Rivers’ adjustments, attack plans pay off
Doc Rivers is always on the lookout for new offensive plays.
During the Philadelphia 76ers’ Feb. 19 home victory over the Chicago Bulls, the play that was called broke down in the half-court set, so forward Tobias Harris set a pick for guard Seth Curry, who made a flare cut.
While watching tape the next day, Rivers took a closer look and really liked what he saw, so he turned it into an out-of-bounds play the Sixers can use following a timeout.
“We put it in,” said Rivers prior to Thursday night’s 111-97 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. “There’s a lot of things the players do if you pay attention that you write down after the game.
“It’s amazing when you watch film — with both teams — you see random actions that these guys do. … And then you put it in part of your fabric. We do a lot of that.”
And the plays can come from anywhere.
While coaching the Boston Celtics in the late 2000s, Rivers incorporated some dribble pene
tration actions he learned from buddy John Calipari, who was then the coach at Memphis.
Calipari discovered them from Vance Walberg, a community college coach at Fresno City College at the time. Walberg was later part of Brett Brown’s first coaching staff in Philadelphia (2013-15).
“We’re all thieves,” said Rivers, who rarely runs Walberg’s stuff with the Sixers because it doesn’t fit his personnel here as well as it did in Boston.
Rivers comes into games like Thursday’s with a plan for the offensive sets and plays he’ll run. But that’s assuming the opponent defends the way Rivers and the Sixers expect them to, which isn’t always the case. When that happens, Rivers adjusts accordingly.
The offense didn’t have its best outing against the Mavericks, mainly because of the 22-11 Sixers’ uneven shooting, but still rang up 111 points. The Sixers held a 50-26 advantage in points in the paint, which is an indication of the quality opportunities they were getting.
“I thought we played pretty well [in the half-court offense],” said Ben Simmons afterward. “We slowed it down a little bit in the third, got back to our pace and gave us that lead back again.”
One thing Rivers realized while accumulating 965 regular-season wins — compared to 692 losses — during 21 years as an NBA head coach with the Orlando Magic, Celtics, Los Angeles Clippers and Sixers is not to abandon a play if it’s working. He called the same play six times late in a home victory earlier this season because the Sixers scored each time.
“We all do it — and I don’t know why — but we tend to run a play and it works, then we will not run it,” said Rivers, laughing. “I’ve learned [to] make them stop it [first]. I think we overthink it a lot. They didn’t stop the play, [so] why did we stop running it?”
Rivers enjoys calling an offensive set and letting the Sixers run multiple plays out of it. He especially appreciates when his team goes through all of the options on a play.
“The action will dictate where it goes,” Rivers said. “The key for us is to feel that and see that. There’s nothing worse than running a play and the players don’t know why we’re in that set.
“But the biggest things are: No. 1, if the first option is not there, don’t panic — get to the second [one]. And then make the play off the play. That’s what we try to work for because that’s what the playoffs are.”
Here are other observations from Thursday’s victory.
Simmons makes case for defense
Simmons turned in a fine defensive performance on fellow All-Star Luka Doncic, who came into the game averaging 28.9 points (fifth in the league). Doncic finished with 19 points on 6-for-13 shooting and seven turnovers in 29 minutes but was just 3 of 9 from the field with five turnovers when matched up against Simmons, according to nba.com.
“I thought Ben set the tone,” said Rivers, who called it the Sixers’ best all-around defensive performance of the season.
For his part, Simmons said he was looking forward to facing Doncic, who had averaged 34 points in his previous seven outings, including three games of 42 or more.
“Just being me, doing what I do,” said Simmons, a first-team all-defensive pick last season. “I like taking those challenges. … Just tell me who to guard.”
Harris to miss at least 1 game
Harris suffered a right knee contusion 4 minutes, 39 seconds into the third quarter versus Dallas and didn’t return. He stole the ball three seconds earlier on a rather innocuous-looking play.
Backup Mike Scott handled the power forward minutes until Rivers went deep to his bench with a 23-point lead and 4:32 remaining, and would replace Harris as the starter.
An MRI on Friday revealed no structural damage to Harris’ knee. The Sixers listed him as out for Saturday’s game against the Cavaliers and said he would be reevaluated Sunday.
Harris is averaging 20.2 points this season while shooting 51.3% from the field and 41.1 from the arc. All of those figures are career highs.