Doc Rivers sounds off on league forcing seven Sixers to face Nuggets
It has been a question that has been asked a lot over the past few days. Why did the league have the Philadelphia 76ers face the Denver Nuggets on Saturday afternoon with all of the losses they were dealing with?
Heading into the game, the Sixers had nine players available which is above the league minimum of needing at least eight players to play an NBA game. Then, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid were late scratches due to injury and that put them at just seven players.
The Sixers then made injured forward Mike Scott “available” just for them to reach the requirement of eight players needed to play a game. Coach Doc Rivers did not play Scott in the game due to him being injured and they really only had seven players available.
Meanwhile, the league postponed a matchup between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics on Sunday and they then postponed two more games on Monday and that made the Sixers scratch their heads just a bit.
“We had enough guys tonight, but the other night, we were not happy with the way that went down,” said Rivers after their 112-94 loss to the Hawks on Monday. “We really only had seven guys, the number is eight and we don’t understand why we played that game, but I’m just the coach. I’m going to show up and do what they tell me to do for the most part.”
Full audio from Doc Rivers regarding the league making the #Sixers play the Nuggets despite really having 7 guys. pic.twitter.com/g5zVwuSixw
— Austin Krell (@NBAKrell) January 12, 2021
It’s hard to understand why the league had the Sixers play that game on Saturday after what has transpired over the past few days. The NBA did not make the second half of the schedule for moments like this so they can reschedule any games postponed due to the protocols. The game should have been postponed and made up at a leader date.
The Sixers will now return home on Tuesday to face the Miami Heat where they hope they can get star guard Ben Simmons back from injury.
