Games 4 and 5 have been a disappointment for the Sixers and their fans. The Philadelphia 76ers have two major collapses in the second halves of each game. The easy scapegoat for these failures to close out the games is head coach Doc Rivers, but he shouldn’t be the primary point of blame.
Sure Rivers definitely lose Game 1 of this series against the Atlanta Hawks with his poor choices such as going with an all bench unit in the second quarter and having Danny Green being the primary defender on Trae Young. He’s also been the head coach of several historical collapses when he was with the Los Angeles Clippers.
However, the failures to close out Games 4 and 5 aren’t primarily on him, but on players themselves.
The Sixers shouldn’t blame Rivers for failures.
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After Game 1, the 76ers had made the necessary changes for the Sixers to succeed. They did so in Games 2 and 3, but something has changed in the past two games. It starts with the lackluster bench unit not performing up to the standards they have set for themselves this season.
Whatever spark Tyrese Maxey had in the first round has been lost, Dwight Howard has lost any advantage he’s had on the offensive glass and being an above average post defender. Matisse Thybulle is getting called for every sort of foul 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’s not including Shake Milton who has been quiet since his hot night in the second half of Game 2 and Furkan Korkmaz has been either hot or cold this postseason. It also didn’t help that Tobias Harris an uncharacteristic night from the field this postseason in Game 5. Ben Simmons has been bad this postseason, especially this series, as Christopher Kline of The Sixer Sense wrote.
Joel Embiid and Seth Curry can’t do it all on their own. They need help from their teammates if they want a chance to win Game 6. Now does that mean Rivers has been perfect in this series? No there are still some minor adjusts he could make.
For instance, he could change his rotations where he doesn’t have four reserves in the game at any given time. He should try to stagger the rotations more to keep two or three starters in at any given time. Outside of that, it’s hard to see what he’s really failed on as a coach. He’s taken Simmons out of the game when Hack-a-Ben has occurred and tried to play his stars the most minutes he can to minimize when he’s used the bench.
Rivers isn’t perfect, but to put the majority of the blame on him is unfair. He needs his players not named Embiid and Curry to play up to the standards they set for themselves this regular season if the Sixers want to win this series.