The Philadelphia 76ers were in a tough spot taking on the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road on the second night of a back-to-back. Joel Embiid being ruled out due to hip soreness put them in an even bigger bind. Nick Nurse made a surprise choice for his replacement in the Sixers' starting lineup: Marcus Morris Sr. instead of Paul Reed.
Reed starting in Embiid's place during the preseason and looking better than Morris so far this season led everyone to the impression that he would start with Embiid out. Nurse threw a wicked curveball by going to the small-ball look that had previously played just six possessions together prior to this game. Morris' inferior defensive chops and record-scratch tendencies on offense made him a curious player to get heavy minutes, let alone start.
After the game, Nurse explained the Sixers' surprising lineup decision.
“I just wanted to give us a chance to have five guys on the floor to space the floor and give us some spacing,” Nurse said to reporters after the game. “Looked really good to start the second half with that lineup. It didn't quite work out in the first but thought he had a good game. He stretched them a little bit. I thought he was physical. He used his fouls like we wanted him to in there. He's a good physical player.
“He was outsized but I thought he fought hard and obviously, again, it's also a chance for us to look at him,” the Sixers' head coach continued. “We just haven't had hardly any chance to play him. So it was a good chance to get him some rhythm and get him out there and see what he can do.”
The Sixers ran out of gas late and took the expected loss to the Timberwolves as each guy had their moments. Reed's physicality was badly needed against the big, long, athletic lineups the Wolves deployed. He tallied nine rebounds and four blocks, which led the team, along with 10 points and two steals.
Morris, meanwhile, scored 11 points in the third quarter off of pick-and-pop sequences with Tyrese Maxey and tallied 16 overall. But he was no match on defense against such a big and talented Wolves team, committing five fouls and getting into foul trouble in the game's opening minutes, though he also recorded a pair of blocks. Try as he did, he looked overmatched often and was able to go on his scoring run partly because the defense loaded up so much elsewhere.
Nonetheless, Nurse's assessment of Morris suggests he could continue to earn minutes for the Sixers, saying that his role as a small-ball five “may be a good place for him at some point.”
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