The Philadelphia 76ers were in a tough position on Monday when they took on the Boston Celtics. With the team missing key bench pieces Andre Drummond, Shake Milton, Georges Niang, and Furkan Korkmaz, and another one starting due to injury, they had to roll out an entirely new bench unit.
As the Sixers took on the Boston Celtics, they relied on four rookies and a second-year player to give production off the bench. The Sixers were able to get out of Boston with a 108-103 win despite the bench giving a grand total of one point courtesy of Isaiah Joe.
Outside of Joe, the Sixers turned to Myles Powell, Aaron Henry, and Charles Bassey to round out the bench unit. The Sixers had just signed Powell on Saturday–making it official on Sunday–so he did not even know really what to run.
“We only got one bench point, but at the end of the day, just the minutes that were provided, and energy that went into going on out there on the floor was really productive,” said Tobias Harris. “We’re asking guys that are new in these positions to go out and play minutes in big games and to help us win so I just think that’s gonna take time and come with the comfort of them learning the game and whatnot.”
Despite the bench unit struggling to score, three of the four guys had a positive plus-minus on the night. Powell was the only one to have a minus in that area.
“I told our guys after the game, I said ‘Bench, you guys are on fire tonight’ with everything but scoring, you know?” said coach Doc Rivers. “They did so many little things offensively. They just hung in there you look at the plus/minuses, they didn’t have one guy, I think was a minus. Everybody else was a plus. That’s all you needed tonight from them. Just hold the fort and I thought they did that.”
The defensive energy that the bench played with was especially important to this team in the win. The Sixers probably don’t win this game without their energy and their contributions on that end of the floor.
“I thought the bench did a great job,” added Joel Embiid. “They may not have scored the ball, but you can’t put it on them. I thought they came in defensively and did a great job. Looking at the box score, that really only took five shots, you know? That’s not on them, but I thought they came in with a sense of urgency. Just moving the ball, getting guys wide-open shots, fighting on defense, so I thought they were great.”
As for Powell, Monday was actually his first day with the organization after being signed from the G League. Everything was probably coming at him at 100 mph.
“Today was my first day,” said Powell after the game. “Today’s the first day I met everyone on the staff. Today’s the first day I met Doc. Today’s the first day I met Joel so I can go down the line…It was a dream come true, but it’s time to get back to work now.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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