Doc Rivers vows Sixers will fix their bench's offensive issues
In the early part of the 2020-21 season, the Philadelphia 76ers received big boosts from their bench unit when the time called for it. They received big games from Shake Milton and Furkan Korkmaz when needed, but it has been a struggle lately.
Milton is the only real consistent source of offense and when he went out with an ankle injury on Feb. 9 and missed time, that threw the bench unit out of whack. He returned on Sunday and scored nine points, but he did not shoot the ball well, and the bench was outplayed by the bench unit of the Toronto Raptors in the loss.
In the second half, Philadelphia built a 72-59 lead, but Toronto inserted Chris Boucher. He knocked down five 3s, and he scored 17 points in the second half. He was a big difference and Toronto was able to rally against the bench unit.
“We’ll keep working on it,” said coach Doc Rivers. “I mean it’s 31 games into the season. It hasn’t been this way all year with our bench it’s just been this way lately, so we’ll work our way through it.”
Either way, this is an issue that needs to be fixed. The starters cannot put in all the work and build a lead only for the second unit to waste it. It is their job to either keep the momentum going that the starters built or give them a spark when they need it, and, right now, it’s not happening on either front.
“I thought, in the second half, we never matched up right correctly as far as in transition,” Rivers added. “That’s where they beat us more. We’ll fix it.”
He is right about that. Too many turnovers from the second unit allowed Toronto to get out and run and Boucher was able to spot up freely from deep. Also, in the halfcourt, they struggled to get out to him in the pick-and-pop game.
As Rivers mentioned, it’s only 31 games into the season and there is still much basketball left to be played. They just have to find a way to get back to who they were at the beginning of the season and they will have another opportunity to do so on Tuesday.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
