PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers made a surprising switch in the starting lineup on Friday, starting Mo Bamba at the 5 and moving Paul Reed to the bench. Reed had started the previous 12 games with Joel Embiid out.
The move paid off. They knocked off the Charlotte Hornets, 121-114. Reed had 11 points, eight rebounds and two blocks off the bench to give Philadelphia a big boost.
The Hornets don’t have much size, so coach Nick Nurse let Reed know ahead of time that they were going to go with Bamba so the move didn’t catch him off guard.
“No, I knew I was coming off the bench,” he said after the win. “They let me know a day ago so I was mentally prepared.”
Nurse explained his reasoning for going to Bamba. The Hornets have a big man, Nick Richards, who offers a lot of size, so Nurse wanted to go in that direction.
“Mo for Paul — I just thought they kind of have one center with size and then they come in and they go pretty small and I just thought that would be a better matchup for us,” Nurse explained. “Really, the plan was to try to invigorate Kelly (Oubre Jr.) off the bench was really what was going to do and I just kind of wanted to see him with that group that maybe could feature him a little bit more, and then he ended up not playing so we were kind of there anyway, but we’ll see probably game to game, how it goes and what it looks like and kind of keep moving things around.”
When a guy gets moved from the starting lineup to the bench, it can be a big motivating factor. Reed wanted to make sure he was in a position to help the Sixers. That is where he’s at mentally.
“I knew I had to go out there and play hard,” Reed finished. “I feel like that’s what the team needed from me. I’m the type of guy who of course, I’m gonna have a chip on my shoulder after they demote me like that, but at the end of the day, I gotta be a supportive teammate, and at the end of the day, it’s about the team. So whatever the team has to do to win, I’m all for it.”
It will be interesting to see who the Sixers start on Sunday when they take on the Dallas Mavericks.
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