Sophia Michaels
The Sixers losing to the Clippers on Sunday in L.A. came as little surprise, as the Clippers have looked excellent at full strength this season and Philly, one of the worst road teams in the NBA, was without Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.
That it was a highly competitive (and high scoring) 136-130 Clippers win was a bit of a surprise, and one of the main reasons for Philly hanging around with the Clippers throughout the afternoon was the incredible play of second year point guard Shake Milton. The former SMU product has been thrust into a much larger role than expected with the injury to Ben Simmons and the generally shaky (no pun intended) guard production from the rest of the Sixers roster.
Against the Clippers on Sunday, Milton scored a career-high 39 points — the most points he’s had in a game at any level since high school — on 14-of-20 shooting including a 7-of-9 performance from behind the three-point line.
Milton had 26 of his points in the first half on a near perfect shooting effort, and it wasn’t just heaving looks from deep, as he put the ball on the deck and carved up what is supposed to be a very good defensive backcourt in L.A.
The headliner of his performance was the shooting, as his first seven makes on seven attempts gave him a new NBA record with 14 consecutive made threes, a streak that stretched back three games. He would finally miss, but for a Sixers team that’s been so desperate for three-point shooting that before the injuries to Simmons and Embiid they had already moved Al Horford out of the starting lineup to get the range of Furkan Korkmaz in, it’s a major development to see him so comfortable out there.
The loss was expected and for a team like the Sixers they’ll never say there are moral victories, but this recent stretch without Simmons has — pending his overall health and eventual return — possibly served as a blessing in disguise because they are at once learning what they have in Milton as a contributor and also getting him much needed experience in big time games and settings. Now, whether Milton can continue to shoot 45 percent from three-point range remains to be seen (and seems unlikely), but simply having another plus-shooter who is also a capable ball-handler and creator is massive for the Sixers.
The lack of creativity on the perimeter this season beyond Simmons has been wildly apparent, and also wasn’t a huge surprise given their offseason and how much investment they put into the frontcourt. They desperately needed someone like Milton to emerge, and he’s doing so at the perfect time for Philadelphia, as they look to stem the tide with their All-Stars out while also figuring out who can contribute for them come playoff time. That Milton appears to be a player that can and that they can lean on for major minutes if forced to is a terrific development for this Sixers team, which hasn’t had much go right this season.
Written by: Uproxx
