The 76ers took a 3-2 lead in their series with the Celtics last night, headlined by 33 points from Joel Embiid and 30 from Tyrese Maxey. Meanwhile, in 33-plus minutes on the court, P.J. Tucker scored three points, on 1-of-4 shooting.
That’s normal stuff. Tucker is averaging 3.6 points per game in this year’s playoffs, and he’s played at least 21:21 (he rested for a lot of the Game 2 blowout in Boston) in all nine of the 76ers’ games. Not a single time has he been a double-figure scorer.
Who holds the record for such a thing? Going with the next-lowest round number, the most single-digit scoring games by a player logging at least 20 minutes in the playoffs is … wait for it … P.J. Tucker of the 2020-21 champion Milwaukee Bucks.
The Sixers aren’t guaranteed 11 more playoff games for Tucker to try to tie his own record, and in fact they may not want 11 more — if they just win the next nine, they’ll be NBA champs.
If that does happen, Tucker can at least tie the Philadelphia team record, set in the 2001 Finals run by Tyrone Hill. That tied the NBA record at the time, 18 games of 20-plus minutes and single-digit points, set by Dennis Rodman with the 1998 Bulls. It’s subsequently also been matched by Bruce Bowen with the 2005 Spurs.
On the all-time list, Tucker tied Bill Cartwright for 13th place last night with his 64th career postseason game playing at least 20 minutes and not cracking 10 points. Up next are Caldwell Jones and Michael Cooper in an 11th-place tie at 65, with the top 10 in reach if the Sixers keep rolling.
The top 10?
Robert Horry 113
Derek Fisher 106
Rodman 99
Bowen 98
Paul Silas 84
Danny Green, Andre Iguodala, Kendrick Perkins, and Ben Wallace 78
Dale Davis 71
It’s all the more impressive when you consider that Tucker didn’t make the playoffs until he was in his 30s with the Raptors, having previously played in Israel, Ukraine, Greece, Italy, Germany, and Phoenix. As recently as 2019, he averaged 11.4 points per game in the playoffs with the Rockets.
Tucker also is now one win away from going to a third straight Eastern Conference finals with a third different team.
We Can Pod It Out 108: All You Need Is Love