Joel Embiid’s knee is undoubtedly worrying Doc Rivers, but he’s not the only problematic subject on the Sixers’ side. Because indeed, the performance of the Philadelphia bench remains very irregular.
It was recurring during the regular season, the manager kept complaining about it, and Game 2 against the Hawks was another perfect illustration. Because at the break, the replacements of Atlanta had scored 32 points, against none from those of Philadelphia!
“We jostled them a bit at halftime. Really “Rivers tells NBC Sports. “We had no point from the bench at the break… We asked for more in defense in particular. If the substitutes succeeded in making stops, we would have spaces and we could then score baskets. You can’t play on a half court all the time. They did a great job defensive to start and then attacking. “
The Sixers bench will actually win the second period (26-17) against that of the Hawks, symbolized by the heat stroke of Shake Milton. Rivers’ rant had its effect.
A matter of trust
“He asked us for more”, explains George Hill. “That’s what good coaches do. Sometimes you have to take the guys by the skin of the buttocks to get them to play well. That’s what he did at the break. It wasn’t pretty, but sometimes you need to hear the truth. It hurts, but it’s necessary. The replacements responded very well. “
The ideal is of course not to need to raise your voice to get better performance from your players. But this inconstancy does not undermine the confidence of Rivers in his bench, he who has developed the habit of fielding four substitutes at the same time.
“Few coaches totally shortened their rotation unless they did not trust their team”, assures the former coach of the Clippers and Celtics. “There are coaches who keep a significant rotation. I watched Phoenix the other night, and they play with a lot of players every night because they’re comfortable with their squad. I’ve known that before, rotations with seven or eight players. But here we have a lot of good players. “
| Tirs | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Tirs | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | Until | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Fte | Pts |
| Joel Embiid | 51 | 31.1 | 51.3 | 37.7 | 85.9 | 2.2 | 8.4 | 10.6 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 2.4 | 28.5 |
| Tobias Harris | 62 | 32.5 | 51.2 | 39.4 | 89.2 | 1.0 | 5.8 | 6.8 | 3.5 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 19.5 |
| Ben Simmons | 58 | 32.4 | 55.7 | 30.0 | 61.3 | 1.6 | 5.6 | 7.2 | 6.9 | 3.0 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 14.3 |
| Shake Milton | 63 | 23.2 | 45.0 | 35.0 | 83.0 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 2.1 | 13.0 |
| Seth Curry | 57 | 28.7 | 46.7 | 45.0 | 89.6 | 0.2 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 2.7 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1.7 | 12.5 |
| Danny Green | 69 | 28.0 | 41.2 | 40.5 | 77.5 | 0.8 | 3.0 | 3.8 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 9.5 |
| Furkan Korkmaz | 55 | 19.3 | 40.1 | 37.5 | 73.2 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 2.1 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 9.1 |
| Tyrese Maxey | 61 | 15.3 | 46.2 | 30.1 | 87.1 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 8.0 |
| Dwight Howard | 69 | 17.3 | 58.7 | 25.0 | 57.6 | 2.8 | 5.7 | 8.4 | 0.9 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 2.9 | 7.0 |
| George Hill | 16 | 18.9 | 44.2 | 39.1 | 76.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 6.0 |
| Dakota Mathias | 8 | 15.4 | 39.6 | 30.8 | 33.3 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.6 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 6.0 |
| Tony Bradley | 20 | 14.4 | 68.0 | 0.0 | 63.6 | 1.9 | 3.2 | 5.2 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.4 | 5.5 |
| Mike Scott | 51 | 16.7 | 36.0 | 34.2 | 66.7 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 4.2 |
| Matisse Thybulle | 65 | 20.0 | 42.0 | 30.1 | 44.4 | 0.5 | 1.4 | 1.9 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 2.0 | 3.9 |
| Isaiah Joe | 41 | 9.3 | 36.1 | 36.8 | 75.0 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 3.7 |
| Paul Reed, Jr. | 26 | 6.8 | 53.8 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 2.3 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 3.4 |
| Mason Jones | 6 | 4.5 | 55.6 | 50.0 | 71.4 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 2.7 |
| Rayjon Tucker | 14 | 4.9 | 50.0 | 28.6 | 73.7 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 2.4 |
| Anthony Tolliver | 11 | 9.0 | 23.5 | 28.6 | 83.3 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 1.5 |
| Vincent Poirier | 10 | 3.9 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 33.3 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Terrance Ferguson | 13 | 3.8 | 14.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.2 |
| Gary Clark | 2 | 6.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 |
| Ignas Brazdeikis | 1 | 7.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
