Doc Rivers, Joel Embiid Explain Blown Lead vs. Bulls

The first quarter of the Philadelphia 76ers versus Chicago Bulls matchup on Saturday night looked like a blowout in the making. As the Sixers got off to a red-hot start, draining over 60 percent of their shots from the floor and outscoring the Bulls 37-22, Philadelphia picked up where they left off the night before in Toronto.

In the second quarter, the Sixers led by as many as 19 points. But eventually, the Bulls woke up and kept the 76ers honest. Both teams were coming off a back-to-back, so a slow start was expected. The Sixers might’ve been the team to start fast, but Doc Rivers thought his squad got out of rhythm midway through the game rather than in the beginning.

“Maybe that was from the back to back,” said Rivers. “I don’t know that. I just thought we lost our rhythm and lost our pace again. We didn’t get into our stuff, the ball wasn’t moving.”

By halftime, the Sixers’ 19-point lead was down to eight points. And when both teams came out for the second half, the Bulls turned the table and managed to get out in front of the Sixers.

“In the second half, it really started in the middle of the second quarter, we just lost our rhythm, and we never got it back, really,” Rivers explained.

The Sixers lost their rhythm in the second half, and Joel Embiid blamed the lack of ball movement as a reason why they couldn’t mirror their first-quarter success.

“The ball started sticking,” said Embiid. “We weren’t moving the ball at all. We were getting late shots. We gotta play with pace. We can’t be slow, we gotta move the ball. We have to push it in transition, and that starts on defense. Obviously, we weren’t getting stops. The first half, our defense was pretty good, and that’s why we were able to go out and run and create that lead. In the third quarter, it was just too slow.”

In Rivers’ eyes, the Sixers never actually got their rhythm back in the second half, despite keeping their composure and avoiding a total momentum shift. While the Sixers were happy to pull off a 114-109 victory on the road against a playoff-caliber team, they understand they still have a lot of work to do moving forward.

“We just made timely shots and won a game,” Rivers finished. “Like I said yesterday, we’re a work in progress, but if we can win some games doing that, that’s great. Tonight was a great example of that. We won the game, but we got a long way to go.”

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.