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Games 4 and 5 were a disappointment for the Sixers and their fans. The Philadelphia 76ers have seen two major second-half collapses in each game. The easy scapegoat for these close-out failures is head coach Doc Rivers, but he shouldn’t be primarily responsible.
Sure Rivers definitely loses Game 1 of this series to the Atlanta Hawks with his poor choices, like going with a bench unit in the second quarter and having Danny Green as Trae Young’s main defenseman. He was also the head coach of several historic meltdowns when he was with the Los Angeles Clippers.
However, the failures to close Games 4 and 5 are not primarily due to him, but to the players themselves.
The Sixers shouldn’t blame Rivers for the failures.More from The Sixer Sense
After Game 1, the 76ers had made the necessary changes for the Sixers to be successful. They did that in games 2 and 3, but something changed in the last two games. It starts with the lackluster bench unit falling short of the standards they’ve set for themselves this season.
Whatever spark Tyrese Maxey had in the first round, Dwight Howard lost any advantage he had on the offensive glass and was an above average defender. Matisse Thybulle is called out for all sorts of fouls imaginable and as Derek Bodner of The Athletic tweeted, I agree with him that Tony Bradley would probably be more effective in this series than George Hill.
That doesn’t include Shake Milton who has been silent since his hot night in the second half of Game 2 and Furkan Korkmaz has been hot or cold this playoffs. It also didn’t help that Tobias Harris had an unusual night on the field in the playoffs in Game 5. Ben Simmons was bad in the playoffs, especially this series, as The Sixer’s Christopher Kline wrote. Sense.
Joel Embiid and Seth Curry can’t do it all alone. They need the help of their teammates if they are to have any chance of winning Game 6. Does that mean Rivers has been perfect in this series? No, there are still a few minor tweaks he could make.
For example, he might change his spins when he doesn’t have four reserves in play at any given time. He should try to stagger the rotations more to keep two or three starters at any given time. Other than that, it’s hard to see what he’s really failed at as a coach. He took Simmons out of the game when Hack-a-Ben happened and tried to play his stars as many minutes as possible to minimize when he used the bench.
Rivers isn’t perfect, but putting the majority of the blame on him is unfair. He needs his unnamed players Embiid and Curry to live up to the standards they’ve set for themselves this regular season if the Sixers are to win this series.
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