April 2, 2026, 10:22 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — Every successful team needs a connector. Every contender has that guy who doesn’t care whether he scores or not or how many rebounds he grabs or what his stats look like, but that guy always makes a big impact on the game.

For the Philadelphia 76ers, that guy is Dominick Barlow. The 4-year forward from Overtime Elite is averaging only 7.9 points and 4.7 rebounds on the season, but he is continuing to make a big impact for the team in a number of ways.

For example, in Wednesday’s 153-131 win over the Washington Wizards on the road, Barlow was a ridiculous plus-34 in 22 minutes. He only had six points, three rebounds, and two assists, but he made an impact against a young Wizards team.

“He knows his role, man,” Tyrese Maxey said of Barlow. “He’s a star in his role, and he doesn’t care. He does all the dirty work for us. He guards whoever he needs to guard. He rebounds, offensive rebound, defensive rebound. He’s, like, a connector. A really good connector, and he does a really good job of just being who he is. We need him.”

Barlow made one mistake early as the Wizards caught him sleeping for a back-door slam in the early part of the game, but after that, Barlow was able to make a big impact throughout the night. He just does so many things that don’t show up in a box score and that is a guy the Sixers need and will continue to lean on as time moves forward.

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“Super impactful,” said coach Nick Nurse. “I think that, again, just tremendous effort at all times. Just doesn’t really make many mistakes. He made one early. That’s the first one I can remember he’s made. We got back cut out of the corner the first three minutes of the game, and then after that, you just don’t see him blowing too many switches. You don’t see him missing block outs. He’s really reliable with the ball. He either gets it to the front of the rim or they collapsed on him and kicked it out for a great 3 for VJ. Just hard play and high IQ.”