TORONTO — The Philadelphia 76ers are a little short-handed during these two road games with the Toronto Raptors; they have been without their best perimeter defender, Matisse Thybulle.
With Thybulle ineligible to play in Canada, the Sixers have had to decide how to replace him. In Game 3, the team decided to shorten the rotation, going from nine players to eight.
However, that plan could change in Game 4.
Furkan Korkmaz, who has essentially been out of the rotation, was a likely candidate to replace Thybulle in Game 3, but he didn’t get any tick. As Philadelphia moves on, coach Doc Rivers wants him to be ready.
“Just be ready, just stay ready,” he said. “It’s tough because he’s not playing right now. The game may be tomorrow. We were about to put him in the other night. It’s not about what he has to do, right now, he just has to wait his turn.”
Korkmaz had a down year in 2021-22. He shot 28.9% from deep and was out of the rotation for roughly the last five weeks of the season. At this point, it is truly about staying ready and preparing for whenever his number is called again.
Rivers explained he liked how the team looked in Game 3 and that’s what held him back from going to Korkmaz on Wednesday.
“Just, I thought we had a good rhythm,” he explained. “I didn’t wanna screw it up.”
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