The Philadelphia 76ers brought in shooting in the 2020 offseason in order to help the floor spacing around Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. Thus far, the shooting has been very helpful as both Danny Green and Seth Curry have been helpful in the lineup.
However, to begin their Round 2 series with the Atlanta Hawks, Green has had a tough time shooting the ball.
He is 1-for-9 from deep through two games and this comes after he shot 46.4% from deep in Round 1 with the Washington Wizards. He has gotten off to a tough start in this series, but coach Doc Rivers is not worried about his veteran shooter.
“We don’t worry about it,” said Rivers. “For the most part, of those nine, I’m gonna say six of them were probably good shots and three we would like to pass on. I still give him that liberty, that freedom because, at the end of the day, that’s what he does. I don’t worry about shooters missing shots, I really don’t. The odds are they’re going to start making them at some point.”
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Green shot 40.5% from deep in the regular season for Philadelphia so to Rivers’ point, he is going to break out of this slump at some point. The 12-year veteran out of North Carolina has made a career out of being able to knock down open looks from deep so there is no doubt he will figure this out.
In the meantime, Green is doing other things to help the Sixers succeed. He did have eight assists in Game 2 as he was able to get his teammates involved out on the floor and he has totaled 12 assists through two games. He has been able to contribute in other ways.
“The old adage is if we took away what you do well, is there anything else you can do to help the team?” Rivers explained. “If you can, then you get to keep playing. If you can’t, you got to come sit with me. That’s basically the rule of basketball.”
The Sixers will travel to Atlanta for Game 3 as they look to steal home-court advantage back on their side.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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