The 76ers overcame the return of their star forward Elton Brand to down the Knicks 116-110 on Saturday. The Sixers have won eight of their last nine games including seven in a row while Brand rehabbed his separated right shoulder. In Brand’s absence, the Sixers seemed to find their rhythm and head coach Tony DiLeo developed a game plan will keep Brand on the bench, even after their prized offseason acquisition is fully recovered.

“We’re realizing that our best use of Brand is actually to not use him at all…or sparingly at least,” DiLeo said. “He’s making something like $50 trillion dollars this year, but if our team is doing better without him, don’t fix what ain’t broke, you know what I mean?”

The Sixers will travel to New Orleans on Monday to face Chris Paul and the Hornets. According to DiLeo, Brand will likely either watch the game from the locker room or stay behind in Philadelphia and watch it at a local bar just to make sure he doesn’t interfere with the Sixers’ game plan.

“Whatever I have to do to help the team at this point is what I’ll do,” Brand said. “If that means sitting at home eating Cheetos and watching American Idol, then I’ll just have to live with that.”