Milton comes up big in win over Cavs
To get to where the Sixers want to go, they’re going to need the occasional big game from bench players like Shake Milton.
The 6-5 guard was lethal almost every time he touched the ball Thursday, scoring 27 points in 27 minutes to spark the road-weary Sixers to a 114-94 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
With Tobias Harris in foul trouble, Ben Simmons unable to finish at the basket and Joel Embiid not slated to play until the weekend, Milton was the difference between completing a six-game road trip with a winning record instead of a three-game losing streak.
Milton connected on 10 of 14 shots from the field, including 5 of 7 beyond the arc. Dwight Howard added 18 points and 15 boards.
“Early in the year if Ben or Joel missed a game we were
losing,” coach Doc Rivers said. “You could just feel it. Now, they don’t even look, they don’t care, they’re just going to win. So, our mindset, absolutely has had an adjustment. And it’s been great to watch.”
Though it’s still early, the Sixers (33-15) stayed on the heels of the Eastern Conference leading Brooklyn Nets (34-15), who romped over Charlotte.
“To have the bench come
in and sustain the lead and push it up is great,” said Harris, who had 12 points in 15 minutes. “Tonight, was a great testament to being able to bounce back and not fall victim to fatigue.”
The Sixers expect Embiid back in the lineup Saturday after sitting out 10 games with a bone bruise on his knee. They were 7-3 without the man widely considered the frontrunner to win MVP.
“One thing he said when he went out was ‘hold down the top spot for me,’” Harris said. “I told him we’d do our best. And as a group we also wanted to figure out our identity playing without him. If you look at this road trip, you look at the games there were a lot of guys who were able to step up with him being out. And we know as a team we have a style of play, we have a system and it has worked all year. We had to just stick to the script and have guys step up and we were able to do that.”
Simmons was just 2-for10 from the field for seven points in 24 minutes against the Cavaliers, who were one win from sweeping the Sixers. But Big Ben committed just two turnovers, the least in the past six games while contributing 13 rebounds and five assists.
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Reserve center Vincent Poirier criticized Rivers in LeParisien for failing to give him a phone call, while contacting others in the three-team deal the Sixers made to acquire guard George Hill.
Poirier, Tony Bradley, Terrance Ferguson and a series of second-round picks were part of the three-team deal with the Thunder and the Knicks. The Knicks wound up cutting Poirier and Ferguson.
“The coach didn’t even send me a message although I know he sent others,” Poirier said through Euro Hoops. “I’m not asking him to give me compliments but just a message to wish me good luck. We are not commodities. We are still human beings. It’s a minimum of sending a message, to say that the situation was complicated but thank you for your professionalism. A bogus thing, even if he doesn’t really mean it.”
Rivers wouldn’t give the unemployed Poirier the satisfaction of a counterpoint.
“I don’t get involved in that crap,” Rivers said. “Vince and I have talked. That kind of talk, all that kind of stuff that’s for, I guess, newspapers. I don’t get involved in that.”
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NOTES » The Sixers had won 10 of 11 games going into the March 16 NBA trade deadline, a handful of those games without Embiid. Their victory in Cleveland was their first in three tries since the trade deadline. … Howard burst into the post-game Zoom meeting singing “Bend your knees,” which was apropos in that the Sixers worked hard before breaking the game open. “The takeaways on this road trip,” Howard said of the six-game, 12day tour “is we really got a chance to bond. Guys are believing that we really have an opportunity to win.”