On a night where Joel Embiid scores 37 points, Sixers’ Matisse Thybulle earns high praise from Doc Rivers

His star center provided another MVP-like performance, every one of his starters had a plus-16 rating or better yet 76ers coach Doc Rivers cited the importance of a reserve who scored two points in more than 21 minutes during the Sixers 118-94 win over the host Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday.

Rivers raved about the play of Matisse Thybulle, who besides scoring the two points, had three steals and two blocked shots, continuing a season in which he has been a defensive presence. On a night when Joel Embiid had 37 points and 11 rebounds in just three quarters, it was Thybulle, who earned his coach’s highest post-game praise.

“He had 12 deflections by himself in the one quater,” Rivers said of Thybulle. “And Joel was amazing, but if I was giving out a game ball, it probably would be Matisse, or (maybe) split it with those two because I thought he was a difference maker, I thought he frustrated (Ricky) Rubio and I thought he was phenomenal on D’Angelo Russell.”

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Thybulle had a plus-13 rating and blocked a shot by Rubio and Russell.

“He is just a hell of a defender,” Rivers said. “He’s got his legs under him now, he knows what we expect of him and he’s been terrific.”

Thybulle injured his ankle during training camp and played just 17 seconds in the Sixers opening 113-107 win over the Washington Wizards.

By the fourth game he finally reached double-figures in minutes and he has progressively played more since, minus three games that he missed due to health and safety protocols.

Rivers said Thybulle’s limited time early in the season had everything to do with the fact that he missed a good portion of training camp with the ankle injury.

“We are a deep team, he understood he missed camp for the most part, we assured him minutes would come, but we also told him we were not going to give them to him,” Rivers said. “If he wants them, go get them and he did that and that’s great.”

In 17 games for the Sixers (14-6), Thybulle is averaging 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocked shots in 15.6 minutes. Next up is Sunday’s game at Indiana against the 11-8 Pacers.

Entering the weekend, Thybulle was leading the NBA in steals per 100 possessions, averaging 4.1, according to basketball-reference.com. Thybulle was 30th in the NBA in blocked shots per 100 possession with 2.1.

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Thybulle was the 20th pick of the 2019 NBA draft, whose rights were acquired from the Boston Celtics on a draft night trade. He became an immediate rotation player and averaged 19.8 minutes. Thybulle finished second in the NBA with 3.5 steals per 100 possessions.

“He’s maturing a lot and overall defensively he has gotten a lot better,” point guard Ben Simmons said of Thybulle. “He picks and chooses when he is going to take more riskier plays with steals and things like that, but you saw tonight he was all-in on Rubio, getting a lot of deflections and making it tough all over the floor and he is going to be a huge part of this team.”

Tobias Harris expanded on Simmons’ comments.

“Tonight you just saw an exhibition of how effective he is on the ball,” Harris said. “He gets his hands on a lot of loose basketballs on the floor, his hustle, his length out there, so you can put him on anybody pretty much one through five and he’s able to hold his own.”

The 6-foot-5 Thybulle has struggled with his offense, averaging 2.8 points and shooting 22.9% from three-point range. If he improves offensively, it is possible his minutes could increase. For now, he’s happy to be part of the rotation.

“If I’m out there on the court that means that I’m doing something to help us get the W,” Thybulle said after Friday’s shootaround. “I am just trying to keep doing that.”