The Philadelphia 76ers are ailing right now. Not only are they without superstar Joel Embiid, they just found out on Thursday that starting shooting guard Josh Richardson has suffered a left hamstring strain and he will be out for 2-3 weeks when he will be re-evaluated. He originally suffered the injury in Wednesday’s loss to the Toronto Raptors.
In his place, coach Brett Brown turned to Shake Milton who scored nine points off the bench after knocking down three from deep. As Milton stepped up, the other Sixers understand that the same must be expected of them.
“Somebody has to step up,” said Ben Simmons. “That’s everybody. One guy goes down, everybody has got to step up. Josh is a big part of this team – defensively and offensively – so we’re going to miss him for however long it is, but it’s an opportunity for guys to step up and fill that role.”
Richardson is a huge piece of this team because it allows Simmons to play more off the ball and the team can use him as a roller rather than a full-time ball-handler. The Sixers will now have to rely more on Tobias Harris, Raul Neto, and Trey Burke more to be that secondary guy next to Simmons.
“J-Rich is a great player,” said Harris. “Obviously he brings it at both ends of the floor. Like we’ve had all year, it’s the next man up mentality. Whenever it’s presented, come and be ready to go out there. Shake did a great job tonight coming in and staying ready and giving us that lift. It’s just the next man up.”
The Sixers have a tough stretch of games coming up starting by hosting LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday to start a brief two-game homestand. Philadelphia will then head out on the road for a four-game trip which includes visits to the Boston Celtics, the Miami Heat, and the Milwaukee Bucks. This is not an ideal time to lose Richardson.
This is gut-check time for them so it will be interesting to see how they handle it all starting on Saturday. [lawrence-related id=24097,24072,24066]