On March 5, Beijing time, the 76ers sat at their home court to usher in a showdown with the Cavaliers, in the first quarter the 76ers dug a big pit for themselves to fall behind by 13 points, at most the backwardness once came to 21 points, seeing that the balance of victory has moved closer to the Cavaliers, but in the second half the 76ers launched a crazy counterattack frenzy, and finally successfully reversed the Cavaliers 125-119, expanding their winning streak to the fifth game.
A total of six players from the 76ers scored in double figures, and the highest score on the bench was George Niang, who just joined the team this year, who played 23 minutes off the bench, scoring 17 points and 2 rebounds on 5-of-8 three-pointers, and the plus-minus value reached the team's second-highest +13. After the game, 76ers coach Rivers also praised Niang's performance, saying harden and Niang had adapted perfectly to each other on the offensive end: "Niang is not a novice, he knows what he is doing. ”
The time goes back to the 18th of last month, when the 76ers narrowly won the Bucks by 3 points on the road, and Harden, who had just been traded by the Nets to the 76ers, did not wear a brace because of a hamstring injury, but he still supervised the game with the team and yelled at Niang on the sidelines: "You should shoot 10 three-pointers, this is what you should do." In that game, Niang just shot 10 three-pointers (5 hits), cut 18 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists, and helped the team successfully beat the defending champion.
Since that game was directed by Harden, Niang also boldly began to cast cold arrows on the outside, during which he averaged 10 points per game, three-point shots per game, shooting 50% of the shooting rate, and the plus-minus of +6.4 was also the highest on the team besides the starting Harden, Embiid, Maxi and Harris. As a 2-meter 01 forward swingman, Niang joined the Jazz as early as the 17-18 season, showing his best 3D attributes, excellent defensive ability at the same time, and a beautiful three-point shooting, and this season with a 2-year 6.77 million affordable price to join the 76ers, under the especially focused on defense of the old Rivers, Niang also played the best performance of his career.
As of now, Niang can average 9.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game, and the three shooting rates have reached 43.6%, 40.4% and 86.3% respectively, which can be said to be the most accurate "outside thigh" on the bench of the 76ers. In fact, role players like Niang, as long as they can get a top point guard who is willing to share the ball, will definitely be the perfect puzzle for the team to impact the championship, during the previous period of playing for the Jazz, although the team has Conley, the veteran point guard, but the overall strength of the latter is indeed a big difference from Harden, and this time can join forces with Harden, Niang is also full of praise for him, in a recent interview with the media, he said: "He is a basketball expert, the attention to detail is incredible, he is really careful in training, It helps all of us. ”
At present, Niang's average of 9.3 points is temporarily ranked second on the 76ers bench, and it is only a slight gap of 0.2 points from Milton's 9.5 points, but considering that the latter's three-point shooting rate this season is only 29.3%, It is not impossible for Niang, who can shoot well, if he can maintain this momentum and successfully surpass Milton later, becoming the "number one bench bandit" of the 76ers. If he can continue to play the role of cold-blooded killer on the outside in the playoffs, the 76ers may really be expected to break out of the East this season.