Sixers praise Furkan Korkmaz for busting out of slump vs. Wizards
Philadelphia 76ers shooter Furkan Korkmaz had been in an elongated slump heading into Sunday night’s matchup with the Washington Wizards. He was just 2-for his last-25 from deep and his 3-point shooting percentage on the season dipped below 30% due to his slump.
On Sunday, Korkmaz was able to get a couple of triples to fall and he scored 14 points in a 117-96 win over the Wizards on the road. His contributions were very important for the Sixers to get the job done and it was good for his teammates to see him finally get going a bit.
“Extremely happy,” said Tobias Harris. “Guys wanna play well, wanna be successful, wanna show their work, and he’s a guy who works extremely hard. Obviously, he’s a guy who’s been out for some time as well so for him to just come in and gain that momentum and that flow, see some shots fall, and be able to roll off that, that was big for us, big for him.”
After a game like that one, even Korkmaz himself had to just breathe a bit and exhale.
“Finally,” said Korkmaz. “It’s been a little bit long. The first time in my career it’s been this long and I’ve been struggling, but right now, it feels good. It feels like I gave support to the team.”
Even Andre Drummond watching from home due to being in the league’s health and safety protocols took to Twitter to voice his praise for Korkmaz.
YEAAAHHHH FURK
— Andre Drummond (@AndreDrummond) December 27, 2021
Joel Embiid, who led the Sixers with 36 points, was happy to see Korkmaz bust out of the slump. The Sixers need Korkmaz to be able to knock down shots on a nightly basis and this was one of those really solid nights for him.
“Finally,” said the big fella. “I’ve been talking to him. We needed that. We need him to be aggressive. We need him to make shots. Everybody, we need everybody. You look at tonight, the way everybody played, the ball moved, everybody played well together as a team, it started on defense. We need everybody as we saw tonight so hopefully, that continues”
On the day after Christmas, Korkmaz added that he felt confident that this matchup with the Wizards on Sunday would be the day he finally busts out of the slump.
“That’s not something I just woke up and I said it,” Korkmax explained. “Before the game, I was just feeling it. As a player, some days you just feel it and then you decided. You want to play good every game, but there are some games you decided, today was the day. Maybe I didn’t feel like that two games before, but today was the day that I felt it.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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