Adam Aaronson, whose legal name is Sixers Adam (@SixersAdam on Twitter), covers the Sixers for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez. He believes cantaloupe is the best food in existence, and is brought to you by the Official Realtor of The Process, Adam Ksebe.
As the season nears its end, the Sixers traveled across the border to face the Toronto Raptors in a game that may be a round one playoff preview. Here’s what’s on my mind tonight:
Con: Matisse Thybulle ineligible to play in Toronto
Thybulle, who has been in the Sixers’ starting lineup for most of the season, was surprisingly placed on the injury report for tonight’s game yesterday afternoon, with a designation saying he was ineligible to play. This means Thybulle is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Of course, unvaccinated players are not allowed to play in Toronto right now due to the restrictions in place there.
After Tuesday night’s Sixers win over the Indiana Pacers, I wrote about my skepticism regarding Thybulle being nearly as valuable in the playoffs as he can be in the regular season.
And so, as Thybulle tries to prove his worth in high leverage situations, he is now ineligible to play any road games against one of the most likely and most dangerous playoff opponents for the Sixers.
Needless to say, this is bad news on several levels. Now let’s get to the game itself.
Pro: Doc Rivers finally benches DeAndre Jordan
When the Sixers signed Jordan, my biggest concern was that he would fail to perform at a satisfactory level and still be afforded playing time. And for a while, that was the case. Despite brutal showing after brutal showing, Rivers continued to play Jordan, who he had a prior relationship with due to their time together with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Tonight, though, we finally witnessed what might have been Rivers waving the white flag on the Jordan experiment. Instead of the veteran, we saw second-year big-man Paul Reed, who after winning the G-League MVP and Rookie of the Year awards last season, has not been given much of a chance to establish himself as a rotation player.
Reed is very prone to silly mistakes that often look especially rough. But overall, I thought his minutes were clearly better than the ones we had seen from Jordan over the last month.
While the blunders will likely persist with Reed for the time being, unlike Jordan, he actually makes up for his deficiencies at times, thanks to unique athleticism and a great motor. I’d like to see Reed continue to get chances to flash his potential with the playoffs on the doorstep.
Con: James Harden’s lack of scoring continues to hurt Sixers
When the Sixers acquired Harden, it seemed obvious the kind of player they were getting -- the player he’s always been: a dynamic guard with historically-great scoring numbers who could also pass with the best of them.
For the most part, Harden’s passing has been excellent -- especially tonight, actually -- but time and time again he looks miles behind the scorer he once was.
Harden is struggling mightily to create advantages due to a first step that lacks explosion. He’s been poor around the rim this season, where he had previously been excellent. And that has left the Sixers -- particularly during the stretches when Joel Embiid is off the floor -- in an extremely difficult position.