We're in deep Sixer
A bad start for Doc Rivers and Philadelphia.
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The Philadelphia 76ers lost again on Saturday. To … uh, the San Antonio Spurs, a team in the core Victor Wembanyama chase. The offensive problems for the 76ers flipped a bit: Joel Embiid had a breakout performance with 40 points on 14/25 shooting while James Harden had his first bad shooting night (4/18) of the season. The defensive problems were the same as they’ve been in all three Philly losses. And the Spurs’ starting five — Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Jakob Poeltl, Jeremy Sochan and Tre Jones — isn’t exactly the Seven Seconds or Less Suns, you know?
Here’s Doc Rivers’ take on the situation at hand, with the situation at hand being an 0-3 start for the Sixers.
You should probably get there, and soon! The season started!
The knives are out in Philadelphia already, with fans wondering if Rivers (hired before current front office chief Daryl Morey) will survive a slow start and with Rivers confirming that Embiid’s short stints on the court are due to conditioning. Morey’s bench simply hasn’t worked and the team needs to figure out how a Harden-Tyrese Maxey backcourt is going to survive defensively. If Devin Vassell and Tre Jones are lighting them up … what’s the top of the East going to do?
If you’re curious, Dave Joerger and Sam Cassell are assistants for the Sixers and Mike D’Antoni’s name is constantly mentioned in this scenario given his ties to Harden and Morey. D’Antoni, if he’s going to coach in the league again, is an offseason hire, not a midseason replacement. You don’t transition to his system on the fly, even if a few of the players have existed under it previously. So if you think Rivers isn’t going to survive a bad start — and don’t get me wrong, this is a bad start — then it’s probably Joerger or Cassell getting the nod. And yet, Rivers is owed a lot of money over a couple more years.
The Sixers host the tanking Pacers on Monday. After that it’s a pair against the Raptors, then the Bulls and a pair against the Wizards. Given their schedule the Sixers really, really should not start worse than 4-5. We’ll see!
Scores
FRIDAY
Pelicans 124, Hornets 112 — This is the Good Morning It’s Basketball Promise: if Herb Jones gets a ridiculous block, I’m going to post it. (Sorry, YouTube Shorts don’t embed properly.)
Bulls 100, Wizards 102 — Bradley Beal game winner.
Raptors 105, Nets 109 — Helluva game with big nights from Pascal Siakam and Kyrie Irving.
Grizzlies 129, Rockets 122 — Ja Morant almost becomes the first player of the season with a 50-spot. He’ll take the 49. (Stay for the chasedown block at the end. Good lord this dude.)
Jazz 132, Timberwolves 126 (OT) — The result is already a bit of an LOL after the Rudy Gobert trade but folks this Lauri Markkanen dunk on Rudy Gobert is a MAJOR LOL.
Let’s get another angle here.
Nuggets 128, Warriors 123 — Bonkers finish over the last 1:14 including a Steph Curry 35-footer, some gnarly Nuggets turnovers and one of the most chill, brilliant game-saving passes you’ll ever see from Nikola Jokic.
Suns 111, Blazers 113 (OT) — Phoenix goes to overtime in each of its first two games. They had two overtime games ALL of last season. Anyway, here’s Anfernee Simons looking off Damian Lillard to go out Mikal Bridges for the win.
This is cold as hell from Lillard to ice Deandre Ayton afterward.
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