Sixers showing support for one another, which is ‘super-contagious’

The 76ers will tell you they give one another unconditional support.

That was evident when they viewed film of their Oct. 28 victory over the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena. In the first meaningful minutes of the season, Matisse Thybulle buried two huge three-pointers early in the game.

The film was edited to show Shake Milton’s reaction to his shots from the bench.

“He was the first one screaming and excited,” Thybulle said. “And I think it’s just being that for each other. And I think that kind of stuff is super-contagious.”

The thing was, at that point, Milton was mostly relegated to end-of-the-bench duties.

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The only action he saw during the first five games was logging 6 minutes, 13 seconds against the Indiana Pacers on Oct. 24.

He did finish with two points and an assist in nine minutes against the Raptors two nights later. But his most enjoyable moment came from cheering on Thybulle.

This is the type of culture that coach Doc Rivers is trying to build with the Sixers. That’s why he made a point to highlight it during the film session.

Thybulle passed up a three-pointer on his first shot opportunity before getting his shot blocked on his first attempt. Then he drained threes on his second and third attempts.

“We showed the first reaction when he didn’t shoot the ball,” Rivers said, “and Shake stood up and was like screaming at him. So it’s just good stuff. Good for players to see them supporting each other.”

There were three clips in a row of the bench’s reaction to Thybulle in three-point situations. For him, it was an awesome thing for a coach and player to see everyone chuckling and enjoying the video.

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“Those are things that often go unnoticed or not rewarded ... especially a player at the point [when] Shake wasn’t playing and all you can do is cheer your teammates on,” Thybulle said. “To be highlighted as doing that — and that’s something that’s really hard to do when you are in a place that you necessarily don’t want to be — I think that’s a great thing to see and a great leadership form.”

That support has been present since the start of training camp in South Carolina in September.

Thybulle and Danuel House are competing for the same reserve three-and-D minutes. But House, an offseason acquisition, pulled Thybulle aside one day to say, “Hey, let’s go shoot together.”

Then the conversation turned to House telling Thybulle that the Sixers will need his shooting in the postseason and that he should shoot confidently.

“To have a guy that is supposed to be my mortal enemy be the one that [tells] me … ‘We’re going to do this together’ was like an awesome experience,” Thybulle said. “And I think it played a lot into our relationship now. I think it played a lot into our team in general, how we all related to each other.”

Joel Embiid played in Monday’s game against the Phoenix Suns at the Wells Fargo Center after being sidelined the last three games with the flu.

The All-Star center was listed as questionable for the game as of Monday afternoon. Meanwhile, House (flu) missed his second consecutive game. The Suns were without Cameron Johnson (right meniscus tear), Ish Wainright (personal reason), and Duane Washington (personal reason).

Embiid also sat out the Oct. 28 victory against Toronto as he rested his right knee. He returned the next night and scored a game-high 25 points to lead the Sixers to a victory over the Chicago Bulls. However, he missed the games against the Washington Wizards on Oct. 31 and Wednesday before also sitting out Friday’s loss to the New York Knicks.

The 7-foot-2, 280-pounder was averaging 27.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game heading into the matchup with the Suns.