Sixers discuss what went wrong with Bones Hyland in loss to Nuggets

PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers were in the middle of a tight battle with the Denver Nuggets at home and they were looking to continue playing some solid basketball. The Sixers had a lead, but the Nuggets were building momentum with MVP Nikola Jokic on the bench.

It wasn’t Jokic who led a big comeback late, although he did make one miraculous circus shot as the dagger for the Nuggets, but it was rookie Bones Hyland who hopped off the bench and had himself a big night. He had 12 points in the fourth quarter as he knocked down four triples including a big one late to give Denver the lead for good at 110-108. The Sixers could not recover.

Overall, Hyland had 21 points off the bench and he was a plus-16 in his minutes off the bench.

James Harden

“Pick-and-roll. He made a deep one. We lost him one time. I think he hit three or four 3s in that fourth quarter, some big-time shots from the youngin, but he’s been playing aggressive, and he’s been goo for them the entire year. For us, a couple of them we could’ve controlled, but a couple of them were deep so just gotta wash it down, watch film, and keep pushing.”

Joel Embiid

“We were not physical enough on defense. We made a couple of mistakes including leaving him wide-open with two seconds on the clock. At that point, he was already hot, and I just didn’t think there was enough time for him to get a shot off, but he did so that was a bad mistake. Overall, he was playing freely. We wasn’t physical enough on the ball screens and he made us pay for it.”

Doc Rivers

“It was big for them. They made their run tonight with Jokic on the bench when you think about it. That’s when we should’ve made a run, but at the end of the third, beginning of the fourth, Jokic was not in. I’m looking at plus-minus numbers and their starters were all minus for the most part. It’s the bench that hurt us tonight and that’s disappointing.”

1

1