A Win is a Win: Doc Rivers Not Concerned About Sixers Barely Beating Raptors

As the NBA deals with a significant COVID-19 outbreak, every team has been affected by it in some capacity. For the Sixers, specifically, they've had two

As the NBA deals with a significant COVID-19 outbreak, every team has been affected by it in some capacity. For the Sixers, specifically, they've had two instances where they lost a handful of key players to the NBA's health and safety protocol.

Last month, Tobias Harris, Isaiah Joe, Matisse Thybulle, and Joel Embiid all missed a stretch of games as they battled COVID-19. Then recently, Georges Niang was cleared from the protocol while Andre Drummond, Shake Milton, and Danny Green remain in it for the time being.

While the Sixers have had small outbreaks on numerous occasions, most teams are dealing with one big outbreak all at once. Philadelphia's Tuesday night opponent, the Toronto Raptors, happened to be one of those teams.

When Toronto submitted its injury report on Monday night, they had a long list of players who were either ruled out or questionable. In total, Toronto had 12 players on the report. Five were initially listed as questionable, while seven were out.

Hours before tip-off, Pascal Siakam and Gary Trent were upgraded from questionable to probable and eventually got clearance to play. Malachi Flynn, who was also questionable, was cleared for action. Meanwhile, Previous Achiuwa and Khem Birch became the eighth and ninth players to be ruled out before the game started.

Although Toronto got reinforcements, the Sixers were still expected to take advantage of the Raptors' lack of depth. In the end, the 76ers got the job done, but it wasn't a pretty road to get there.

Lately, the Sixers have struggled to put shorthanded opponents away. Just last Thursday, the undermanned Atlanta Hawks went into Philly and pulled off an upset win at the Wells Fargo Center. Then on Tuesday, the Sixers barely beat an underwhelming and undermanned Raptors team.

Did Tuesday's performance leave Doc Rivers slightly concerned about his team's recent struggles against depleted squads? Not in the slightest, it seems.

A Win's a Win

"I will take any win on the road any time, any way," Rivers said after the game. "You don't get to just script the games. Like 'Guys, tonight, let's win by 30'. That just doesn't happen. Not in this game. You just win the game. You take it, and you keep moving on. It's the regular season. You're just trying to win games and see how well you can win them. We missed a lot of easy shots down the stretch. They got every loose ball, but we still won the game, and that says a lot about your team."

While the Sixers have consistently found themselves under fire as they've struggled against shorthanded teams, Rivers turned the tables on Tuesday night and compared the situation to the position they were in last month as they nearly won games against tougher opponents while shorthanded.

"It's funny ... when we were undermanned, and we won a couple of games and had close games that we lost, I didn't hear that in reverse," Rivers explained on Tuesday. "It's the NBA. Think about that stretch when we had all of those guys out, and we lost four and five games by one point, three points. Do you think their coach is worried that they won by one or three points? These guys play hard, man. This is the NBA. Every single guy in this league can play."

Regardless of how the Sixers got the win, 76ers head coach Doc Rivers made it very clear after the matchup that it doesn't matter how they win. As picking up a victory is the only thing that matters in the end -- the Sixers were happy to advance to 18-16 on Tuesday night in Toronto.

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