Starting with title ambitions, the Philadelphia 76ers began the regular season with three defeats in as many games, also receiving the whistles of the fans after the last knockout at home against the San Antonio Spurs. Doc Rivers sounded the alarm: “Honestly we’re not ready to win. We realize that, so there’s a lot of work to do.”
The only time in the whole evening in which Philadelphia 76ers fans cheered arrived in the last quarter of the home match against the San Antonio Spurs, but not thanks to the Sixers on the pitch. In fact, he arrived on the jumbotron at the center of the Wells Fargo Center an update on the success of the Philliescity MLB baseball team, winning against the Padres and only one victory away from the World Series after climbing 3-1 in the series. For the rest, the only attitude they had was one of dispute: the Sixers in fact were accompanied by boos after the third defeat in as many games of this difficult start to the season, also beaten by the Spurs in the second evening of a back to back coming from Indianapolis. And this despite a Joel Embiid in great shape with 40 points and 13 rebounds, unlike the first two races in which he seemed in trouble due to plantar fasciitis which slowed down his summer preparation. For an Embiid back to high levels, however, there was an opposite James Harden: after two excellent individual matches to start the season, Barba struggled to finish with 12 points and 4/18 shooting, while still touching the triple double with 9 rebounds and 12 assists. But putting together a full game for these Sixers, at least right now, seems like a titanic undertaking.
Rivers sounds the alarm: “We are slow in attack and defense”
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Harden knocks out Smart, laughs at him and gets it wrong. VIDEO
“I’ve faced moments like that before and honestly we’re not ready to win yet. We just aren’t. We realize this and we have a lot of work to do “admitted coach Doc Rivers, sounding an alarm and sending a message to his players.” It’s a bit like if in the first two games in which we are competitive we said to ourselves’ OK, now the others we win easy ‘. But is not so: you have to go to the field and earn the victories. Tuck [PJ Tucker, ndr] he shouted after the game: no one will give us a game. “Rivers then commented on the tactical problems of his team:”Defensively we were slow, always one step behind. Offensively we do not find any rhythm. We always end up shooting in the last seconds of the action, which with the team we have shouldn’t happen. I want to see more triples, I want to see more counterattacks, I want to see more players in the painting. The reason why we don’t shoot more from three is that: we don’t push in the open because we don’t put together two good defensive actions in a row. “Rivers also highlighted one situation in particular to describe the difficulties of his team:” It’s not a question of clarity of roles, but of spacing. We have an action for Joel in the elbow where there should only be one player in the corner and the other three on the weak side. In the final match with the Bucks, on the other hand, we had two on the strong side, closing the way for the basket, forcing him to shoot from the dribble. Both times it was new players who made that mistake, despite trying that action 50 times in training. Those are the things you get wrong in the beginning, but you can improve over time. “
Embiid clarifies his injury: “I couldn’t walk”
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Embiid in trouble: “Summer foot injury”
Embiid, on the other hand, talked about the problem with his foot and how he is trying to recover: “It started when we were in Los Angeles and this pain came out of nowhere, which got worse over time so much so that I could no longer walk. I’m still trying to recover: arriving at the training camp I couldn’t do anything for two months, so it slowed me down a lot. I am still working to get back to my level and I hope everything is back to normal, but I’m fine. There is no need to make excuses. In defense we need to be more connected: we’re not defending well, and it’s our fault. It will take some time to get everyone on the same page, but don’t worry about the slow start. The team is quite new: we will find a way. “
