Getty Doc Rivers, Sixers
Somehow, despite an onslaught from the Brooklyn Nets and a rebound from the Milwaukee Bucks, the Sixers have managed to stay atop the Eastern Conference, at 30-13. And they’ve done it despite a rash of injuries that has seen the Sixers lose four out of five starters for at least five games each.
Most remarkable has been the Sixers’ resiliency since losing star center and MVP candidate Joel Embiid to a knee injury 10 days ago. The Sixers, after starting the season 1-5 in games that Embiid missed, have won five of their last six Embiid-free games.
That’s been largely thanks to a favorable schedule and the outstanding play of Tobias Harris, who is averaging 22.6 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists in his last eight games (seven wins), shooting 49.3% from the field and 41.7% from the 3-point line in that stretch.
But it has also been because of the system and resourcefulness of coach Doc Rivers, who is gaining more momentum as an NBA Coach of the Year contender. In fact, in a headline for Marcus Hayes’ column on Tuesday, the Philadelphia Inquirer called Rivers the “favorite” for the award.
Hayes pointed out that Rivers won Coach of the Year honors in 2000, when he took an unlikely group of hustling, overachieving Orlando Magic players to a .500 record and nearly brought them to the playoffs. “What he’s doing now is just as impressive,” Hayes wrote.
Doc Rivers is the Third-Favorite for Coach of the Year
Indeed, that does not mean the voters will see things the same way. Because he was a coach who had already won a championship, with the 2008 Celtics, taking over a contender-level team, Rivers was not seen as an early favorite for the award. Coaches with as much polish as Rivers don’t generally win the Coach of the Year.
In fact, according to VegasInsider.com, from a betting angle, Rivers remains only the third-best option to win the award. They’ve got Utah’s Quin Snyder as a heavy favorite at -150, with Phoenix coach Monty Williams No. 2 at plus-600.
Rivers is third, at plus-650. It is worth noting, though, that those lines have not been updated since March 8. Since then, the Sixers have gone 6-1, mostly without Embiid on hand, while the Jazz and Suns have gone 4-2.
Veteran Danny Green praised Rivers and his staff this week.
“They’ve done an amazing job, and I think it started way before the break, of evolving and changing the rotation to give guys confidence for this point,” Green said. “The reason we’re able to win games now is because of the things we went through before the break, without Joel, without Seth (Curry), without Ben, when we had guys out, we took our lumps, and now guys are experienced, we believe.”
Sixers Rarely Have Had Starting 5 Healthy
Indeed, the Sixers have only had their expected starting five—Curry, Simmons, Green, Harris and Embiid—healthy and on the floor together for 19 games, according to Basketball-Reference.com, and they have an outstanding 16-3 record in those games.
But injuries and a slew of COVID-19 issues have forced Rivers into using 18 different starting lineups (tied for sixth-most in the NBA), and most of those lineups have been a pure scramble. The second-most used lineup has been on the floor only four times, and 13 of the lineups Rivers has used have been on the floor only once.
By comparison, the two betting favorites ahead of Rivers in the Coach of the Year race have had to use only three (Snyder) and five (Williams) different starting lineups.
The Sixers brought in Rivers because of his championship credentials. But he has had to use the same kind of scrambling he did as the Magic coach 21 years ago at times with this bunch. Maybe he will get the same results off the floor (a Coach of the Year award) with the Magic and the same results on the floor that he did in Boston (a championship).