The Philadelphia 76ers were left in a tough position on Thursday night when they only had one true center on their roster following the trade they made to acquire George Hill earlier in the day.
The team shipped out Tony Bradley and Vincent Poirier in the deal which, combined with the injury to Joel Embiid, left the Sixers with just Dwight Howard to man the middle. It was a tough situation, to begin with, but it then got worse when the game started.
Howard got into a shoving match with Los Angeles Lakers big man Montrezl Harrell and the two of them went back-and-forth throughout the first quarter and Howard picked up a first tech in the quarter. During the quarter break, Howard then bumped into Harrell, and he was then ejected with a second technical leaving the Sixers with no true centers for the rest of the game.
“I just thought it was very selfish play,” said coach Doc Rivers. “You got one tech. You can’t get another one. We just have to have better discipline.”
Dwight Howard was just ejected because of this…
What on earth?!?! pic.twitter.com/2EA90dBkDG
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) March 26, 2021
It left the Sixers having to roll with Mike Scott and rookie Paul Reed to man the center position the rest of the night which made it tough for both of them.
“I know there’s a lot of emotion, but we had one center on our team and he got thrown out,” said Rivers. “I was not very happy with that one. I know it’s an emotional game, but he’s a veteran. We got to have better discipline.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
