Sixers’ Nick Nurse explains decision to start Marcus Morris Sr. vs. Timberwolves
The Philadelphia 76ers were faced with a tough challenge heading into Target Center on Wednesday when they paid a visit to the Minnesota Timberwolves. It was the second night of a back-to-back following an overtime battle on Tuesday and they were missing Joel Embiid due to a hip issue.
The result was the Sixers taking a tough wire-to-wire 112-99 loss on Wednesday to the Timberwolves which drops them to 10-5 on the season. Minnesota led by as many as 21 and scored 58 points in the paint.
Coach Nick Nurse decided to start Marcus Morris Sr. in place of Embiid rather than turning to a more conventional option such as Paul Reed or Mo Bamba.
Morris Sr. played 16 minutes on Wednesday and had 16 points while knocking down three triples.
“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 told reporters after the loss. “It looked really good to start the second half with that lineup, right? It didn’t quite again workout in the first, but I thought he had a good game.”
Nurse is correct about the start of the second half. Philadelphia was able to stretch the floor and get Rudy Gobert out of the paint and away from the basket as the Sixers were working their way back into the game a bit.
However, Morris Sr. just had too many issues with Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns on the other end of the floor. He gave a terrific effort, but one can’t teach height in that situation.
“He stretched them a little bit,” Nurse added. “I thought he was physical, 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.”
Morris Sr. has played sparingly in his previous seven games with the Sixers. Wednesday offered up the first real chance for him so that gave Nurse an opportunity to really evaluate his game. His play on Wednesday could be the beginning of unlocking something of a small ball 5 lineup for Philadelphia in the future.
“We just haven’t had hardly any chance to play him,” Nurse finished. “So it was a good chance to get him some rhythm and get him out there and see what he can do. That may be like talking about small ball 5, that may be a good place for him at some point.”
