Philadelphia 76ers: 3 takeaways from 2018-19 season opener

3. The Sixers need to find their bench

When head coach Brett Brown announced he’d be bringing J.J. Redick off the bench and starting Markelle Fultz, not many blinked an eye. The idea of Redick being instant offense off the bench as a reserve was too hard to pass up. Only in his first appearance off the bench, Redick had quite a rough outing, going 7-of-17 from the floor and 2-of-8 from 3-point range, finishing with 16 points in 28 minutes of action.

Redick logged the most minutes of any reserve for Philadelphia and was the only other player other Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid to score in double figures. Boston’s second unit outscored the Sixers bench 44-26 on Tuesday night.

Again, it’s one game, but the Sixers will need to find a quicker alternative if they hope to be a deep team in the East. One missing piece right now is Wilson Chandler. He’s dealing with an injury that’s held him out since the start of preseason.

With him missing in the rotation, the Sixers will need to test their depth in the early going, especially if they struggle as they did against the Celtics. There’s T.J. McConnell and Furkan Korkmaz in the backcourt if he’s not working out. McConnell turned in four points and three assists in 21 minutes of action last night during a key run for Philadelphia.