Doc Rivers, Philadelphia 76ers fighting history of past playoff collapses

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The Philadelphia 76ers practiced in Camden, New Jersey, on Wednesday ahead of their return to Toronto for Game 6 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against the Raptors on Thursday night.

76ers coach Doc Rivers is the only coach to preside over more than one loss after taking a series lead, something that has happened to him three times in his career. When asked about the history of the playoffs, Rivers said there was a need to check the record.

Rivers said that it was easy to use him as an example. All right?

In 2003 my team was the eighth seed. The Detroit Pistons won the title and no one gives me credit for that. It was an eighth seed. I want you to look at that roster again. I want you to look at that roster again. You would say, "What a hell of a coaching job." Really.

Chris Paul didn't play the first two games of the Clipper team in 2015, and we didn't have home court. The one we blew was when the Clippers lost to the Denver Nuggets in 2020. I took that one. We didn't blow that. It was in the bubble. Anything can happen in the bubble. There is no home court. The game would have been in LA.

It just happens. Some of them is what I would say. I have to do better. I always take responsibility for my actions. Some of it happens. Let's win it, and we don't have to talk about it.

In the 2003 playoffs, the Magic took a 3-1 lead on the Pistons, led by future Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady. The NBA went back to a best-of-seven first-round series for the first time. McGrady, who never made it out of the first round of the playoffs until the end of his career as a player with San Antonio, said after winning Game 4 that it felt good to get in the second round.

After winning the first three games by a combined 61 points, Detroit lost to the New Jersey Nets in the Eastern Conference finals and went on to win an NBA title the next season.

The current 76ers star point guard James Harden and the president of basketball operations for the Houston Rockets lost the final three games of that series in 2015, which was when Rivers took that 3-1 lead. In Game 6 of the series, the Clippers were up 13 points at the start of the second quarter, but the Astros came back with a 40-15 run to win and force a Game 7.

The loss in 2020 is the most memorable. The Clippers, led by Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, who were both acquired the previous summer, took a 3-1 lead on the Nuggets, only to blow double-digit leads in each of the final three games of the series.

The 76ers are trying to avoid adding to their history. In the playoffs last year, the 76ers blew a 26 point lead in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Atlanta Hawks and then lost on their home court in Game 7 in which Ben Simmons passed up an open dunk.

The 76ers dominated Toronto in the first two games, but then lost in overtime in Game 3, and the Raptors dominated Games 4 and 5. Rivers said that it can be difficult for a team to close out another team, but that both teams know what they have to do to win.

Rivers said that a lot of teams don't win those games. The Celtics won that game in the first round of the playoffs. Everyone else lost.

They played better the other night, so you hate that, but you have to take care of it. We did not play well. We did not play with a sense of desperation. I think both teams have served notice and the other team is paying attention.

We are all in trouble if you don't have that.

When asked what it will take to make things different in Game 6, Rivers pointed to the pace at which the 76ers played in the first two games and said Philadelphia will need to get back to that if it wants to close Toronto out.

The number one thing is the amount of time we took the ball out of bounds. That has to be better.

They use the clock to 22 seconds when they don't run, so we have to get more stops. The game is a half-court game. We need to get more stops and we need to play at a better pace. We are walking the ball up the court.