The Philadelphia 76ers had to make a big change to their starting lineup after losing Ben Simmons to a knee injury that has forced him to undergo surgery. This comes after the team made the decision to move Shake Milton into the lineup and move Al Horford to the bench in order to improve spacing.
However, with Simmons now likely done for the season, coach Brett Brown had to go back to the Horford-Joel Embiid look on Friday.
This begs the question of why? That tandem has been a mess on offense all season and the Sixers have not had the proper spacing as their offensive rating has been one of the worst in the league as a duo. Why not go with another shooter like Furkan Korkmaz, for example, to space the floor for Embiid?
“Some of it was gut feel. Some of it was based on his history in the NBA and how over time, he has personally responded to playoff basketball,” said Brown. “The decision of ‘do I split them up’ vs. ‘do I pair them up’ really didn’t take much thought. It was more gut feel, bully ball, let’s go back to where we started given Ben’s situation.”
At the beginning of the season, Brown preached that the team would play bully ball on offense given the behemoths they have down low in Embiid and Horford. However, due to the fact that neither of them are shooters, the Sixers struggled offensively as they could not find the space on offense.
Despite the struggles, when one steps back and realizes that Horford has had a lot of success in this league–5-time All-Star and has been to the playoffs his entire career–it does make some sense that he is back into the starting lineup. He had a lot of success on Friday scoring 21 points with nine rebounds in the win.
“I think that if you cut to the chase and forget position, who are our best players? You have to include him if that’s the road map,” Brown added. “I’m happy that we’ve done that. I think that Joel for a relational standpoint and a fellow big, it’s hard to quantify or explain it unless you either coached a lot or been an interior NBA player yourself, there’s a big-big relationship that has some value. I feel like that’s emerging and a part of my decision to do it.”
The Sixers now take on the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday as they look to win their fourth straight game. [lawrence-related id=36542,36534,36514]