PHILADELPHI — Sunday’s win over the Washington Wizards was another example of what PJ Tucker brings to the Philadelphia 76ers. Tucker did not take a single shot in the 112-93 win, but he had six rebounds and two assists while defending Kristaps Porzingis.
Tucker helped keep Porzingis in check, and Philadelphia followed his lead on the defensive end. Despite not taking any shots, one could feel his presence out on the floor. That is what Tucker brings to the table: the intangibles to help the Sixers win games.
“He’s such a selfless player that he doesn’t care about that stuff,” said Georges Niang. “He had his glory, scoring or whatever you want to call it, but he finds excitement, happiness, in us winning and doing the little things that a lot of people aren’t willing to do.”
Tucker does all of the things not a lot of players want to do. He doesn’t care about the credit at this stage of his career. It’s all about working to get a championship.
“You don’t find too many guys that are willing to do that,” Niang continued. “Especially, in the back half of their career and where they’ve had success doing things a certain way and he’s bought into that and continue to help us grow on that side of the ball and just continue to show us what it’s like to play championship basketball.”
One doesn’t judge Tucker’s performances by numbers. It isn’t possible to put into numbers what he does bring to the table. He’s just one of those players that contending teams need to win in this league.
“Yeah, exactly and it wasn’t one of those games,” coach Doc Rivers added. “We found him a couple of times, they closed out, he made the right play. There’s gonna be other guys, they may not get a shot, but they still have to do things, and I thought PJ was great.”
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f1jxkahtwnvzepyp image=]
[lawrence-related id=76728,76722,76719]