Sixers give praise to bench unit for their work in home win over Pistons

PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers were able to pick up an easy win over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday for their sixth straight win. They were able to do so rather easily as they led by as many as 21 and stepped up when the time called for it.

They also received some big performances from the bench unit. Montrezl Harrell had 10 points, Georges Niang had 11, Shake Milton added nine points, five rebounds, and five assists, Danuel House Jr. had nine, and Matisse Thybulle had six points and two steals.

“They have a good chemistry together,” coach Doc Rivers said of the bench unit. “They’re starting to read each other really well. One of the things I think they do a great job of when the play breaks down is they find Trez. They just throw it to him anywhere and we go dribble handoff and we get scoring out of that. That’s actually becoming part of the offense for them. It almost seems at times they want to go to that, which is not a bad thing to do.”

The bench unit was helpful in the win over the Toronto Raptors on Monday as well. This has been a strong homestand for them.

“They’ve been great,” said Joel Embiid. “Last game, they came in against Toronto and they gave us a big lead. Tonight, they did an excellent job. They need to keep it going.”

The play of the bench unit, and the starters as well, allowed the Sixers to pull their starters late in the fourth quarter in order to allow them to rest. That is where Philadelphia wants to consistently get to as they move forward.

“We want to get to the point in fourth quarters where we know we have the game,” said Tobias Harris. “Obviously, we’re going to play great teams that that’s not going to be the case. They’re going to be hard-fought games, but, for us as a group, we know the teams that we should go out and have a lead, maintain a lead, and be able to have the comfort in the fourth quarter to get guys less minutes and have guys that come off the bench play more minutes is good for us.”

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For Philadelphia, their focus is on winning. If they can continue to get these types of performances from their bench unit, they know the better off they will be. It’s going to take all of them in order to succeed and move forward as a group.

“Every guy in here is tied in with the one goal that we have and that’s winning,” said Harrell. “Everybody else benefits when you win, really. That’s how we’re looking at it. We’re not looking to come in and guys worry about what they have or individual accolades or anything like that. Everybody’s in here to try to get the one main goal and that’s to try to get to the Eastern finals, win that, and try to get to the finals.”

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Story originally appeared on Sixers Wire