12:31 AM
Doc Rivers called timeout with three seconds left in the fourth quarter of the 76ers' game against the Nets.
His goal was not to draw up a play. It was to convey a message to the officials.
He walked out to the center court, stared at the three game officials, and held up a zero -- the number of team fouls called on the Nets in the fourth quarter of what became a 114-105 Philly loss, its third in four days, all to teams missing star players.
He said that they needed to see that.
After the buzzer sounded, Rivers gave the same message to the officials. His biggest problem? There should've been more calls for him down the stretch.
"I thought he got called for three fouls in the last three minutes, but no one called them," said Rivers, whose team is now 15-15 after an 8-2 start. I don't know how a team can play the fourth quarter of a game where they have zero fouls and we are driving the ball and posting the ball. It's difficult to play a quarter in the NBA. Very surprised by that.
He had a game-high 11 free throw attempts, but none in the fourth quarter.
The All-Star big man had a team bests in points, assists, and rebound. I thought we got a lot of fouls down there. It's frustrating when they call fouls for the other teams, but you don't get any. I can see what he was talking about.
Philadelphia lost games in Miami and Brooklyn due to injury or COVID protocols, after getting blown out in Memphis with Embiid sitting out with abdominal soreness.
The missed opportunity was added up to by those losses.
He said it was extremely frustrating to lose. I don't like losing. It hurts. We need to do a better job of not spotting the other team by 20 points in the first quarter. We played well after that. We need to do a better job of starting the game.
Philadelphia did make a strong push to recover from an early deficit, but it wasn't enough thanks to another brilliant performance from Kevin Durant, who finished with 34 points, 11 rebound and six assists. The game was tied twice in the fourth quarter before KD hit two huge shots.
"That's what he does on a nightly basis," Curry said. We played good defense. We did a good job, but at the end of the game he walked into, we did a couple of things that weren't great.
Philadelphia lost both he and Harris at the same time, as they both tested positive for COVID-19. The 76ers were without starting guard Tyrese Maxey and key reserves Furkan Korkmaz and Georges Niang for the game against the Nets.
"We have to get right," Rivers said. We have to get everyone back. We played a game without a point guard and only one power forward. We're small. We are all in the same boat. We are a small basketball team. Now you have only 4 people, but you lost Georges. Danny Green is playing for us. That's difficult. You lose a lot of ball handling on the floor.
After the game, the 76ers dropped into a three-way tie for eighth place in the East with the Atlanta Hawks and Boston Celtics, but with the ongoing epidemic raging around the NBA.
"We need to protect each other," he said. Whether it's wearing masks or not, you have to think about your teammate or their family when you're outside of basketball. It doesn't work. Even when it hit us, I was angry. I thought last year there was great precautions in place, and this year it was all over the place, and I thought it was just not professional.
Rivers said that he can't do anything but keep pushing his team and reminding them of how it started.
He said you have no choice. My job as a coach is to keep them positive. Let's keep holding water, let's win a few games, let's stay above.500. If we can get healthy, this stretch is important.
We have two days off now, we have two days off the following week, and four days off the week after that. They're going to give us a chance to gather ourselves, like they made us play all these games. Unless we're healthy, it won't matter.
