PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers are always looking for new ways to be efficient. Coach Nick Nurse won’t shy away from any unorthodox lineup or scheme if it means the Sixers will have some kind of advantage.
With the offense bogged down in Tuesday’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets, the 76ers turned to a two-man lineup, with Adem Bonnar and Andre Drummond on the floor alongside Joel Embiid in the second half.
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This is mostly out of necessity. Early in the third quarter, Embiid briefly left the locker room after grabbing his right knee, and Drummond gave the Sixers a big spark off the bench, knocking down a few putbacks to get the scoreboard moving. When Embiid was cleared to return, Nurse had them play together, but the results were mixed, according to Embiid.
“I would say it’s hard to judge because at times I thought it looked pretty good, but we also couldn’t take advantage of that and shoot the 3,” Embiid said of the two-man lineup. “If you’re not shooting the three well, it’s hard to find the right spacing because the defense breaks down in all areas, but it’s worth a try. If that happens again, we just have to keep working on it.”
It’s definitely going to take some work to get this duo to work for Philadelphia again. On the other hand, the Sixers probably don’t want to be in this position again when it comes to having to experiment with lineups in scrimmages. Either way, a two-man lineup with Embiid and either Boehner or Drummond has the potential to produce big numbers in the right amount of space.
This article originally appeared on 76ers Wired: Joel Embiid talks two-man lineup in Sixers loss to Nets
