The fifth installment of the Philly Sports Stat of the Week features the Philadelphia 76ers. Shocker, right? Is it too obvious that I prefer the Sixers over all the Philly sports? Despite the Philadelphia Eagles moving on to 9-1 this past Sunday, November 20th against the Indianapolis Colts, the Sixers had a pretty busy week with the Thanksgiving holiday jammed in. The Philly Sports Stat of the Week is 20 offensive rebounds for the Philadelphia 76ers against the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday, November 22nd.

If you read this site you know that the game was highly publicized. It was dubbed ‘The Ben Simmons Return Game’. Media outlets from a national and local level were promoting this matchup with this storyline like they were trying to impress Dana White or Vince McMahon. The Sixers took the victory home from what was supposed to be a hostile environment mainly based on one thing, their grit.

Hustle is what was the foundation of the win. On paper, the Nets were supposed to win. Brooklyn came into the game at full strength featuring the triplet of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Ben Simmons. Fanduel Sportsbook favored Brooklyn at -8.

Everyone is not naive either. Both sides of the competition knew the narrative of the game. Sixers and Nets fans knew the narrative of the game. The type of conversation that whirls up sports radio phone lines, text message inboxes, and Twitter mentions. Simmons even built it up throughout the day by posing with longtime critic and media member, Howard Eskin for his Instagram story.

The 20 offensive rebounds by the Sixers confirm two things about the game. One, the short-handed Sixers knew that they have to step up because there is no one left. Two, the Nets felt they could overlook the Sixers because talent usually wins. The Sixers showed that the talented ones needed to step up their intensity. 

The Sixers, with nobody taller than 6’9 and no vertically gifted athletes, outrebounded a team that had effectively viewed this as a big game for them. The Sixers worked hard on the defensive and offensive glass. Brooklyn isn’t particularly big either and they like to shoot a lot of threes because of their up-tempo type offense. That meant chasing long rebounds off of three-pointers for the Sixers. 

Paul Reed, more affectionately known as ‘Bball Paul’, lead the way for the rebounding raucous pulling down ten of those bad boys. PJ Tucker (5), Tobias Harris 6), De’Anthony Melton (4), Shake Milton (6). Montrezl Harrell (7), Furkan Korkmaz (4), and Georges Niang (5) gang rebounded to help out Reed’s efforts. An incredibly endearing game for fans of the team. If there is anything that fans can always appreciate is effort. The skill of rebounding the ball when being smaller than the competition is accentuated by effort.

The Philadelphia 76ers did just that on Tuesday night. The spread wound up being flipped from what Vegas said. The Sixers came out the victors in a guts-for-the-glory type of game. Otherwise known here as, ‘The Hustle Game’.