Sixers' Matisse Thybulle Earns Heavy Praise Once Again After Win vs. Pacers
Another game without Joel Embiid available called for another ugly start for the Philadelphia 76ers. Although they got off to an 8-2 run at the beginning of Sunday night's game against the Indiana Pacers, it wouldn't take long before the Sixers would lose the lead and allow it to get out of hand.
Six minutes into the first quarter, the Sixers fell behind. From then until later on in the fourth quarter, the 76ers trailed. Fortunately, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers found a defensive adjustment to implement in the second half to throw the Pacers off their game.
Although the 76ers admittedly haven't practiced zone defense for "more than five minutes" this year, according to Tobias Harris, Rivers knew two players who would excel there in Ben Simmons and Matisse Thybulle.
Simmons, who has established himself as one of the league's best defenders, will thrive in any system defensively. Thybulle, who played his college ball at Washington, feels right at home in the zone. And on Sunday night, he was absolutely dominant defensively once again.
"It was like getting back to the good old days of the zone when I was in college, and I could just go do whatever I wanted but now with a little more structure,” said Thybulle after the game. “It was fun. We kind of just threw it together and just played hard through it and got some stuff done.”
On Sunday night, Thybulle checked in for 25 minutes off the bench. Although he typically sees less playing time, Thybulle's four steals, two blocks, and a surplus of deflections on defense made it difficult to take him off the floor in crunch time.
"Matisse, just defensively, putting him in a zone -- putting him in man [defense] is great, putting him in the zone takes him to a different level," said Sixers head coach Doc Rivers. "His instincts take over and his hands, I think he had 11 deflections in the fourth quarter alone. If your team has 11 in the fourth, you're happy. Matisse had 11 on his own in the fourth quarter, so that tells you how active he was."
Thybulle's Sunday night performance might've been his best this season, but over the last week, the second-year guard has earned more praise for each and every game. At this point, some of his veteran teammates are at a loss for words for his performances.
“Matisse did an excellent job on the defensive end and getting stops,” said the backup center, Dwight Howard. “His defense is. . . I’m running out a lot of words to describe how amazing his defense is.” Meanwhile, Tobias Harris called Thybulle the "zone king," while Ben Simmons noticed an overall improvement in his game and confidence.
Thybulle is far from a finished product all around, but he's surely earning himself a regular spot in the Sixers' rotation and continues to collect increased minutes. If the young guard can begin to improve his offensive value as well, then the 76ers' bench will have an outstanding young guard all around in Thybulle.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_
