On Friday night, everything was going perfectly for Doc Rivers’ Sixers (-7.5). Joel Embiid was up to his usual unstoppable ways with a 40-point, 13-rebound, 6-assist line, and Philadelphia was stomping a Clippers squad sans Kawhi Leonard (which isn’t anything new this year as he recovers from a knee injury) and Paul George (a new knee injury).
The Sixers, who’ve had their occasional struggles this year, and who sit at sixth in the NBA’s Eastern Conference, were getting a much-needed victory over a shorthanded squad without its two best players. A 24-point second-half deficit said as much.
Nellie Bly, Ben Franklin, Charlie Day: Rest assured, your Sixers were absolutely incredible.
Until they weren’t.
The energy we needed. 😤
📺 @BallySportWest | @coffeyshop_ pic.twitter.com/NqMi3FHZca
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) January 22, 2022
You see, in the process of building a massive lead over a team that had no business winning on the road when most of its players probably just wanted to go home, the Sixers forgot that they had to play 48 minutes. Oops. And so, after capturing that mentioned 24-point second-half lead, the Sixers lost in heartbreaking fashion.
Doc Rivers, what say you for this effort by your team?
"Would you ask Pop that question? No you wouldn't.
So don't ask me that question. I've earned that."
Doc Rivers when asked how much of a 24-point blown lead was on coaching #Sixers pic.twitter.com/uOEhEQXU2L
— Logan Reever (@loganreever) January 22, 2022
To be entirely fair for Rivers, he probably has a point.
Then again, Popovich’s Spurs aren’t doing well these days, so they don’t have many significant leads to begin with, and while an upper echelon coach, Rivers is objectively not in the same class as his coaching counterpart.
Not to mention that the main reason Rivers faces any coaching questions after the Sixers’ latest choke job is because they’ve made it a trend. Last summer, after a second-round playoff series where Rivers’ Sixers blew multiple 20-point leads to the Hawks en route to losing a home Game 7, they proved they can always “dig up” from their abyss of despair. That sort of previous failure in the postseason is sufficient grounds to question the coach at the helm when a should-be win, turned defeat happens against a team starting Reggie Jackson in the year of our lord 2022.
Perhaps that’s what happens when the prospect of a Ben Simmons trade continues to hang over the Philadelphia organization. The Sixers are effectively playing more shorthanded than in the past, and it’s at least partly why they haven’t ascended to Eastern Conference royalty this season. Bettors with Tipico had Rivers’ Sixers at No. 10 overall (+2000) in preseason NBA title odds, and that now that feels generous.
One thing’s for sure: Rivers and Sixers better get it together soon. Their next game? A visit to the Spurs and Popovich. Oh, c’mon. Give the man a break from cruel ironies for once.
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