The preseason is the time for every team to shake off the cobwebs a bit. Teams have not played a real game in months and after a week of training camp and battling against each other, the preseason offers an opportunity to see what they have against live competition.
The Philadelphia 76ers got their first crack at the preseason on Monday when they took on the Toronto Raptors on the road up in Canada and there were some things that need to be addressed.
In a 123-107 loss on Monday, the Sixers have some things that they can definitely improve on as that is what the preseason is for. One thing that stands out is that they shot only 8-for-34 from deep in the loss and that is something that might worry some, but not coach Doc Rivers.
“Last year, I remember Seth (Curry) struggled early, Danny (Green) and everybody was making a big deal,” said Rivers after the loss. “Like Seth knows how to shoot, Danny knows how to shoot, that’s not going away, getting their legs under them. Seth actually did shoot the ball pretty well, but I’m using last year as an example.”
Rivers is correct on Curry and Green as the two of them did get off to some inauspicious starts. Curry was hot to start, but after his bout with COVID in January of 2020, he went into a deep slump before he finished shooting 45% from deep for the season.
Green took a while to get his legs underneath him before he also recovered and ended up shooting 40.5% from deep in his first season in Philadelphia. A slow start to the preseason is not going to be a cause for concern for this team.
“We need to start creating good shots,” said Curry who shot 2-for-3 from deep on the night. “We know we got a ton of guys that actually shoot 3s. It’s just a preseason game. You don’t want to take too much out, we don’t have a lot of offense in so it’s kind of, sometimes it’s tough, especially a team like that who switches all the time. It’s tough to create good shots. If we create good shots, we’re going to shoot a good percentage. We got enough shooting.”
One player that stood out a bit was second-year guard Isaiah Joe who shot 4-for-8 from deep off the bench. He was terrific with his shot as he continued to find his spot out on the floor and Rivers was happy with what he saw.
“I thought Isaiah Joe played well,” he added. “He’s very solid, he knows what he can do. Of the other guys, I thought he played really well.”
The Sixers will host the Raptors in another preseason game on Thursday at the Wells Fargo Center.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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