76ers' Loss to Raptors Causes Doc Rivers to Reiterate Message
Going into the 2022-2023 NBA season viewed as one of the Eastern Conference’s top dogs, the Philadelphia 76ers haven’t come close to clearing the bar of expectations early on.
In the two matchups against the East’s last two conference title-holders to start the year, the Sixers came up short and started the season off with an 0-2 record, holding losses against the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks.
Then when the rebuilding San Antonio Spurs came to South Philly, they shocked the basketball world by taking down the Sixers and forcing them off to an 0-3 start to the season.
Following the loss to the Spurs in South Philly, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers bluntly stated his team simply wasn’t ready to enter the victory column just yet.
“We’re not ready yet,” said Rivers last week. “Honestly, we’re just not ready to win yet, and you can feel that. We got a lot of work to do. It’s almost like we played these first two games hard, competed, and now we can win some games. You still got to go out and earn the game.”
The Sixers bounced back on Monday and picked up a likely win over the Indiana Pacers. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t the start of a good trend where they begin to turn the slow start to the season around completely.
On Wednesday, the Sixers paid a visit to the Toronto Raptors. Although the 76ers defeated the Raptors in a seven-game series in the playoffs last year, they tend to struggle against Toronto in the regular season. Prior to their first-round playoff series against the Raptors in 2022, the Sixers lost three of four regular-season games against the Raptors last year.
The trend of struggling against the Raptors in the regular season continued for the Sixers on Wednesday. After allowing the Raptors to get off to a hot start, the Sixers were already trailing by double digits in the opening quarter. While they cut Toronto’s double-digit lead down several times throughout the game, they never stole control of the score.
Eventually, the Raptors put the Sixers away once and for all with a 119-109 victory. After the game, Doc Rivers reiterated his previous message about this year’s Sixers; They aren’t ready to win.
“I think we can win games, but we’re not going to win multiple games until we play right every night,” said the head coach. “Until we do the right things and get in the right habits, play at the right pace, spread the floor, move the ball, share the ball, [we won’t win consistently].”
Philadelphia’s in-game decision-making has been questionable at best. While they might ride the hot hand on offense at times, Rivers believes they struggled to rely on Joel Embiid early in the game when the big man couldn’t be stopped.
“I thought Joel had a clear advantage tonight,” Rivers continued. “I thought we didn’t get him the ball four or five times early in the game. Every time he touched it, something good happened. We will see that, and we’re going to be better at that for sure as the season goes on.”
Embiid started off Wednesday’s game by going 5-6 from the field, scoring 11 points in nine minutes. In the second quarter, he took just one shot from the field and collected all three of his points from the free-throw line. While Embiid’s first-quarter success was mirrored in the third quarter, where he tacked on another 12 points by going 5-6 from the field, it was too little too late at that point in the game.
“You still should be able to sneak out wins and win games with your effort,” Rivers finished. “I thought they had far more energy than us tonight.”
Effort and execution on both ends of the floor have been a problem for the 76ers to start the year. As result, they are currently 1-4. It’s too early for the team to begin to panic, but a wake-up call of a loss against the Spurs and a dominant win over the Pacers hasn’t shifted the direction of the team quite yet.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.
