Philadelphia 76ers' Mike Scott Finds His Shot Again vs. Cavaliers

PHILADELPHIA, PA -- Lately, the Philadelphia 76ers haven't gotten much out of their reserve veteran forward, Mike Scott. Last season, when the Sixers acquired Scott at the trade deadline in a blockbuster deal, he was perhaps the least intriguing player to come along with Tobias Harris and Boban Marjanovic.

Eventually, though, Scott made a name for himself in Philly and became a fan-favorite. While a lot of his fanfare was created by his unfiltered quotes off the court, Scott was more than just some guy who had a Philly-like persona.

In 27 games with the Sixers, Scott averaged nearly eight points-per-game off the bench. He knocked down a career-high of 41.2-percent of his three-point shots during that final stretch of the season and even helped a lot coming off the bench in the postseason as well.

Scott's late-season contributions to the Sixers earned himself a two-year contract over the summer. As he offered reliability off the bench when it comes to long-range shooting, it was the right move for the Sixers front office to bring him back.

However, Scott hasn't lived up to the expectations quite yet this season. As of late, his numbers have been looking like how they did when he was struggling in Los Angeles. Rather than how they looked last season when he resurged in Philly.

Prior to Saturday night's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Scott has been struggling mightily from three-point land off the bench. In his last five matchups, the veteran forward has only managed to drain one of his sixteen three-point attempts.

At some point, Sixers' head coach Brett Brown had a decision to make to try and fix the situation. He could either keep Scott on the bench and offer minutes to somebody else who might help for a change -- or keep Scott in the mix and allow him to shoot through his slump.

Brown elected to go with the latter. Not only did he stick with Scott through these tough times though, but he actually made him a starter on Saturday night against the Cavaliers as the Sixers' lineup was without two of their regulars.

As it turns out, Brown made the right decision. In 24 minutes, Scott knocked down 75-percent of his shots from the field, accounting for a season-high of 21 points. So what caused Coach Brown to make such a gamble? "A gut feel," he says.

"Just try to find something to jumpstart him," Brown said following Saturday night's blowout win against the Cavs. "He has been down, and we need him to be up. Maybe this is a way we can jumpstart him. Everybody goes through droughts when you're a shooter. We've seen it with the best of them. Tonight, I thought he was really aggressive and I was happy for him."

16 PTS | 7-9 FG | 12 MIN pic.twitter.com/mGYDZ2Qpog
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) December 8, 2019

We saw the jump in the numbers from Scott on Saturday, but did his sudden resurgence actually feel any different? "Yeah, it felt good to make a shot again," Scott said after the matchup with the Cavaliers. "Just playing confident. Ben [Simmons] found me a couple of times, Trey [Burke] found me a couple of times, and the ball went my way."

Scott acknowledged the fact that shooting slumps can happen to the best of them, but he makes sure to continue to battle through his issues so he doesn't lose confidence. "I work on my game every day so I just stay with it," Scott said. "Continue to get shots, work on my touch, and sooner or later it's going to drop."

The shots dropped for Scott on Saturday. Now the hope is that he can take that resurgence and apply it to Sunday's game as well when the Sixers host the Toronto Raptors at The Center for the first time this season.

While the Sixers may be undefeated at home, they struggled to take down the Raptors during their first meeting of the year a couple of weeks back. Perhaps, Saturday's beatdown will give Mike Scott and the rest of the Sixers all the confidence they need to defeat one of the Eastern Conference's best.