With the Philadelphia 76ers on the road on Sunday, they needed others to step onto the floor and give the team a boost with their star duo struggling to shoot the ball.
Joel Embiid shot just 9-for-28 from the floor and Harden was just 5-for-19 as they had a tough time finding any offensive rhythm. They were able to get to the free-throw line in order to get their points, but they needed somebody else to step up and provide some offense in order to knock off the Orlando Magic in overtime.
While Tobias Harris will be the focus as he scored 26 points and he knocked down the game-winning triple in overtime, Georges Niang hopped off the bench and had 16 points while knocking down four triples in the win. He was a big help as Philadelphia didn’t get much offense out of Tyrese Maxey or Matisse Thybulle in this one.
“That’s what you work for,” said Niang. “You work to obviously have to trust your team out there down the stretch that they want you to be a part of them closing out victories. Since I started talking to 76ers in free agency, Doc (Rivers) has believed in me and what I can do and it’s great that I can continue to help the team out.”
Even with his big performance, Niang was quick to point out Harris and even give Thybulle some love on the night.
“Needless to say, that was wasn’t about me,” he explained. “Tobias was great even Matisse with that defensive effort down the stretch coming in and out of the game was huge for us. This was a big team win for us.”
There will be some who will point out that they did just beat the Magic. This is true as Orlando entered Sunday night with the worst record in the East at 18-50. This isn’t an overall impressive win in the grand scheme of things, but Niang brought up the Magic knocking off the Minnesota Timberwolves and ending their 6-game winning streak.
“I know people are like, ‘wow, well, that’s the Orlando Magic’, but they just beat the Timberwolves the other night and the Timberwolves came back and beat the Miami Heat,” said Niang. “So that should tell you something about the NBA is that we’re still looking to kind of jell and figure things out, and as we do that, we’re definitely not gonna apologize for winning any games. That’s for sure.”
The Sixers will now have to recover quickly as they have to head home on Monday to take on reigning league MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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