Sixers’ Smith soars in Summer League opener
him the hospital and caused severe weight loss. To see him get up and jam a pair of alley-oops was a refreshing sight.
Smith ended up with 10 points on 5-for-8 shooting and finished a team-high plus-11.
Marial Shayok, the team’s second-round pick out of Iowa State, scored 19 points and hit a couple of clutch shots in the fourth quarter to stem the tide as the Bucks erased almost all of a 17-point deficit.
First-round pick Matisse Thybulle scored seven points on 2-for-6 shooting, although he showcased some of the defense that enticed the Sixers to trade up and select him at No. 20 overall. Thybulle notched four steals.
Shake Milton added 14 points and seven assists. He was just 2-for-14 from the floor, but he connected on 11 of his 13 free throw attempts.
The Sixers upgraded Milton, a second-round pick out of SMU last season, from a two-way contract to a four-year deal and will give him a long look as a point guard during Summer League.
The team agreed to a one-year deal with free agent point guard Raul Neto earlier this week, but it’s still short on ball handlers behind Ben Simmons.
Milton played 26 minutes and had seven assists against four turnovers.
He had a pair of bad giveaways in the final two minutes, including one in the final 20 seconds after he was triple-teamed off an inbound catch.
The Sixers, though, survived after the Bucks rushed down at the other end of the court but also turned the ball over. A threequarter-court heave at the buzzer clanged off the front of the rim.