PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers are always looking for new ways to be effective. Coach Nick Nurse is not one to shy away from any unorthodox lineups or schemes if it means the Sixers will have some type of advantage.
As the offense was scuffling on Tuesday in the loss to the Brooklyn Nets, the Sixers turned to a double big lineup with both Adem Bona and Andre Drummond spending time with Joel Embiid on the floor in the second half.
It was mostly out of necessity. Once Embiid briefly left for the locker room early in the third quarter after grabbing at his right knee, Drummond gave the Sixers a big spark off the bench with a couple of tip ins to get the scoreboard moving. Once Embiid was cleared to return, Nurse had them play together, with mixed results in the eyes of Embiid.
“I would say it was hard to judge, because at times I thought it looked pretty good, but we also were not able to take advantage of that and also making shots from 3,” Embiid said of the double big lineup. “If you’re not shooting well from 3, it’s kind of hard to get the right spacing, because the defense collapsed on everything, but it was worth a try. If that’s gonna happen again, we just need to keep working on it.”
It is certainly going to take a little work for the double big lineup to work again for Philadelphia. On the flip side, the Sixers would probably not want to be in that position again when it comes to having to experiment with a lineup in the middle of scuffling. Either way, a double big lineup with Embiid and either Bona or Drummond is one that has the potential to produce big numbers with the proper spacing.