Doc Rivers pushing Sixers to have better body language vs. Celtics
CAMDEN, N.J.–The Philadelphia 76ers have a tendency of letting little mistakes get to them a bit. Whenever they miss a rebound or an assignment, they can begin to hang their heads and look a bit defeated at times.
That was the case in their Game 3 loss to the Boston Celtics on Friday. The Celtics committed four turnovers and shot just 41.2% from the floor and 3-for-12 from deep in the fourth quarter, but they made some big hustle plays as they out-rebounded Philadelphia 13-6 in the final frame and they grabbed four big offensive rebounds.
As the Sixers got back to work on Saturday in a film session, coach Doc Rivers pointed out the bad body language.
“I showed our guys,” Rivers began. “Like our body language on bad plays and you hear coaches say this, each round you grow. Boston is past that already. They’ve gone each round and so they’ve gone through these frustrations already where it doesn’t phase them when they make mistakes. We’re not there and that’s where we’re going. That’s part of this journey.”
For a team to get to where they want to be in the NBA, they have to take their lumps. They have to push through all of the adversity that gets thrown at them and continue to persevere as the Celtics have done with their current core.
“I showed our guys, I was like ‘Look at the difference when they make a turnover or a bad play and us.’ We hung our head, we reacted which creates to the next play and that’s part of our culture and building that stuff,” Rivers continued. “That’s what we’re doing here.”
Rivers then stated that he singled out Shake Milton in the film session and asked him a simple question.
“I asked Shake,” Rivers said. “First I asked him ‘Did you go to class when you were in school?’ and he said ‘Yes’. He probably lied to me (Rivers was joking), but he said ‘Yes’. Then I asked him ‘If a series is as close as it could possibly be after three games, what would that make it?’ and he answered, ‘It would be 2-1.’ I said ‘Yeah, it’s 2-1, and with us having a home game coming up at home’.”
Even if the Sixers had not won Game 1 and they were down 0-2 returning to the Wells Fargo Center and they had won Game 3, they would be in the same position.
“I said ‘If we would have lost the first two games and then won yesterday (Game 3), how would we feel?’ like this is part of going through a playoff grind,” the coach continued. “It’s emotional terrorism at times and you have to deal with it.”
That has been the challenge for the Sixers in the past. When they get hit in the mouth in the playoffs, they normally lay down. Game 4 offers them another chance to respond and get back on track.
“You have to be able to handle it or you lose,” Rivers finished. “I said ‘That’s part of this. You gotta be able to deal with and handle it’ and so I thought after watching the film, we’re in a much better place than before the film. I will say that and it was long.”
Game 4 is Sunday afternoon in South Philadelphia at 3:30 p.m. EDT.
