Philadelphia 76ers: Top 10 moments of 2018

7. Jimmy Butler saves the day (twice)

Among other things, a true closer is something this Sixers team has lacked for the last 5+ years. I would argue the last real closer this team had was Andre Iguodala, which was better than nothing.

Regardless, all good teams have someone who they can confidently hand the ball to in crunch time. Portland has Damian Lillard, Boston has Kyrie, Toronto has Kawhi, Golden State technically has three such guys, etc.

The same really couldn’t be said about the Sixers.

The acquisition of Jimmy Butler sure changed that.

Though he had struggled of late upon arriving in Philly when it came to clutch shots (he had missed his previous eleven game-winners), Butler’s knack for hitting late-game shots is undeniable. And that was put to the test almost right away in his third game as a Sixer against the Charlotte Hornets.

In a game in which Kemba Walker dropped 60 points for Charlotte and overtime was required to decide the game, Jimmy G. Buckets (the G stands for Gets) had a chance to call game. Following an incredible block and save on a Kemba drive and a Sixers timeout, with 11 seconds on the clock and Dwayne Bacon guarding him, Jimmy did this:

Jimmy G stepped up. Also, that had to have been one of Marc Zumoff’s top five calls ever.

So that was insane enough. Then eight days later against the Brooklyn Nets , Sixers fans got a good ol’ taste of deja vu.

Trailing by as many as 20 points in that game, Jimmy G led a second-half surge that saw the Sixers leading with 38 seconds left. Brooklyn’s Spencer Dinwiddie hit a clutch shot to put Brooklyn back up one and after a stop and a timeout, with 10.2 seconds on the clock, you-know-who had the ball yet again:

Can enough be said about that man? Two game-winners in eight days for a team he had been on for less than two weeks. Insanity.