Doc Rivers, Sixers reveal what they want to work on in final week
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The Philadelphia 76ers (47-21) are atop the Eastern Conference with four games left before the playoffs begin. With that in mind, there are still kinks the team wants to work out before the postseason begins.
While Philadelphia has cleaned up its transition defense in some ways recently, it has been an issue all season long. Over the final week of the regular season, coach Doc Rivers would like to focus on the defensive end.
“Reestablishing our defensive identity and reestablish our defensive rules,” said Rivers. “Then offensively, really just working on our continuity, working on our end of the game segments. That’s probably what we would do.”
Tobias Harris, who has been one of the leaders on the team all season, echoed Rivers’ sentiments on Monday at practice. The team has been stingy in the half-court. It has used its length on the perimeter as well as Joel Embiid protecting the rim to make life miserable for opponents, but the defensive issues in transition continue to pop up.
“We definitely want to be better in our transition,” Harris said. “That’s been a thing we’ve said all season. I know that is for sure going to be emphasis, it’s been an emphasis, and just understanding our schemes. Knowing our personnel out there, knowing qualities of different guys that we’re going against it, and what they’re used to doing. I think right now for us, transition, communication is probably our biggest thing where we haven’t been communicating as much as we need to out there on the floor.”
The Sixers will have about a week off between their regular-season finale on Sunday and the playoffs beginning on May 22. That will offer the team some more time to prepare. They will not just sit around and not do anything; some type of work needs to be done.
“Guys are rhythmic, that’s how they play basketball, but we’re gonna have a week off regardless,” said Rivers. “Whether of what we do once we clinch, we still have a week of practice, so that’s off, if you know what I’m saying. There’s no games, no matter what we do. We have to try to just figure out how to use that time wisely.”
The Sixers will take on the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday as they look to continue their quest for the No. 1 seed.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
