Nick Nurse Explains Starting Lineup Changes vs. Hornets

When the Philadelphia 76ers took to the court on Friday night against the Charlotte Hornets, their starting lineup consisted of Tyrese Maxey, Tobias Harris, and Buddy Hield, who are all constant features in it, however to round out the starting five was Mo Bamba and Kyle Lowry.

Following their 121-114 win over the Hornets, Sixers' head coach Nick Nurse explained the two changes to the starting lineup, explaining that size played a huge role in Bamba's start.

"Mo for Paul, I just thought they kind of have one center, with size and then they come in and they go pretty small," explained Nurse, "I just thought that would be a better matchup for us..."

Friday night was the first time in a month that Reed was not named in the starting lineup, having occupied the starter status since Joel Embiid got injured against the Golden State Warriors earlier on in the season.

While the decision to start Bamba was a predetermined one, the same could be said for Lowry's start, with the original plan being to see how Kelly Oubre Jr, who sat out of the match due to soreness in his right shoulder, would do with a different rotation than that he usually plays with.

"I was just really the plan was to try to invigorate Kelly off the bench was really what was going to do it," said Nurse, "I just kind of wanted to see him with that group that maybe could feature him a little bit more and then he ended up not playing, so we were kind of there anyway so."

Lowry made a good case for why he should continue to be chosen as a starter, putting up 15 points on 55 percent shooting, while showing that despite being in the back nine of his career, he can still play make, coming up with ten assists.

While Lowry had an impressive night on the offensive end, Bamba made his case for a starting role elsewhere, managing to block two shots and collect eight rebounds.

This output caught the eye of Nurse, who was pleased with his work on the defensive side of things.

"Well, we started great, especially defensively, right?" stated Nurse, "I think we were really moving and we blocked a few shots, Mo was blocking a few shots, protecting the rim..."

Despite the starting lineup working overall as a strong core on the offensive end, the same couldn't be said for some of the bench rotations, who struggled at separate points.

Nurse attributed some of these struggles to the size of the lineup put out, as well as the timing of the rotations.

"We played good enough defense probably to have about a 12-point lead..." explained the Sixers' head coach, "then we went to a super small lineup that was kind of, wrongly timed a bit when they came back really big and that lineup wasn't that great to us too."

The Sixers head coach was quick to admit that he is still experimenting with different lineups and rotations, which given the current injury crisis, could help out the Eastern Conference contenders.

"Again, this is a lot of work in progress stuff of what we're trying to get to," closed Nurse.