Sixers-Blazers, All-Star Duos, Go Birds

Let us know what you want to hear about after every Sixers game. Whether or not we go live the next day, we keep tracks, So we would love, love, love to hear from you guys where you're listening from, what you're seeing, what you're enjoying, what you're hoping for. On the road ahead, Matt Murphy, good morning, four and oh. On this road trip thus far, Doc Rivers Terry's Maxie

talked about it last night. They say they'd be thrilled if they had been bold, if they were going to go four and oh at the beginning, especially considering how few days off the team had during this stretch and how grueling. It's been so four and oh so far. It's been awesome to recap them with you. How are you feeling this morning? I'm doing great. One oh five

ninety five win over the Portland Trailblazers. The Sixers now have the same record in the Eastern Conference as the Milwaukee Bucks, and those teams only trail the Boston Celtics Philadelphia now twenty nine and sixteen. In the pre show, he said, it's not mourning for the East Coast people, including myself, but I'm kicking us off with a funny message from Winona, who says it feels like mourning because we stay up with the fellas. So that's how we're

doing on this side, Lauren. But it is morning for you going from Portland to Sacramento overnight. It was a late night last night, but again, any late night is better when the Sixers can pull out a win and the vibes can be as high as they were leaving Portland last night. So let's dive into the box score. As I read some stats from last night, Please let us know what stands out to you. You can click

the bottom right hand corner of the space. There's a purple icon where you can let us know what's standing out. You can send us DMS. You guys know the drill, let's do it. Joel Embiid last night led the way thirty two points, nine rebounds, two assists, a steel, and three blocks. Joel shot twenty two or two twelve four twenty two from the field, seven for seven from the free throw line. James Harden another triple double last night,

sixteen points, ten rebounds, fourteen assists. He shot six for eleven from the field, three for four from the line in thirty four minutes. Again, the minutes lower last night, which is great to see on again a pretty grueling road stretch like this. James's thirty four minutes marked a team high. Tobias Harris eleven points, seven rebounds and assist and a steal. He shot five for eleven. Tyrese Maxie led the bench unit with fifteen points, two rebounds, two

assists and a steal. He shot seven for twelve from the field in a bench high twenty nine. And it's of play. D Anthony Melton, George Niang, Shake, Milton Matisse, Thyble, Montrese Harrell all scored in this one as well, but Matt Murphy. What stood out to you as you watched this edition of Sixers after Dark? I am going to borrow from one of the Space's followers on Twitter. Stuart said, forty one bench points says a lot, Maxi Shake Niang

doing well, so I'd agree with that. I think the bench points I'm gonna steal that answer because it ended up being forty one eighteen in favor of the Sixers bench. Of course, Tyrese Maxie his third straight game off the bench, Shake Milton had some really clutch buckets in the second half, so did George Niang again. Matisse Thible a steal against Damian Lillard in a fifteen point game towards the end of the game, made some plays as well. Montrese Harold's

energy in the first half and throughout the game. I think the bench on game four of a five game road trip, I was impressed with the energy level that the bench brought and it just shows the depth of this team. What stood out to you? I agree with you. I think that the bench productivity has been really really strong throughout this trip. I think not even I think the bench productivity has been strong, led by Tyrese Maxie,

Matt I want to hear from him. Are we ready to dive into his comments or did you want to talk about stats a little bit more? No, I mean we could always talk about Joel Embad and James Harden's stats, because with these most recent performances we may have already covered this. But seven straight thirty point games from Bad, he just keeps tacking onto that. And Harden's fourth triple double leads the Eastern Conference. But let's hear from Tyrese Maxie. Yeah,

big time stuff. In the words of Tyres Maxie. Rather, we need to make sure that we're not taking for granted amazing nights like last night for Joel. He said after the Clippers game that sometimes they look up before Joel has reached the thirty point threshold at the scoreboard and they say, where's Joel tonight? Jokingly obviously, but interesting to see that such a such a dominant performance is becoming such clockwork for Joel and for his teammates to

expect it as well. And then you mentioned James Harden, of course, who's been distributing perhaps better than anybody else in the league, and his chemistry with Joel something that we should we should touch on at some point as well, but love to see the two of them really developing something special. I feel like on this trip specifically, Matt James's awareness for where Joel has been is perhaps at its peak, and that's been something really cool to see.

So to shift gears a little bit a cool story. We know. Rich Hoffmann from The Athletic covered this as well this morning, But for those of you that don't know, Shake Milton and Tyrese Maxie, who are now leaving that second unit backcourt together, actually have a lot of history. They The two of them didn't know each other until Tyrese was a high school student and Shake was in college, but that of course was years before they became teammates

with the seventy sixers. Tyrese's father was at the time a coach with SMU where Shake Milton played his college basketball, and a high school Tyrese Maxie remembers getting to know a college aged Shake Milton who became a little bit of a mentor for him, and then life is funny they end up on the seventy sixers together. Now they end up playing together more heavily than they ever have, and the chemistry that was built back then is showing today, so I want to play maybe a couple of minutes

actually worth of tires. Maxie's media availability from last night where he sort of chronicled that bond that he built with Shake, how it started and how it's continued on today. So take a listen to Tyrese here. I met him so long ago. I met him my junior year in high school, I think, and just because I was a fan of his game and my dad coach at SMU, so I was at the games all the time, and you know, and I'll go and either at practicing different things like that because I'm a fan. Because he was,

you know, older than me. It's funny, like you'd always take men this win. You know, he'll talk to me or tell me what he saw in the picking roll, tell when he saw in the game. I just messed with him, buy how well he played the night before. But in my posts, should come home and tell me he was like, you know, this dude's gonna be really good. And just watch how players off to picking all his pacing different things like that. Um, we do have a

lot of totally different games. He's a little bit slower and I'm a little a little bit running around fast, but you know it's it's great now. I'm just streaming proud of him. Um, he's doing this thing right now and he's been big. But this whole road trip and even before that, he stayed right. He's been a different role starting not playing, coming out to bench playing, have to score big moments and just gotta really appreciate the guy like that worked out with him, or play one

on one while you were maybe stalling high school. That that that ever happening long in college? No, because you know, you don't want to. I don't want to be a part of them trying to hurt, you know, and mess around and actually hurt somebody, and that could you know. But I did watch a lot of practice because there was only like what thirty minutes away from my house, so I would go up there and watch practice with my dad and UH coach Jankovic. I appreciate them let

me come in and sit in on it. UM. I think one because it UM enhanced your basketball IQ being able to sit in through college a college practice in high school and you can go back to your teammates and tell them what you see, what you saw and you kind of execute with your high school teammates. It's not as easy, but it's definitely fun. But um, but yeah, and that's probably the biggest thing with us. We didn't play much one on one, but he was like a

big brother. You mentioned he told ye like when you were playing, what work was he kind of using his lace, you know, his past. I don't know. I think he was just like because he felt like he knew that I had I guess, potential or talent, and he just told me to stay ready. He's like, you just never know what happens. You never know this this league. Guys get hurt sometimes, Like we don't want anybody get hurt, but guys get hurt. And you got to step right

in and step up. And there was games where, um, you know, some people have to sit out because low management, different things like that. And there's games where he would talk to me, is all right, look it's one of them games like let's go and I'll go right in and be myself. And when you have somebody like that, who's in the rotation, who's playing every night, who's at that time, was like a really really good six man for our team, and he was like a microwaves score.

When you have a guy like that who's older than they have the confidence to you, it builds confidence in yourself. So I've just been trying to do the same thing with everybody. I know, I'm younger than most, but trying to give them them confidence because the confidence that a lot of people don't have it themselves. If you gave them the confidence, then thinking they can perform a lot better. So that tyres Maxie talking last night about Shake Milton

and the years long relationship that they have. Matt, I know that we had covered it previously. The two of us have talked with both Tyris and with Shake about their relationship. But how cool is it now to see the two of them really bonding, playing together and being so successful with it so that this can become a much bigger story than it was perhaps when when Reas

joined the team a few years back. To me, it just says a lot about this mantra that Tyrese shared coming from Doc Rivers and the coaching staff on media day, the wee season thing and adapting to different roles throughout the season. So Tyrese is averaging about seventeen points per game off the bench in the last couple on this road trip back at the end of November when Maxi went down and Shake Milton was starting. For a nine

game period he averaged about twenty points per game. And then he goes back to a bench roll and can still make consecutive buckets at important junctures of games, like he did against the Blazers, finishing with ten points and had some key baskets in that game. And it's always good to hear guys talk about their friendships and how long it goes back. And I appreciate the story that

Rich Hoffman did right for the athletic. You gave him a shout out by the way, a fellow Fordham Ram like myself, so shout out to But Rich wrote in that story that the microwave nickname comes from Sixers athletic trainer Kevin Johnson, who said that Shake Milton reminds him of former Detroit Piston the microwave Vinnie Johnson. So a little bit more background on that, But Shakes a guy that's had different nicknames over the years. He was actually in the G League his rookie year, they called him

money Train. I'm not still sure of the origin of that. I have to do that that had to be Norbell Pell. Yeah, so around that time when they were calling Shake Money Train, they would a lot of his Bluecoats teammates when Shake was on a two way contract, would comment on Instagram with just like a money emoji and a train emoji. But then the microwave nickname. Tyrese Maxie has said it a lot, George Niang has said it this year, and of course his social media handles are Sniper Shake too.

So he's a guy with many nicknames. But I think Shake actually not his given first name Molik, So I love it, Matt, what a history of nicknames for Shake Milton. This is the content you come to Twitter spaces for. Yeah, there's a lot of different things you could refer to Shake Milton as, but him and Tyrese Maxie most recently both adapting to their roles when they have this theme of a wee season. I think they're great examples of

just that. Absolutely. I love how they chronicled and Matt, we talked about this last time, but when the guys interviewed one another in LA they sort of alluded to the fact that when Tyrese was a rookie, which we just heard him speak about, he didn't play a lot, and Shake went through a stretch that season where he also didn't play a whole lot, especially last year, didn't have an opportunity to play all that much because of injuries.

So the way that they have taught each other how to stay ready, and you of course point immediately back to both of them having thirty nine point performances during a period of time where they weren't expected to be as active as they were Shake of course versus the Clippers, and then tyrese later on when a lot of players were out in his rookie season against the Denver Nuggets. So there are a lot of parallels between the two of them, and it's been really cool to see them

bond and play together so well. Doc Rivers talked about them pregame, the way that they have very different demeanors. Tyres a lot more demonstrative. You can hear his voice pretty consistently at practice. Shake is a little bit more demure, a little bit less loud. He keeps himself very even keeled. But Doc said he appreciates the way that when they hit the court together, when they spend time together, they're

very very similar, even though they display differently. So a cool little subplot in this mid season stretch for the seventy six ers. Matt, I don't know if you're ready to move on, but if you have any other topics you want to cover this morning, let's dive in. I'm sorting through various questions and comments and I well, let's go back because some came in earlier today or even earlier in the week. Joseph said, Jojo unstoppable. James has

been sensational. You did mention that combination of players and how important they were. Again, so what have you seen from I mean, we've talked about it on recent episodes, but their pick and roll and you actually tweeted towards the end of the game. I don't want to miss quote it, but just how special Joel Embiid has been. I think it was right after that high arcing end of shot clock fadeaway that in yeah, that he's somehow made. So when they are on it is incredible to watch.

And they've been on a lot lately, and they're almost just getting started though, because when we think about how this season has gone along James missing time with injury, Joel missing time with injury last season, of course they only had less than half of the year to get to know one another, and each of them endured some bumps and bruises during that time as well. So cool, really cool, and of course Knockwood, but to see them have this healthy stretch together to start to get to

know one another. Shake Milton called James Harden a wizard with the basketball a few weeks ago, and then last night Tyrese Maxie said the same, discussing the way in the ways, the many ways in which James can find his teammates regardless of where they are. Tyrese's quote from last night, James is just a wizard with the ball. He knows exactly where guys are going to be. He and Joel have a connection. It took some time, but

when they're clicking, it's clicking. And sort of the trope that we've now heard from Matisse Thybal, from George Niang, from Tyrese, from Shake is that James is able to find them on the court, whether or not he's looking at them or for them. It almost takes time for these other players to adjust to understanding that James knows where they are, even if even if they don't think that he does. And that's been something really special to see.

Of course, we've talked a lot about turnovers this season, and sometimes those situations result in turnovers, but not because James isn't finding someone. It's because someone isn't expecting James to find them. And it's been really cool to see them sort of limit those turnovers, developed that chemistry, and last night it was certainly on full display. A couple more thoughts on the Portland game, because I want to emphasize the fact that the Trailblazers only scored thirty four

points in the first half. I know they clawed their way back into it, but an impressive start to the game for the Sixers at fifty seven to thirty four after two quarters. And there was a stretch early in the second quarter where the bench was reacting pretty demonstratively in favor of what was going on because Mantraz Harold had a big alley conversion from George Niang, Matis Thibel had a steal and a dunk, and he was smiling

on his way back down the court. So from your perspective at the game, it seemed like that was a great example of where this team chemistry is at right now. If the vibes are good when you think about the stretch over these last couple of months, starting with that Lakers game to kick off the seven game homestand at

home in which the Sixers won all seven. If I'm not mistaken, Matt Murphy, Yeah, since that first Lakers game and running us all the way up until last night against the Trailblazer, with the Sixers have only lost four games. They are developing Zach Low this morning, it's called it Philly's quiet dominance, and I think that that's sort of what this team is doing right, staying a little under the radar, still working things out, understanding that they can

get a lot better. I'll read a Doc Rivers quote on exactly that Doc said following the game. I think we're good, and I think we can be really really good, but there's a lot of work left to do. So if this is what the team looks like with a lot of work still to do, Matt, it's exciting, right, and you kind of want to be that quietly dominant team. You kind of want to fly under the radar a

little bit. We've talked about the Bucks in the Celtics all year long, but to be up in that company now, especially considering I know we've said it a lot, but especially considering the injuries early in the season. Very impressive stuff and a lot of exciting basketball is still to come. I'm getting some more questions, and there's a couple that I want to get to. But there's one from Wednesday that is from Nate who said Harden his first in assists per game and Embead his second in points per

game this season. The reason I want to get to this is because it's pretty easy answer. I think we've seen. We've seen Harden have his games and Embid have his games, and even great nights from both of them together. Do you think the success of both players each game are imperative to make a deep playoff run, or rather a whole team effort. I would say yes, it's imperative for

both of those guys to play really well. But to the point about the assist rankings and the points rankings, and Bead's right there with Luca don Chich and then Harden has to meet that seventy percent of games played threshold, but he would be above Tyrese Haliburton and everybody else, and through Thursday's games, and beat is only at he's at thirty three point six points per game, and don

chit's just thirty three point seven. So it's as close as it gets through Thursday, January nineteenth, and Justin said, hey, Matt, I want Joel Embiid and Lebron James to be All Star teammates. What do you think. I'm looking at the voting to see where everybody stands, and Joel Embiid on the latest returns not in the would not be in the starting lineup because of the three front court spots.

But Kevin Durant is injured right now, Jannis Durant, Tatum and Bead and then of course there's the draft, so you can look at different combinations of players and what would be fun together. But Justin wants to see Mbad and Lebron. I think that would be a good one right off the top. Do any other combinations of players jump out to you when they have the All Star Draft? I mean, look, you gotta you gotta hope that they can be teammates, but you also know it would be

fun to see them faced off. I mean, Matt, we're gonna, I'm sure talk about it down the road, but we got to make sure that Joel is a starter in that All Star Game. He's just been so dominant. He's a two time runner up for the MVP Award and continues to get better. I'm looking forward to your All Star coverage, but yeah, the two of them playing together in that situation could be really dangerous and just another

opportunity to continue developing this chemistry. Lebron's the Western Conference leading vote getter right now, over six and a half million votes as of the last or the third fan returns. But you really can't go wrong with any of these combinations. I'm just trying to think if any other combos jump out to me. I think Stephen Curry in an All Star Game is incredible to watch. He had a casual half court shot against the Celtics in the Warriors last game at the end of the first half, and he

like practices those and makes them all the time. Luca and John Morant I think will be must see it this year's All Star Game as well, so a couple of Western Conference guards. I think that if you paired up with Joel and the All Star Game would be fun duos to watch. I think any of those Curry, don Chich Morant with Joel Embiid would be great. I think jo I think Jaw with Joel could be awesome. I think Stephen James in a backcourt could be awesome. The two of them obviously have a ton of history,

and Matt, I'm looking forward to it very much. So that's coming up in exactly a month, the weekend of President's Day in February. Matt Murphy will be on the ground looking forward to your coverage at the All Star Game. Matt, just I know we do it a lot, but just remind everybody one more time where to vote, how to vote, and then we will look ahead before we wrap this one up, so you can't vote for too much longer.

But if you're listening live on Friday, January twentieth, right now, it's at three for one voting day, so get your votes in for Joel mb James Harden and all your other favorite Sixers because voting only runs for an extra day. It's on the NBA app, it's on NBA dot com and Sixers dot com. Slash All Star will point you in all of the right places and provide some resources as well about some of the Sixers candidacies. Kenny chimed in and said a combination of Luca and Embiid would

be unfair, referencing the All Star Game discussion. I agree with that the top two leading scorers in the NBA right now, Lauren, before we move forward. Wanona sent a question earlier that's more behind the scenes which we like to talk about, and Wanona asked, what is the Sixers pregame meal? And you've been around them a lot on the road, how that changes when they're at home and things like that, But any insight you can share regarding

that off the court, I think would be insightful. Well, so my understanding is that it's actually different from city to city, from arena to arena. I think that there are some repeat performances. They're amazing. I'm trying to think of where that even is amazing wings in Cleveland last night, I leaf there was Mexican food. It's different every It's

different every night. But I can try to start paying a little bit more attention to see I mean, obviously there's there's a lot of protein involved, some good carbohydrate options, but every guy sort of has their their own ritual to you know, coming into games at home, there's always a pregame meal, but some of the guys bring their own food or eat separately. Everybody has their own routine

and that's always interesting to observe. But it is cool to sort of see, especially when sometimes postgame local vendors restaurants in whatever city the team is in will supply the postgame meal, which is always cool to see get a little local immersion in whatever city that we're in. But yeah, there's not actually a consistent pregame meal. There are certain things that are always available. There's always fruit, there's always the same complement of beverages. There's always peanut

butter and jelly sandwiches. Try and think what else popcorn. We see Joel entire sating popcorn after the game a lot. But yeah, the main meal component varies from game to game. Thank you for sharing that. I'm looking forward to the final game of this road trip because the Sacramento Kings are all the way up to third in the Western Conference for the first time in a long time if they've been that high in the standings at this point

of an NBA season. So Saturday night, ten pm Eastern NBC Sports Philadelphia Plus and ninety seven five The Fanatic again your ways to watch and listen to this Sixers Kings game. They're twenty five and eighteen. Again, the Sixers are twenty nine and sixteen, and the Kings have a winning streak of their own, So two teams that are really trending in the right direction could be the best game of the entire trip to watch. Hopefully it's a close contest, and of course, hopefully the Sixers can keep

it rolling. If you're a basketball nerd like me, the Kings are actually hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder this evening and you can do some game prep watch, check out

what there is to watch for. The Sixers, for the first time in a long time, will be the more well rested team in that matchup tomorrow, with an off night this evening in Sacramento, and then taking on, like you said, an exciting Sacramento Kings team tomorrow, before heading back home for a four game homestand featuring the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday, the Denver Nuggets on Saturday, and then a two game set with the Orlando Magic next week

on Monday and Wednesday. The team will hit the road again afterwards to go to San Antonio, New York, and Boston and Matt, we will hope, hope, hope, hope to be with you guys quite a bit following a plethora of those games, if not all of them. Yes, I there's so many different places to see people's comments that I'm of course listening to you at the same time,

but also making sure we don't miss anyone. And Jeannie said a little bit ago and here I love how Tyrese comes off the bench firing on all cylinders five fire emojis. And then Jeannie said, oh, this was about the drawing that I did pin to the space. Her drawing was amazing with some clapping emojis. So I just

want to make sure we didn't forget anyone. But in regard to these winning streaks that both the Sixers and the Kings are on, this is not to diminish anything the Kings have done this year, but their winning streak, it's not the same caliber of streak that the Sixers have going right now because they played some teams that are young and kind of going through it this season's and the fact that they play OKC, who's not going to be any easy out in the front end of

a doubleheader or a back to back, Rather that bodes well for the Sixers in my opinion. But their five game winning streak is over Orlando, Houston, Houston, San Antonio, and then the Lakers, which they did win without Sabonis, and this will be the final meeting between the Sixers and the Kings and the regular season. The Sixers won by twenty back in December, and that was when they had that eighty point first half. So the Sixers obviously

on the road. It's never easy to win in the NBA, but getting the Kings coming off a game the night before could be a big advantage. I look forward to watching that one, Matt. I look forward to hopefully recapping it with you. Do you have any final words for the Space's audience, for the Insiders audience before we hop off, Unless there's anything that I completely missed, I apologize if I do, but you saw as evidence by going back

to a question from Wednesday. Sometimes we can circle back to things, so feel free to send us questions whenever. I think. That's all I had for this one, other than maybe an Eagle shout out, because right before that King's game against the Sixers will be the Eagles and the Giants in the playoffs. In Philadelphia. So at an obligatory go Birds, and they're facing the Giants who have a quarterback from where you went to school, Duke University,

Daniel Jones. Were you guys in school together? We were, We overlapped towards the end of my tenure there. So I'm still reading for the Birds in this one. I've really adopted Philly. I certainly adopted the Eagles as my football team. So looking forward to that one, Matt, and hopefully we can recap two big Philadelphia wins on Sunday. Is Duke a football school? No? Yes, sort of? I

don't know. Yeah, I mean, look, it was. It was a lot of fun to work with that football team in all seriousness while I was there under David Cutcliffe. He created a really cool environment and it was special to be a small part of that. And then obviously the basketball there is great, So you know, I would I would give it. I would give it a football you at a basketball school. I wasn't trying to steer you in any direction. Everyone should know we're all about

the Eagles in this matchup against the Giants. Yeah, so go Birds, Ghost Sixers, and we will talk with everyone again soon. Lauren Rosen, thanks so much. I know you've been battling the time zones to join us, so come on. You guys have been flexible with me, so I get no credit. I really appreciate you, and I appreciate everybody for listening. Yeah, thank you everyone, and we'll be back soon. Thanks a lot. See Yeah