PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers had a tough challenge thrown at them on Friday night in the form of Sacramento Kings star Domantas Sabonis. Without Joel Embiid to defend him, it was going to be on everybody to step up and slow him down.
Coach Nick Nurse turned to Tobias Harris to take on the challenge of Sabonis and Harris did a great job. The veteran out of Tennessee led the charge of holding Sacramento’s All-Star big man to just 14 points and forcing him into four turnovers on the night.
“He did a good job on him,” Nurse said of Harris’s defense. “I think that we worked really hard on what we were going to do with him as a team, right? We tried to pick him up up the floor because he’s really good at bringing the ball and spraying it around in pitching it around for 3-balls for them.”
Harris is gifted with a big, strong frame and he was able to use his skills to be able to get into Sabonis and make life tough for him. Not only was he picking him up at half-court, but he was also bothering him into some bad turnovers and tough shots in the paint.
“Then we certainly had a good game plan for when he got it on the post as well,” Nurse continued on the effort against Sabonis. “So as a team, we really executed well, but I thought again, he’s (Harris) got to pick up, he’s got to handle, deny him at the top of the key when he’s handling. There’s a lot of two-man actions with him going on and he was handling all of it with really good physicality.”
The defensive effort helped Harris go off for 37 points as he led the Sixers on both ends of the floor. He was fantastic in helping Philadelphia end a 3-game losing skid.
“I thought that set the tone for myself, personally,” Harris added. “Defending, taking on the challenge, and then early on in the game, that fueled a lot of energy towards the offensive end for us. Getting stops, getting out in transition, creating some easier looks, and that was the game plan at shootaround. It paid off tonight.”
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