Whenever the Philadelphia 76ers and the Phoenix Suns match up, all eyes are on Matisse Thybulle vs. Devin Booker. Thybulle is one of the elite defenders in the game and Booker is a terrific scorer and that is always a fun matchup to watch.
Booker finished with 35 points to lead the Suns to a 114-109 win on Tuesday as Phoenix rallied from a 14-point deficit, but Thybulle did a solid job against him. A lot of Booker’s points came when the Suns did a solid job of switching Thybulle off of him with their screen action.
However, Booker still did what he does so it was an overall tough night for the Sixers and Thybulle gave credit where it was due.
“He’s really good at basketball,” Thybulle laughed. “He’s one of those guys that plays hard and is aggressive. He’s kind of like an angry player, which is the persona he takes on the court. He plays to just this relentless attack that he’s always putting on you all game. It’s a great challenge and he makes that team really good.”
Without Ben Simmons and with the move of him starting over Danny Green, Thybulle has continuously taken on the opposition’s best scorer. It has been a challenge that he continues to relish as he grows as a player and a defender in this league.
“It’s been cool,” Thybulle added. “I was saying to someone the other day, up until now, especially up until I’ve been starting, it was always like I was the tag team guy on whoever’s best scorer they had out there. Whether it was Ben or Danny or whoever was on them, they would kind of tag me in and would try and wreak some havoc. So now to have them be my assignment for the whole game has been a very new challenge. It’s been fun.”
Thybulle still has to grow as a player, but challenges like Tuesday offer him new experiences and he is excited to grow into them and be the anchor of this team’s defensive unit.
“It’s been really, really hard, but it’s just exciting to see my role grow,” Thybulle added. “See how I can grow with it and just continue to gain the respect of these players. As the season goes on, I think it shows for itself how you can grow and adapt to these new types of situations.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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