The Philadelphia 76ers were actually able to have a practice on Tuesday as they continue to navigate through the murky waters of playing basketball through the pandemic. They have had so many games and they have not been able to get on the practice court and be able to grow as a team.
The Sixers have also been battling through having several players out due to the league’s health and safety protocols as well as various injuries. Even when they have had time to practice, it has not been with a full team, but Tuesday was a bit different as they had everybody out there, minus Seth Curry.
“It was nice,” said coach Doc Rivers. “We’re not one of those teams that have the luxury of being together for several years. We have so many new bodies, a new system, new coach, everything. To have all those games and no practice and then to have all those guys out, and even your shootarounds are not what you expect them to be, it absolutely has affected us.”
One guy who missed their weekend road trip was star big man Joel Embiid who was out with right knee pain. Rivers said that Embiid returned to practice on Tuesday and he expects him to go on Wednesday against the Boston Celtics.
“I do expect him to go,” Rivers said. “He was in and out of practice today, we didn’t let him do a lot of stuff, but he looked pretty good.”
As Rivers mentioned, the Sixers are a brand new team. They have so much to work on so being able to have their guys return is a big deal for them. Furkan Korkmaz returned to practice on Tuesday and getting him back was important for the team’s chemistry and it helps them grow.
The team clearly needed it as they got back to work.
“We had to review a lot,” Rivers continued. “We tried to get a little coach’s test is what we call them and we did a lot of skeleton stuff by calling out stuff and just to see if they could run it and probably average, some they could some they couldn’t. I guess that told us what we didn’t know, we didn’t know well, and we had a chance to work on some of that.”
The important part is, the Sixers were close to a full team. They had enough guys to have an actual practice and let these guys be able to run a lot of their stuff while also being able to sub guys in and out. That is hugely important for them.
“More importantly, we had enough guys,” Rivers finished with a smile. “Even on a couple of days we have a somewhat of a practice, we didn’t have enough guys to practice. Today was a day we had enough guys, we can change, we can sub in practice and put different units on the floor.”
The Sixers and the Celtics will tipoff at 7:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday to begin a quick two-game home series.
https://embed.sendtonews.com/oembed/?SC=L7P2zcYs1M-1115566-7498&autoplay=on&V=2&format=json
[lawrence-related id=41490,41487,41484]