Sixers react to wild Andre Drummond tip to force 2nd OT vs. Wolves
Philadelphia 76ers big man Andre Drummond had himself a miserable game on Saturday night. The big man was a minus-12, he only had two rebounds, and he did not even attempt a shot through regulation.
With the Sixers down 113-110 in overtime, the Minnesota Timberwolves fouled Tyrese Maxey. After knocking down the first one, coach Doc Rivers inserted Drummond into the game hoping to get a tip-in off a Maxey miss.
They got just that as Maxey intentionally missed the second free-throw and Drummond tipped it in to tie the game at 113 and force the second overtime. It was Drummond’s only basket on the night and it came at the perfect moment.
Unfortunately, the Sixers fell 121-120 in double-overtime, but they would have lost in that first overtime if it wasn’t for Drummond.
“It’s funny, I remember at Kentucky, we used to practice it actually,” Maxey laughed. “Coach Cal (John Calipari) used to make us practice missing free throws and all I knew was if I can get to the back rim—and we had Joel and Andre Drummond in there against two smaller guys—so if I could just get it to the back of the rim and it bounces toward those guys, I knew we had a chance.”
The Sixers don’t exactly practice a play like that, but with Minnesota being so small, Rivers went with the two big man look. Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns had fouled out by then and the Wolves were very small in this one.
“Not really,” said Rivers. “We don’t. We do the two bigs, putting Drummond in, they didn’t have enough bigs, we felt like one of our two bigs would get their hands on the ball, and Drummond did. The miss was perfect. That’s such pot luck. You can shoot that 50 times and you can’t miss it that well.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
List
Philadelphia 76ers all-time roster: See which legends made the cut
