The Philadelphia 76ers are getting set to begin the preseason in the 2020-21 season as they host the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night from Wells Fargo Center. The team has a lot of expectations and they have a lot to work out in a short amount of time.
In order to try and jell quickly, coach Doc Rivers will be looking to play his guys heavily in the first half of these preseason games. That means Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid will get a lot of minutes early, but there will be a minutes cap.
“I don’t know what it is but I have one, I have a mental cap,” Rivers explained. “I’ll put it that way and we’ll see. Typically, in these games I will play them as close to normal minutes as possible in the first half and then in the second half, probably playing very little.”
In terms of what Rivers is looking for in the preseason opener, he does want to see the team’s conditioning level. He would like to see the guys play with adrenaline that one will not get in practice.
“I don’t know if there’s anything I want to get out of it. It’s something I want to see,” he explained. “I want to see where our conditioning levels are. I know we’ve done a lot of playing and a lot of stuff, but as hard as you go, you can’t practice playing with adrenaline like you do in games and so that it will tell us a lot.”
Tip-off from Wells Fargo Center is set for 7:30 p.m. EST. [lawrence-related id=40245,40241,40218]