Thybulle’s recent surge in playing time resulting in Sixers’ success
Matisse Thybulle had arguably one of the best games of his young career Monday night as the Philadelphia 76ers rolled over the Utah Jazz 103-94. Thybulle put up nine points on 3/3 shooting from beyond the arc which helped lead the Sixers to their 10th straight home win to start the season. With the win, the Sixers became the sixth team in NBA history to start 10-0 or better at home in consecutive seasons.
Thybulle has had a large part to do with this team’s success at home as he has a +/- of +33 when playing on his home court (+/- of -50 when playing on the road).
On Monday, Matisse recorded his best +/- of the season at +13 on a season-high of 26 minutes of action. In those minutes, Matisse recorded his fourth three-steal game of the year to go along with seven deflections. He also had a sweet alley-oop to Ben Simmons, which brought everyone in the Wells Fargo Center to their feet. As former ESPN’s Micah Adams pointed out, Thybulle now has the same number of deflections as Kawhi Leonard, in 155 fewer minutes.
Thybulle’s recent surge shouldn’t come as a surprise as the Sixers are 14-1 in games where he’s played at least 12 minutes. However, we are finally seeing just how impactful his game is when the rookie gets stable minutes. Over the last four games, the Washington product has averaged 22 minutes per game, similar to what he saw in the first five games of the season. Just like that undefeated start, the Sixers are 4-0 in those last four games.
It’s clear to see that there is some correlation between Thybulle getting solid minutes and the Sixers winning.
I never really understood why Brett Brown suddenly cut into Thybulle’s minutes after the hot start and started favoring Furkan Korkmaz over him. I get that there are times when game script requires different offensive schemes and a shooter is needed on the court, but Matisse has been fairly efficient from three, knocking down 43.2 percent of his shots from long range.
Also, since November 23rd (Thybulle’s first game of 20 plus minutes since October 30th), the Sixers are first in the NBA in defensive rating at 99.3, showing his immense impact on this team’s defensive identity.
Hopefully there is a time when Thybulle does know how much he’s going to play, as he has proven he should continue to have an expanded role on this team moving forward.
