NEW YORK–The Philadelphia 76ers finished off the Brooklyn Nets 96-88 in Game 4 and complete the sweep mainly because Tobias Harris stepped up and led the way, but Paul Reed gave the team a big boost.
Reed started in place of the injured Joel Embiid and had 10 points and 15 rebounds. He was aggressive on both ends of the floor as well as the glass and the Sixers needed his effort and production in this one.
Normally, coach Doc Rivers likes to keep his normal rotation. When Embiid is out, the Sixers normally turn to guys like Dewayne Dedmon or Montrezl Harrell or go PJ Tucker at the 5 and keep Reed in his reserve role.
Not this time and the Sixers benefited from it.
Rivers on Reed
“I just thought he earned that. He’s been playing well. I didn’t love the Paul and Tuck combination together, but in the third quarter, that turned out to be great because we’ve won this series, I think, mostly because we dominated the glass. So that was our thought going into the game. Paul and Tuck are our two best rebounders. Let’s put them on the floor. I know it’s going to create offensive spacing problems, but let’s see what we can get, and then in the second half, really from the second quarter on, when we separated them. We played, for the most part, one of them on the floor and not both on the floor and I thought it was good for us.”
James Harden on Reed
“He listens. He plays hard. So you got to give him credit for that and then in the first half, he was getting really good offensive rebounds. He was just trying to go up and over to make difficult shots. I keep telling him, obviously if you have a put back layup, then take it, but if you feel like you don’t have a layup, get the ball out, we can get a better shot. In the second half, he did a better job of that, and that generated more opportunities for our guards.”
De’Anthony Melton on Reed
“P-Murda gonna do his thing. When he’s locked in, he’s dialed in, he’s such a big factor for us. Offensive rebounds, guarding, kick outs, a lot of that was him too. So, we always appreciate what he does for us, but he’s gotta make sure he stays locked in.”
Tucker on Reed
“Paul Reed can be a big X-Factor for our team when he locks in and does his job and focuses on that, he’s big. In the second half, he did that. I cussed him out again a couple times again in the first half. Everybody’s talking about that, but I don’t care. He can be mad at me, whatever. He comes out and plays like that and plays hard and do what he’s supposed to do, he helps our team out a lot.”
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