Doc Rivers ‘Can’t Live’ With 76ers’ Offensive Showing vs. Bulls
Monday’s matchup between the Chicago Bulls and the Philadelphia 76ers wasn’t the prettiest display of offense, especially in today’s NBA.
From the start, the Bulls struggled from the field, hitting on just six of their first 20 shots as a team. The Sixers didn’t do much better, as they attempted just 16 shots, making seven of them. In addition, Philadelphia turned the ball over six times in the opening quarter.
The second quarter wasn’t much better. Chicago made 50 percent of their shots from the field, but the Sixers took only 16 shots once again, knocking down seven more. Neither team shot above 20 percent from three throughout the entire quarter. And once again, the Sixers committed six turnovers.
Offensive struggles haven’t been common for the Sixers as of late, but the first half of Monday’s game was a bad showing on that side of the ball. Unfortunately, the second half didn’t get much better outside of the dominant third quarter Joel Embiid had and the jolts from Tyrese Maxey and De’Anthony Melton throughout the final stretch.
Throughout the entire second half, the Sixers cut their turnovers in half and drained 46 percent of their shots. While they outscored Chicago 51-47, the game was tied at 91 at the end of the fourth quarter. Overtime was required, and even an additional five-minute period wasn’t enough for one of the teams to find separation.
It wasn’t until a double-overtime period when the Bulls finally found a slight edge, beating the Sixers 10-6. Philadelphia couldn’t buy themselves a bucket in double-overtime, shooting just 2-9 from the field, missing all four of their attempts from beyond the arc.
After the game, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers mentioned that he thought his team’s defensive performance was satisfactory. As far as offense goes — unacceptable.
“I thought defensively, we hung in there,” said Rivers. “I thought we played really good defensively overall, had some, you know, miscommunications which you do all games. So I’ll take our defense that we played all night. I just can’t live with the way we played offense. So, we have to fix that.”
Overall, the Sixers shot 42 percent from the field and just 28 percent from three. While they shot at a slightly higher percentage than the Bulls, the turnover game was lopsided in favor of Chicago.
The Sixers coughed the ball up 21 times, which helped the Bulls generate 24 points. To compare, the Bulls turned it over just 11 times throughout the night.
“Every night like you just gotta be good on both ends, and I thought the balance of the game, we were good on one end, and that was the defensive end,” Rivers continued.
On the bright side, the Sixers played one of their worst games in quite some time and still nearly won the matchup. But the silver lining route isn’t a path that Doc Rivers and the Sixers are willing to take. Instead, they are focused on Wednesday’s rematch on the road, as it offers an opportunity to snap out of it and bounce back after a poor showing.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.
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