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Tim BontempsESPN
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – As the Philadelphia 76ers prepare for the Boston Celtics in the first round of the NBA playoffs, Sixers coach Brett Brown said Sunday afternoon that he is considering putting rookie wing Matisse Thybulle in the starting lineup for Game 1 Monday night.
“We talk a lot about doing different things,” Brown said when asked directly about Thybulle’s ability to go in the starting lineup. “It is considered.”
Brown obviously fell off when he was immediately asked who would replace Thybulle in the starting lineup. However, he made it clear that Thybulle – whether he starts or not – will play a major role in the upcoming series between the NBA’s oldest rivals.
“Matisse will defensively play an important role in this series,” Brown said.
While Brown would not discuss it, the choice of who Thybulle would replace in the starting lineup would almost come down to one of two players: point guard Shake Milton, who transitioned into the starting lineup when Ben Simmons was moved to power forward full-time when the team arrived in Orlando, Florida, and Al Horford, who returned to the starting lineup after Simmons was reportedly lost for the rest of the season after knee surgery.
The reason Thybulle has been defensively exceptional – especially for a rookie – this season after being drafted last year 20, is considered a move in the starting lineup is because the loss of Simmons Philadelphia crushes to to go with Boston’s talented wingers – specifically All-Star Jayson Tatum.
That’s a challenge made even more difficult, not only by the loss of Simmons, who kept Tatum on the vast majority of possessions over the four games between the two teams this season, but because Glenn Robinson III did not return. will be appreciated for another 7-10 days due to a scarred muscle strain.
“The challenge when you look at all those gifted wing scorers … is punishing the downfall and lack of availability of Glenn Robinson,” Brown said. “And what it means is that you have to come down on other obvious players – you will not have it alone [Josh Richardson] and Matisse play 48 minutes – and so it flourishes in many other things that are the reason you have a team and the group tension, understanding some kind of similar knowledge about personnel tendencies, the schematic end of a game plan. .. it must be accurate. You do not have the luxury and / or changing room of a misstep, of a mistake, a lack of a good read.
“And I just see that, it’s hard.”
Part of what makes it so difficult for Philadelphia to make up for Simmons’ loss is the success he had this season against Tatum. According to Second Spectrum tracking data, Simmons saved Tatum for 155 of the 250 half-court offensive possessions – and Tatum had an effective field goal percentage of just 28%.
Against all other Sixers defenders over those remaining 95 possessions, that number shot up to 50%. To emphasize the point even more: 55 players secured one player for at least 30 attempted shots this season. Tatum’s rate of 0.75 points per shot against Simmons, per Second Spectrum, ranked 54th among those 55 players (with only Utah’s Donovan Mitchell’s 0.58 points per shot against Denver’s Torrey Craig, in another playoff matchup that took place Monday , rank less).
However, Thybulle, in a very small sample size, had some success against Tatum. He held him to four points on six shots over the 16 possessions he protected. But although Thybulle has often been placed on Kemba Walker in previous meetings, thanks to Simmons’ availability, he said his job defensively does not change much whether he expects smaller players like Walker or bigger than Tatum.
“I mean, it’s just no different,” Thybulle said. “Every game I have played, in fact, my job has been to protect the best player, perhaps with the exception of like Kawhi [Leonard] and LeBron [James]. But, so really for me this is no different.
“I think the stakes are a little bit higher, and I think we all feel that way, but in terms of how I approach it, it’s the same way I had to approach every game. Because every game so far has been has made me try to prove myself to the league, and to our coaches and my teammates. And now, so be it, our team is trying to prove us to be just the best. “
But whether Thybulle starts or not, one thing is clear: the Sixers know that if they are to win this series – especially without Simmons – it will require them to use their size all over the place, starting with Joel Embiid in the paint.
“We’re going to use some of our strengths, which is our size and our ability,” Sixers forward Tobias Harris said. “We have the most dominant big man in the game. So, use him on the block, let him go to work.”
Then, Harris smiled.
“And that’s pretty much all I can give you right now,” he said.
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