Doc Rivers Isn't Entirely Happy With Sixers' Win Over Chicago Bulls

A win is a win in professional sports. On any given night, a lesser team can pull off an upset against a superior squad. In Sunday and Monday night's matchups, the Philadelphia 76ers were the better and healthier team on paper when facing the San Antonio Spurs and the Chicago Bulls in back-to-back games. 

The Sixers got the job done and picked up two victories, but they made it a lot harder on themselves than it needed to be. In San Antonio, the Sixers led by as much as 17 points. Although they never allowed the Spurs to take the lead on Sunday, San Antonio tied it up in enough time to send the game into overtime.

Fortunately for Philly, they squeaked by without going into double overtime as they won the game on a buzzer-beater tip-in by Ben Simmons. Following the tight win, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers expressed his disappointment.

"Today was more of a relief because we knew that we played ourselves in the position that we played ourselves in," Rivers said on Sunday. "Give San Antonio credit, (Greg Popovich) had those guys playing hard, moving the ball, attacking. But our guys know they didn't play right, and they got away with one. It was more of a relief tonight than a celebration."

The following night, the Sixers went on to face a shorthanded Chicago Bulls team. Considering Rivers would like to get his key players as much rest as possible as the postseason approaches, Monday night would've been an ideal time for the Sixers to get off to a comfortable enough lead to start clearing the bench as early as the third quarter.

Everything played out the way the Sixers wanted it to, but the bench failed to hold onto the significant lead. Winning by as much as 23 points, the Sixers' bench nearly gave it up. And in the fourth quarter, Sixers starters had to check in for seven to eight minutes to close out the game with a 106-94 victory.

“I wasn’t happy,” said Rivers after the game. “That’s two nights in a row that our bench has come in and kind of given up leads. It’s something we can fix. They just didn’t play well, to be honest. I thought as bad as they were defensively, I thought it was on offense where they didn’t have a lot of movement, so we’ll be able to fix that.” 

It's difficult to stay mad over a win, but the Sixers' bench has a lot to learn during Tuesday's film session, where the team will review the last two games. While Rivers is confident the struggles will get fixed, the 76ers are running out of room for error as the playoffs will be here in a few weeks.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_ & Instagram: @JGrassoNBA.