The Philadelphia 76ers were in a dire situation on Wednesday night. Less than four minutes into an important matchup with the Toronto Raptors on the road, Josh Richardson pulled up lame after going hard for a steal and he was out for the rest of the game due to a left hamstring strain.
Coach Brett Brown then called upon Shake Milton who had barely been used in recent games. It was only the 13th game of the season for Milton and he was playing his first significant minutes since November 22. Yet, he looked poised and he scored nine points while drilling three from deep.
His efforts weren’t enough as they fell to Toronto 107-95, but it was a solid night for the young man out of SMU. Especially when considering how quickly the Richardson injury happened.
“It’s next man up. You don’t really want to see anyone go down with injury, but when your number is called you’ve got to step up, just try to stay locked in,” Milton said. “My teammates kept encouraging me, so it wasn’t that hard.”
With Joel Embiid already out, it hurt to lose Richardson. That meant Brown changing his game plan and he needed the guy they call “Sniper Shake” to be able to hunt threes.
“The J-Rich thing hurt, like he went out quick,” said Brown. “You knew that you were going to have to make some threes. They’re physical all over the place, they scramble and so we thought that our best opportunity to steal a win on the road without Jo and J-Rich was going to be to hunt some threes, and spread the thing around and play fast and share the ball. Shake was a part of that environment that I just said, and I thought played really quite well.”
Milton was a big reason why Philadelphia was able to stay in the game in this one as he knocked down a big corner triple to bring the Sixers to within three before Toronto went on their run. That earned the respect of his teammates.
“I think he was great,” said Ben Simmons. “He got to spots and knocked down shots and got deflections. He stepped up. He did really good.”
It can be tough to stay ready in this league after not playing for so long, but Milton was able to work hard every day and stay ready in preparation for his number to be called again.
“Just making sure I keep up with the plays and everything they’ve got going on offensively and defensively,” said Milton. “Staying in the gym and putting in the work and doing my best to stay locked in every single game.”
The Sixers will now hope that the Richardson injury is not a long term situation as they prepare for the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday. [lawrence-related id=24072,24046,24037]