PHILADELPHIA–When the Philadelphia 76ers have had success out on the floor, it is due to the plethora of shooters they have out on the floor in order to let Joel Embiid have the space he needs to operate and dominate on the offensive end.
In the past, Embiid has had the likes of JJ Redick, Seth Curry, and Danny Green to play off of and run a two-man game with. All three of those players are elite shooters in the history of the game and now Embiid is playing with De’Anthony Melton who is a terrific shooter in his own right.
After Melton drilled a career-high eight triples in Friday’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers, Embiid discussed Melton’s importance to him and the Sixers.
“It helps me a lot,” said Embiid. “I had JJ, JJ was great. Seth was—I think Seth cared a lot about his percentages so he didn’t want to take bad shots, but yeah, I mean JJ it was on another level. Just the difficulty of the type of shots he was taking and it was just unbelievable. That’s why our two-man game was so successful. Same thing we Seth. Our two-man game was unbelievable, too.”
Melton took 12 3-pointers on Friday. When he is not thinking about it and just letting it fly, that is when Embiid and the Sixers will have success due to the floor being spaced.
“That makes my job so much easier when they’re not thinking about it,” the big fella finished. “If you let it fly, who cares if you miss it? Just let it fly because I know that if we make shots, it just opens up everything not just for me, but also for the rest of the team.”
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