The Philadelphia 76ers knocked off the Toronto Raptors, 112-90, on the road on Friday mainly due to Tyrese Maxey. The third-year guard dropped a career-high 44 points to offset the absence of Joel Embiid.
However, Matisse Thybulle played well off the bench in his first extensive playing time of the season. He played just under 22 minutes, and he had six points. He knocked down two 3s despite hesitating on his first triple when he looked a bit confused. He added a steal and two blocks. This comes after he played five minutes in the first five games combined.
After the win, coach Doc Rivers explained the decision to play Thybulle and he praised him for his effort.
“We talked to Matisse yesterday (Thursday) about it,” Rivers told reporters. “Again, at the start of the season, we thought we liked the rotation we’re going to have, and honestly, it wasn’t working for us and so we decided as a staff, we need to add a defensive guy to our group. Really, two defensive guys we’re going to add. We actually didn’t want other guys and so it worked out for us.”
Rivers then addressed Thybulle’s shooting as he took five 3s on Friday making the two. This was after he overcame the initial confusion and it allowed him to flourish and get the job done.
“The key for him is there’s gonna be teams that try to game plan him and not guard him,” Rivers continued. “He’s worked on his shot, and it just got to keep shooting it, and really, I was really proud of them because that first play where you get stuck with the ball. Usually, you don’t come back and shoot the next one, but we told him ‘You have to shoot those’.”
[pickup_prop id=”28960″]
Rivers compared what the Raptors were doing to Thybulle to what the Sixers were doing with Scottie Barnes. They left the second-year forward open and they were content with letting him shoot and he kept shooting. That is what Thybulle has to do.
“Just like we left Barnes open tonight (Friday),” Rivers finished. “He kept shooting them and making them so it’s part of the process.”
The Sixers head to Chicago to take on the Bulls and continue the road trip.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=70163]
[lawrence-related id=70142,70126,70123]