76ers vs. Kings: James Harden on Thybulle, Tucker’s Success

Getting defensive-minded players such as PJ Tucker and Matisse Thybulle involved on the offensive end has been a work in progress for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Going into Tuesday night’s matchup between the Sixers and the Sacramento Kings, Philadelphia forward PJ Tucker averaged three points and just 1.6 three-point attempts per game.

Meanwhile, Matisse Thybulle averaged just two points going into the Tuesday night battle. Early on in the matchup versus the Kings, both Thybulle and Tucker got involved offensively. Their early success on the offensive end proved to be sustainable throughout the remainder of the matchup.

James Harden, who dished out 15 assists for the night, put his best playmaking skills on display and was a huge help for Tucker and Thybulle.

“My job is to get them easy shots,” Harden said of Tucker and Thybulle. “Whether it’s PJ around the rim, or both, around the rim, and Matisse and PJ shots on the perimeter as well. I think my job, as much as they help me defensively, my job is to help them offensively and put them in positions to where they got easy ones around the rim, or they got catch and shoot opportunities, and they listen. I think that’s what this team is about.”

In 24 minutes of action on Tuesday, Tucker attempted three shots. All of his attempts came from beyond the arc. With the spacing he had in the corner, Tucker was able to knock down two of his threes, totaling six points on the night.

Meanwhile, Thybulle had his season-best performance on the offensive end just two games after scoring a season-high of nine points against the Los Angeles Lakers last Friday.

In 22 minutes on the court, Thybulle drained five of his seven shots, hitting on 75 percent of his threes. He finished the matchup with 15 points, which marked the first time Thybulle totaled 15 points since a November 2021 matchup against the Kings on the road last season.

Tuesday’s game was just another small sample size of what Thybulle could become offensively by working alongside Harden. Now, the All-Star guard wants to keep working at it to find consistency.

“If I see something, I’m gonna tell him to do it, he does it, and he gets rewarded off of it,” Harden explained. “That right there’s like, we’re all human at the end of the day, so that right there for a guy who doesn’t get easy baskets offensively and he gets four or five of them, that boosts someone’s confidence to where defensively, he’s even better. As much as we can get that from each individual guy, the much better our team is gonna be.”

Harden, Thybulle, and Tucker helped the Sixers down the thriving Kings with a 123-103 win. The Sixers will get two days off before taking the court to face the Golden State Warriors on Friday.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.