t think we’ve ever done it for bigs.
Maybe we have to add that now because that was terrific.”
Harris had more to say on Embiid
“The way he does it. The efficiency, a dominant performance as well, he’s so humble about it as well, and he just wants to win.”
Embiid on his big night
“I thought the ball just found me. My teammates, James, I thought we moved the ball pretty well and the ball just found me.”
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