76ers vs. Clippers: Doc Rivers Reiterates Statement After Win
The Philadelphia 76ers nearly allowed the Toronto Raptors to pull off a comeback upset earlier in the week. As the Sixers led by as many as 14 points in the second half against an undermanned Raptors team that had just two wins in the last ten games, Philadelphia looked to be on their way to snagging a blowout victory.
That wasn’t the case. Not only did the Raptors come back on Monday, but they got out in front with an eight-point lead in the second half. Fortunately, the Sixers didn’t totally collapse by allowing the Raptors to complete the comeback. Instead, the Sixers formed a small comeback of their own and forced overtime.
A 5-2 run in the extra five-minute period allowed the Sixers to put the Raptors away, picking up their fifth-straight win. After the game, Doc Rivers showed little disappointment in the fact that his team nearly dropped its lead and allowed their division rival to complete a comeback.
“Listen, everybody blows leads in this league,” said Rivers. “That lead was blown by the fourth quarter, beginning. We won the game, I celebrate that. Like, I’m not gonna get into that — we won the game. We should focus on the positive stuff. Like, our guys fought, we didn’t have it, we missed wide-open shots tonight. Wide open shots.. When you do that, the other teams is probably at some point going to make a run. A lot of teams, when they make a run, go the other way. We just hung in there. They got a lead on us. How about talking about us coming back? We actually were down by eight for a stretch. That, to me, should be celebrated.”
The Sixers went on to defeat the Detroit Pistons two nights later. Unlike their previous two games, the Sixers played solid all four quarters, controlling the matchup, and snagging another victory.
With six wins in a row on their seven-game home stretch, Philadelphia concluded the series of matchups in South Philly with a battle against the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night.
The Clippers were by far the Sixers’ toughest challenge as of late. And right out of the gate, the Sixers had a hard time keeping up with the deep and talented Clippers roster.
Through the first half of action, the Sixers trailed by as many as 20 points. Going into halftime, the Sixers were down 63-51. By making some adjustments at the half, the Sixers came out firing in the third quarter, scoring 34 points while holding the Clippers to just 22.
While the matchup was tied at 85 through three quarters, the Sixers closed out the matchup by outscoring the Clippers 34-29. After the game, Doc Rivers reiterated his statement from Wednesday night, glad to be on the other side of it.
“As I said the other day — leads get blown all the time in this league,” Rivers said on Friday. “You just got to hang in there.”
Clearly, the Sixers did what they needed to do in the second half as they went from shooting 45 percent from the field while allowing the Clippers to drain 61 percent of their shots to knocking down 63 percent of their attempts and holding Los Angeles to 40 percent.
“I thought we hung in there,” Rivers continued. “We didn’t have much [in the first half]. I didn’t think we played with any pace in the first half. Zero physicality. We talked about playing in their airspace, and every shot, we had a gap. I thought in the second half, we got up and pressured the ball up the floor. We made catches harder. They were later in the clock, they were misses, and it allowed us to play.”
The Sixers sent the Clippers packing with a 119-114 victory. With that win, Philadelphia advances to 19-12 on the year, snagging their seventh-straight victory. Now, Doc Rivers and the Sixers will look ahead to Sunday as they have a Christmas Day matchup set against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.
