Notebook | Redick's Strong Stretch, Looking Ahead to London

Redick Producing

Since returning to action on Christmas Day from a two-game absence caused by right hamstring tightness, JJ Redick has steadily put together one of his strongest stretches of the season. He’s been back for six games now, a period during which he’s averaged 20.7 points and produced a 26.7 net rating (122.1 offrtg, 95.4 defrtg), while shooting 49.4 percent from the field overall and 19 for 41 (46.3%) from 3-point territory.

Brett Brown believes that a lifetime of worth of working hard and staying in shape has allowed Redick, midway through his 12th NBA season, to remain a dangerous threat.

“You don’t play like that, play with that type of pace, or have that consistent performance if you’re not sort of maniacal with your body,” Brown said recently. “You can’t pull that off unless you have an elite fitness base, that takes discipline.”

To hear Brown talk about Redick is to listen to a coach admiring the approach of an impact off-season addition.

“He epitomizes pro. He wouldn’t have to make a shot, he wouldn’t have to say a single word. If we just watched him act how he acts in a locker room, in pre-practice and post-practice, you’d say A-plus class. He’s all that - a legitimate pro.”

With Friday’s 21-point effort in the Sixers’ convincing 114-78 victory over the Detroit Pistons, Redick has now reached the 20-point mark in three consecutive tilts, one game shy of the longest such streak of his career.

London Looming

After Sunday’s workout in Camden, the Sixers will hold one more practice Monday at their training complex before heading overseas for the NBA’s annual London Game. The contest, which will be held Thursday at O2 Arena against division rival and Eastern Conference-leading Boston, will mark the Sixers’ first-ever regular season appearance overseas.

Brett Brown, of course, knows there’s important business to tend to in the British capital. At the same time, the head coach - a worldly, well-traveled man himself - also wants his group to soak up what figures to be a memorable experience.

"Brolly... it sounds like trolley... with your bro."

Brushing up on our British vocabulary with @NBAUK for our trip to London. #NBALondon pic.twitter.com/RszMoHrCI3

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) January 7, 2018

“We’re going to enjoy the experience as an organization, as a big family,” said Brown, who praised the Sixers’ front office for including families of players and staffers in the trip . “There will be dinners, there will be interaction. I don’t worry that people think we’re going to Disneyland and it’s a holiday, I don’t fear that at all.”

Brown added the Sixers have studied how to make the most efficient use of their roughly 76 hours in the U.K., from maximizing opportunities for sleep and rest, to balancing practice time with other league-related obligations.

“We’re going to enjoy it,” Brown said of the Sixers’ impending trek, “and I know we’ll manage it professionally.”