PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers have been short-handed for quite some time now with the absence of Joel Embiid, but things were a bit magnified when they took on the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday.
The Sixers played the contest missing lead guard Tyrese Maxey to a concussion while Kyle Lowry was out to rest on the second night of a back-to-back.
Philadelphia started Cam Payne and they relied on recently signed Jeff Dowtin Jr. to step in and be the backup point guard. Philadelphia signed Dowtin to a two-way deal on March 2 to provide some ball-handling and he had 10 points and six assists in the loss to the Grizzlies as he made a positive impact.
“At the end of the day, it’s just basketball,” said Dowtin. “Just thrown into a situation that I know how to play. I’ve had great teammates that have helped me throughout this whole process. So I appreciate them. The coaches have just been guiding me and teaching me things as I go along. So I’m just learning everything on the fly and just trying to make the most of it.”
While Dowtin is learning his new teammates on the fly and learning their tendencies of what they can do, it helps him that he has a familiarity with coach Nick Nurse. He played 25 games for the Toronto Raptors in the 2022-23 season so he knows what Nurse likes to run so that accelerates the process a bit.
“Yeah, it definitely helps a lot,” Dowtin added. “Just being able to understand the terminology that he uses. The different sets. The different schemes. How we orchestrate a lot of offense and defensive things so it definitely helps a lot.”
While Lowry will return when the Sixers take on the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday, the status of Maxey remains up in the air. One has to figure that Dowtin will continue to get a look whenever Nurse sees fit.
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