CAMDEN, N.J.–The Philadelphia 76ers have a lot to work on before the playoffs begin mid-April where they are expected to make a deep run into the playoffs led by their star duo of James Harden and Joel Embiid.
Integrating Harden, and Paul Millsap, into what they want to do out on the floor is something at the top of coach Doc Rivers’ to-do list. Philadelphia has had a lot of offensive success in the first two games with Harden leading the way, but that has more to do with the talent on the roster than anything else.
As they got back to work at practice on Tuesday, Rivers revealed what the team really worked on.
“We did a lot of skeletal work,” said Rivers. “Boring, hard, monotonous, just a tough one because that’s not what guys usually wanna do all practice, but because we don’t really know a lot of our stuff, defensively and offensively, we took full advantage today. One day is gonna matter, but it’s not gonna change everything overnight, but it was good.”
Harden mentioned after his big performance against the New York Knicks on Sunday that he doesn’t know too many plays. That makes sense due to the fact that he hasn’t been with the team for too long.
As they move forward, Rivers won’t overload him with too much information, but he wants to be able to make sure he understands that there are more than just one or two options on the offensive end.
“What we did was we made the plays that we’re running better,” Rivers explained. “Right now, you take us out of our first option, guys literally don’t know what to go to. So we went all the way through each option of each play, explained everything we’re looking for, where we’re trying to get the ball, we spent a ton of time on where to cut, where to space, where to be. It’s slow, boring, but it’s stuff you have to do.”
The Sixers will be better off once everybody understands their role and how they want to play with Harden. That will take some time, but practices like Tuesday’s will help in that regard.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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