ORLANDO–The Philadelphia 76ers found themselves in a tough position on Sunday evening when they found out they were losing another starter. Considering the Sixers were already down three starters, they could ill afford to lose another one.
PJ Tucker was held out of the second half in Philadelphia’s 133-103 win over the Orlando Magic and Danuel House Jr. was called upon to fill in for the veteran in his absence. House Jr. ended up scoring 16 points in the second half and a season-high 19 for the game as he provided a big lift for the Sixers.
“He was great,” said coach Doc Rivers. “Putting the ball on the floor, he’s a straight-line driver, and he’s a shooter. He’s physical, he’s tough, he defends, so he was good. He was great.”
As far as his mindset in stepping in for Tucker, House Jr. knew he just had to take his game to another level. He and the Sixers don’t have a choice at the moment.
“Step it up,” House Jr. stated. “Let’s go. Next man up. We season. We got to step up and we remember everything that we schemed and talked and planned about and execute it the best way we can.”
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House Jr. did have a scare in the first half when he fell hard on a breakaway dunk and was fouled by Magic rookie Paolo Banchero.
“He took my legs a little bit, but it’s alright,” he explained. “He asked me about it. He was like ‘I apologize. You good? I ain’t trying to’ so it was cool.”
Despite the hard foul, House Jr. is not upset at Banchero or anything. They both dapped each other up and kept it moving.
“It‘s good!” he said. “It’s nothing, but love. We’re brothers in this league. Not everybody necessarily want to fight each other. I know he wasn’t trying to intentionally do that.”
House Jr. gave the Sixers a big lift and now they will look to get healthier as they return home on Monday.
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