During the third quarter of Friday night’s Philadelphia 76ers-Melbourne United game, Larry Kestelman — who owns the NBL in Australia — was on air talking to Marc Zumoff and Alaa Abdelnaby. He said their primary goal was to compete hard against the best competition in the world.
For the most part, that’s what happened. United hung around at times and played physical defense, despite obvious physical limitations. There was nobody capable of checking Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons one-on-one, but they certainly tried.
In the end, however, the Sixers made swift work of the NBL’s reigning champs.