Getty Head coach Doc Rivers of the Philadelphia 76ers
One of the reasons why the Boston Celtics defeated the Philadelphia 76ers on February 8 was the performance of Blake Griffin. Griffin scored 15 points in 18 minutes of action, all from hitting five threes. Afterward, Griffin said that since the Sixers were leaving him open,
“Honestly, when a team leaves you open like that, you just got to try to make them pay. I was shooting open shots all night, so it was nice to see some go through,” Griffin said.
Griffin then took a subtle jab at Sixers’ head coach Doc Rivers, who coached Griffin on the Los Angeles Clippers from 2013 to 2018, for not adjusting after Griffin kept hitting threes.
“It hurt ’em, that was their gameplan. Obviously, Doc makes that gameplan. They didn’t adjust, which has been sort of a thing. No disrespect though.”
“I don’t take it as disrespect. It hurt them… they didn’t adjust.”
Blake Griffin talks about the Sixers leaving him open and whether or not he felt disrespected.
During their time together on the Clippers, Griffin and Rivers helped the Clippers have some of their most successful seasons as a franchise, putting up a 57-25 record in the 2013-14 season and a 56-26 record in the 2014-15 season, but never getting past the second round.
With the loss, the Celtics are now up 2-0 in their season series against the Sixers and are currently up four games on them in the Eastern Conference standings.
Rivers Rips Into Sixers Following Loss
Rivers was not happy with the Sixers on either side of the floor following their performance against the Celtics. Rivers took shots at both their offense and defense while talking with reporters after the game.
“Listen, I don’t care what anyone did offensively, tonight, honestly. We scored because we were individually good. We didn’t score as a team tonight. We didn’t play as a team offensively. And then defensively, we were worse,” Rivers said.
Rivers specifically singled out how open the Celtics were on some of their shots from deep.
“I could have made some of those threes. Well, maybe not me. I was a poor shooter. Someone in this room could have made those threes. They were pretty much wide open. We gave a lot of dare shots tonight all the way through the game. A lot of shots were we just dared guys to shoot them and they shot them and they made them. Give them credit, you still got to make them and they did.”
“Someone in this room could have made those 3s… give them credit you still got to make them and they did.”
Doc Rivers did not mince words when talking about about Sixers defense vs. the Celtics
Embiid on Celtics Matchup
After losing their second consecutive game to the Celtics this season, Embiid was asked what it would take to reach the Celtics’ level. Embiid talked about what would have to be done.
“I think there are a lot of holes, but you have to go out there and play with a lot of effort,” Embiid said. “Obviously, they went to the finals and they got the best record in the league for a reason, so you just got to do your best job possible.”
Embiid then praised the Celtics for their depth.
“That’s a really good team. You look at tonight, Jayson (Tatum) didn’t have a good night, but you got other guys stepping up, knocking down threes. (Sam) Hauser coming off the bench. (Malcolm) Brogdon putting up 19 or 20. Derrick White has been great the whole season and Grant Williams. He was great tonight. They’re deep. They’ve got a lot of options. Especially when you get to the playoffs, you need a bunch of guys that can create their own shot and make plays for each other.”
The Celtics went into the game not having Marcus Smart, Al Horford, and Robert Williams III then lost Jaylen Brown towards the end of the first half.