Welcome to "One Play!" Throughout the 2020-21 NBA season, our NBA.com Staff will break down certain possessions from certain games and peel back the curtains to reveal its bigger meaning.
Today, Philadelphia 76ers guard Matisse Thybulle takes the spotlight.
For years, the best defender in Australian basketball was Damian Martin. Martin put the clamps on many unsuspecting players in the NBL, leading to six Defensive Player of the Year awards in his 11-year pro career.
Now retired, Martin leaves a hole that second-year NBA guard Matisse Thybulle can fill for the National Team.
Thybulle, a dual-citizen who lived in Sydney for seven years, is a new addition to the Boomers' 24-man roster. With him potentially surrounded by other smart defenders in Patty Mills, Joe Ingles and Ben Simmons, Australia could field their best defensive team of all-time and get one step close to that elusive podium finish in Japan.
Here's a snapshot into what makes the second-year guard so special on the defensive end of the floor.
Context: Trailing the Indiana Pacers by 13 points entering the fourth quarter, the 76ers were in desperate need of something to get them going.
That something turned out to be Thybulle.
The second-year guard scored only five points in the final period, but he was everywhere defensively, coming up with four steals and two blocks in the fourth quarter alone. It helped the 76ers limit the Pacers to 15 points on 5-for-17 shooting from the field, paving the way for them to mount a double-digit comeback and come away with their first Joel Embiid-less win of the season.
Let's take a closer look at one of the stops Thybulle came up with in that fourth quarter before getting to why it matters.
The play:
Breakdown: After watching the Pacers light up their man-to-man defence for three quarters, the 76ers go to a zone defence for the fourth quarter.
At the top of the zone on this possession are Thybulle and Tyrese Maxey. On the bottom, Furkan Korkmaz, Tobias Harris and Dwight Howard.
With 15 seconds remaining on the shot clock, the 76ers find themselves in a little bit of a pickle. Maxey, Harris and Howard are in the same vicinity as T.J. McConnell and Domantas Sabonis on the strongside, leaving Thybulle and Korkmaz to cover for Malcolm Brogdon, Jeremy Lamb and Doug McDermott on the weakside.
McConnell runs a pick-and-roll with Sabonis, which draws Maxey, Harris and Howard even closer together. The three of them are able to keep McConnell out of the paint but with Korkmaz being glued to McDermott underneath the basket, McConnell notices that the right wing is wide open, courtesy of a well-timed screen from Lamb on Thybulle.
McConnell skips a pass to Brogdon that Thybulle tries to pick off but comes up short.
That would've been the beginning of the end for most players ... but Thybulle isn't like most players.
Instead of giving up on the play, Thybulle immediately runs out at Brogdon on the 3-point line and uses his 6-foot-11 wingspan to block Brogdon's shot. According to PBP Stats, it's the sixth 3-pointer Thybulle has blocked this season, ranking him behind only Chris Boucher (10) and Jerami Grant (9) for most in the league.
Thybulle's block leads to a layup for Harris, cutting Indiana's lead to single digits.
MORE: Thybulle among Boomers' 24-man squad for Olympics
Why it matters: There are a couple of reasons.
One, Thybulle is already one of the most disruptive defenders in the NBA.
In addition to swatting 3-pointers at a rate only Boucher and Grant can beat, Thybulle is averaging the 12th-most steals (1.6) and the 17th-most deflections (2.9) on the season despite playing only 16.1 minutes per game. When it comes to getting stops, few perimeter players do it as well as Thybulle.
Two, Thybulle is not only putting himself in a position to be one of Philadelphia's go-to defenders, but he's putting himself in a prime position to be the defensive stopper for the Boomers should the Olympics happen later this year.
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