Regardless of where he’s coaching, all Doc Rivers teams seem to have the same blueprint: A solid starting five backed up by a subpar second unit the coach continues to ride despite their struggles. It happened in Boston, it happened in Los Angeles, and it’s happening in Philadelphia.
While Rivers seemingly refuses to learn from his mistakes, the Sixers’ second unit has been deservingly under fire for most of the season. They’ve blown lead after lead and have failed to provide any sort of momentum.
That trend was on full display again last night when the Sixers lost to the bottom-feeding Detroit Pistons. The Pistons were more physicaland made it tough for Philly’s bench to get some offensive flow.
Doc Rivers Says The Sixers Lost A ‘Tough’ Game
“I thought it was a tough game,” Rivers said. “I thought offensively we really just stood around. They were switching; we just played outside and didn’t move the ball as a group. At halftime we were shooting 42 percent I think, and I just thought the fouls bailed us out. We were awful in the first half, too. We played with very little life tonight, didn’t play together tonight at all. That’s something we’ve been doing. It’s just one of those nights, but a tough one.”
Rivers Blames James Harden For The Offense’s Struggles
But even though the bench was sub-par andRivers refused to do anything about it again, James Harden’s performance also left a lot to be desired. Notably, even Rivers had something to say about it, throwing him under the bus after the game:
“Well, [the bench] didn’t struggle,” Rivers said. “They didn’t get a lot of shots in their defense. I think during that stretch, it was more James than them. So you know, yeah, it’s just a tough night.”
Harden shot 4 of 15 from the floor and had yet another massive dud for a team that gave away a lot to have him until the end of the season. Then again, his coach should know better than to call him out in public.
Rivers did the very same thing following his team’s playoff loss to the Atlanta Hawks, stating that he didn’t know whether Ben Simmons could be a starting point guard on a championship team.
It seems like some people will never learn..
