As after each elimination, the question of the future comes quickly to the mat and it was the case for James Harden and Doc Rivers after Game 7 lost in Boston. If James Harden, who has a “player option” at 35.6 million dollars, remained in the dark, Doc Rivers answered ” Yes “ when asked if he saw himself staying in Philadelphia next season. “I think I have two years left on my contract,” he replied.
Arrived in Pennsylvania in October 2020 after the Orlando “bubble”, the Philly coach has managed to improve his team’s record each year, going from 49 to 51 then 54 wins this season, the best record since 2001, when Allen Iverson, named MVP, guided the Sixers to first place in the Eastern Conference.
Even if Philly has never been so close to hanging the conference finals again against Boston, especially during Game 6 at home, this new elimination remains marked by many regrets.
The support of Joel Embiid
“We’ve played really well all year, and this loss absolutely takes away what we’ve done this year, in a way.”, he lamented. ” I’m disappointed. I thought we had the right group. Really “.
To cheer himself up, Doc Rivers will be able to listen to the message of Joel Embiid, who highlighted his job ” fantastic “ and felt he deserved to continue his work, despite the defeat.
Although he is well aware of the fragility of his position, as the recent dismissals of Mike Budenholzer and Monty Williams have illustrated, Doc Rivers too finally wanted to conclude his intervention on a note of hope by recalling how his group came close to accomplishing something big, namely advancing to the Conference Finals without home-court advantage. Even if, as often, the coach failed to finish the job.
The technician of the Sixers is thus at 16 wins for 33 defeats on the matches allowing to win a series…
“I don’t think a single person in this room would have chosen the Sixers” he answers to conclude, thus recalling that Boston was the great favorite of the series. ” Person. But we made it (!?). And we chose to believe that we could win no matter what, and we almost did. We’re going to think about Game 6, we’re going to think about Game 7. But our guys fought, and compared to everyone who chose not to believe in us, they didn’t care. They thought they could still win this series. It’s a good thing for our team. I found that overall we were warriors”.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Joel Embiid | 66 | 34.6 | 54.8 | 33.0 | 85.7 | 1.7 | 8.4 | 10.2 | 4.2 | 3.4 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 3.1 | 33.1 |
| James Harden | 58 | 36.8 | 44.1 | 38.5 | 86.7 | 0.7 | 5.4 | 6.1 | 10.7 | 3.4 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 21.0 |
| Tyrese Maxey | 60 | 33.6 | 48.1 | 43.4 | 84.5 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 3.5 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 20.3 |
| Louis King | 1 | 28.8 | 61.5 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 4.0 | 20.0 |
| Tobias Harris | 74 | 32.9 | 50.1 | 38.9 | 87.6 | 0.9 | 4.8 | 5.7 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 14.7 |
| Mac McClung | 2 | 20.5 | 45.0 | 36.4 | 60.0 | 1.5 | 3.5 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 12.5 |
| De’anthony Melton | 77 | 27.9 | 42.5 | 39.0 | 79.3 | 0.9 | 3.2 | 4.1 | 2.6 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 10.1 |
| Shake Milton | 76 | 20.6 | 47.9 | 37.8 | 85.3 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 8.4 |
| George Niang | 78 | 19.4 | 44.2 | 40.1 | 86.7 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 8.2 |
| Jalen Mcdaniels | 24 | 17.5 | 48.8 | 40.0 | 82.4 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 6.7 |
| Montrezl Harrell | 57 | 11.9 | 59.8 | 0.0 | 69.3 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 5.6 |
| Daniel House | 56 | 14.4 | 47.2 | 33.6 | 75.0 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 4.8 |
| Paul Reed, Jr. | 69 | 10.9 | 59.3 | 16.7 | 74.5 | 1.6 | 2.2 | 3.8 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.8 | 4.2 |
| Furkan Korkmaz | 37 | 9.6 | 43.2 | 39.1 | 72.2 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 3.8 |
| pj tucker | 75 | 25.6 | 42.7 | 39.3 | 82.6 | 1.3 | 2.7 | 3.9 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 2.4 | 3.5 |
| Dewayne Dedmon | 8 | 9.6 | 59.1 | 50.0 | 20.0 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 3.1 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 3.5 |
| Saben Lee | 2 | 5.1 | 75.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 3.0 |
| Matisse Thybulle | 49 | 12.1 | 43.1 | 33.3 | 75.0 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 2.7 |
| Jaden Springer | 16 | 5.6 | 48.6 | 40.0 | 75.0 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 2.6 |
| Michael Foster, Jr. | 1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Julian Champagnie | 2 | 3.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
