Is Sixers' Doc Rivers Worried About Seth Curry's Scoreless Game vs. Pelicans?
After having two days off on the schedule and one day of light practice on Thursday morning, the Philadelphia 76ers looked surprisingly flat in Friday's matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans. While Sixers head coach Doc Rivers said he believed his team's defense was good enough to win -- the offense was a different story.
Sixers forward Tobias Harris led the team in scoring on Friday night with a 23-point showing. Joel Embiid, who had one of his worst games this season, shot just 5-for-16 from the field, putting up 14 points in 31 minutes.
Aside from those two, the Sixers really got nothing else in the scoring department from the rest of the starting lineup. Ben Simmons, Danny Green, and Seth Curry all combined for a whopping 18 points on Friday night. Simmons and Green contributed to the total. Unfortunately, Seth Curry did not.
In 26 minutes of action, Seth Curry got up just seven shots. Clearly, he wasn't feeling it on Friday night as none of his field-goal attempts went in. This season, as Curry has battled through COVID-19 and other minor nagging injuries, the veteran guard has been somewhat inconsistent at times. And his zero-point performance on Friday night wasn't the first time he's struggled to contribute to the scoreboard.
The Pelicans loss marks the third time this season Curry collected zero points. However, Doc Rivers made it clear that he's hardly worried about Curry's personal performance on Friday night, and he explained why.
"I don't worry about one single game," Rivers said. "Seth has been playing well the last couple of games. He had a tough one tonight. I'm not going to draw up new stuff or anything like that. I believe in shooters. Guys don't forget how to shoot. They all have a bad game here and there; everybody will. It's human nature. I mean, Dustin Johnson didn't make the cut at The Masters, you know? What can you do? It's just a human game, and it always will be. That's what sports is."
The Sixers will have a quick turnaround as they're set to tip-off against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night. Although their overall performance on Friday resembled a team playing on the second night of a back-to-back, Curry and the Sixers will have to find a way to battle through fatigue and get the offense going early to avoid falling into a mini-slump amid a four-game road trip.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_ & Instagram: @JGrassoNBA.
