Not a few quarters saw fit to second-guess Sixers head coach Doc Rivers’ decision to leave top dog Joel Embiid on the floor in the dying minutes of Game Six of their first-round series.
After all, the pundits noted, the red, white, and blue were already up by 21 when the fourth canto began, and the Raptors could go no closer than 18 the rest of the way. And given the Most Valuable Player candidate’s injury history, prudence dictated that his minutes be managed well.
Hindsight makes for 20/20 vision, to be sure, and Rivers could not have known Embiid would be the victim of a freak play. Predictably, it’s what he pointed out to scribes that greeted him after practice yesterday. “Everyone was in there, and the other team had all their guys in, too,” he said. And he’s right. Then again, the Raptors’ situation — what with the deficit necessitating full force to overcome — was markedly different from their own.
It bears noting that Rivers traditionally tightens his rotations in the playoffs. Embiid normed close to 34 minutes in 68 regular-season games, in contrast to the 39-per-match average against the Raptors. It’s also reflective of the bench tactician’s desire to avoid a Game Seven after the Sixers claimed the first three contests; he counted on his best charges to close the deal, perhaps with his previous postseason failures at the back of his mind.
Needless to say, the burden is on Rivers to steer the Sixers to success without Embiid on tap — which may well be a tall order against the resilient Heat. With no one on the roster close to approximating the lost talent level at the slot, he’s bent on using a platoon to tide them over. How that will work out remains to be seen. “We just have to be very smart in how we plan our bigs,” he argued.
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