Philadelphia 76ers starting shooting guard Seth Curry will miss the next two games with a sprained left ankle. The Sixers play back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday. Curry will be re-evaluated following the weekend slate.
Curry, who is averaging 12.9 points per game, left Wednesday night’s game late in the fourth quarter. The Sixers returned to practice on Friday after getting a much-needed day off. Head coach Doc Rivers wouldn’t say which player would replace Curry in the starting five, but the obvious choices would be either Matisse Thybulle or Shake Milton.
“Not yet, no,” Rivers said when asked about Curry’s replacement, “but you can pretty much guess it down to a couple of guys. I’ll let you figure that out.”
One outside-the-box fill-in player would be Turkish sensation Furkan Korkmaz. He filled in the other night against the Milwaukee Bucks and hit a clutch three-pointer with 0.4 seconds left to send it into overtime.
Rivers could also turn to rookie guard Isaiah Joe who is back with the big club following a successful tenure for the Delaware Blue Coats of the NBA G-League. Meanwhile, the Sixers don’t want to place any definitive timeline on a return for Curry. He didn’t practice with the team on Friday.
“We just got to monitor it,” Rivers said. “There’s no return date or anything like that. We’ll just wait and see.”
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Dell Curry Shares Insight on His Two Sons
Steph Curry will go down as one of the most lethal long-range shooters in NBA history, but don’t tell that to his little brother. The two were very competitive during their formative years, according to their famous dad Dell Curry (via Alex Kennedy), and Seth constantly bragged about being the better sniper from deep. That burning desire to out-duel Steph helped turn Seth into an NBA player.
Dell Curry on his sons: “Seth had the mentality, ‘If Stephen’s gonna [play in the NBA], I know I can do it. I used to kill him in the backyard!’ That’s Seth’s mentality right now. He’ll tell you, ‘I’m a better shooter than Steph, he just gets more shots.'”
In a bit of twisted irony, Seth is actually shooting better than Steph so far this season. The Sixers standout has gone 43.2% from deep in 33 games while Steph has posted 40.8% through 39 contests. The Sixers traded for Seth in the offseason after sending Josh Richardson and the 36th overall pick to the Dallas Mavericks.
Rivers Looking to Clean Up ‘Mental Lapses’
The Sixers have endured a grueling start to the second half of the season, grinding out four games in five nights. Rivers’ squad has been playing lock-down defense all year but he hasn’t been happy with the transition defense.
It’s something the head coach mentioned prior to the All-Star break and again on Friday. It all starts with getting back as soon as that shot goes up.
“The first half of the Milwaukee game, that was as good as you could play defense,” Rivers said. “Unfortunately, the second half … you know for a lot of reasons, the emotions of the game, the fatigue of four games in five nights … we kind of let up, we made a lot of mental errors. Defensively where we can improve: transition d would be number one, and then just the mental lapses.”
Doc Rivers says the three areas of defense the Sixers have been focusing on are transition, pick-and-roll and weak-side defense. He calls Dan Burke an “amazing” defensive coordinator.
Rivers was referring to a frustrating second half on Wednesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks. The Sixers blew a 19-point lead and eventually lost in overtime as their six-game winning streak finally came to a crashing halt.
Giannis Antetokounmpo scores 10 on the Sixers in OT; Sixers score 12 total
Sixers lose
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Sixers Get Troubling Injury Update on Top Shooter