The Philadelphia 76ers were getting hit with some tough matchups on Wednesday as they took on the Orlando Magic on the road. While Joel Embiid is obviously one of the best big men in the league, he did have some issues against Orlando’s size.
The Magic have two young bigs in Mo Bamba and Wendell Carter Jr. who offer a lot of size, length, and energy and they were killing the Sixers on the glass. Carter Jr. had 10 rebounds and Bamba had eight on the night and their play helped the Magic build a 10-point lead in the third quarter.
Coach Doc Rivers then made an adjustment and he went with a big lineup of Embiid and Andre Drummond. It was an unfamiliar lineup as it is very rare to see those types of lineups in today’s NBA, but they really helped the Sixers get back in the game as they combated Orlando a bit in the paint and it helped the team rally to a win over the Magic.
“We have been talking about it a lot,” said Rivers. “We had that practice the day after Christmas. It was a fun practice where the five bigs played the five guards in a scrimmage. It was hilarious watching the bigs handle the ball, but they won, but we like that lineup because Drum can do so many things with the ball as far as passing and Joel is Joel.”
Drummond did have four assists on the night, as did Embiid, and the Sixers were actually a plus-5 with that lineup.
“When teams try to trap now, you duck Drummond, that is a big target,” Rivers added. “We didn’t have any guard play, we were down 10 I think, I said, ‘No guard play, let’s go big. We can’t go small. Let’s go huge.’ I thought it had a big impact on the game. Joel was so excited because he has been wanting it and when we did it, he was over the moon about it so it’s a lineup we can use.”
With the Sixers having two big men out there in Embiid and Drummond, it did allow them to work their way back into the game and it’s something that Embiid would like to see for the future.
“They were killing us on the glass so I thought that was a great adjustment to kind of put some size out there because their two bigs were long and they kept getting to those 50/50 balls so I was excited,” said Embiid. “It was great and I think, in the future, that’s something that we should really look into because it really puts a lot of pressure on the opposite team.”
The good thing about the lineup is despite the two of them being big men, they both have some versatility in terms of being able to play some out on the perimeter. Embiid can shoot the ball and handle the rock and Drummond is a good passer. They were able to play off each other a bit.
“It was great,” Embiid finished. “I think that’s something that we can always use to our advantage especially because these days, I don’t really play like a center anymore. I feel like you can put me anywhere on the floor and I’m gonna figure it out from 1 through 5 so I thought it was great.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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