PHILADELPHIA — There were a couple of reasons the San Antonio Spurs came away with a 114-105 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday. They kept Philadelphia’s backcourt out of the paint, and they received a huge boost from Jakob Poeltl.
The veteran out of Utah was big against Joel Embiid in the fourth quarter. He had eight points and seven rebounds, five of them on the offensive glass, in the final 12 minutes, and he ended any type of rally the Sixers had in them.
“It’s just a matter of working hard, I think,” said Poeltl after the win for San Antonio. “Not giving up on the play. I knew the shot was going up. They were a little relaxed on defense, take advantage of that, getting good position, getting a good bounce, and putting it back in.”
Embiid was not able to keep Poeltl off the glass, and the Spurs took advantage of his hard work to come away with a win.
“He’s a workhorse, you know what I’m saying?” said Spurs guard Devin Vassell of Poeltl. “He battling the whole time and he told me he’s like, ‘I got off to a slow start.’ I said ‘I don’t care how you start; it’s how you finish.’ You know, that’s really what it was and I give big props to him because he’s battling each game. So it’s huge for us.”
Embiid and the Sixers look to avoid an 0-4 start when they host the Indiana Pacers on Monday.
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