CAMDEN, N.J. — The last time the Philadelphia 76ers took the court was on April 22 when they finished off the Brooklyn Nets in first round of the playoffs. While they wait for the semifinals begin on May 1, they have to get some action in.
The Sixers have been in the gym practicing. While rest is good for this group, considering the injury to Joel Embiid, this has been a very long layoff, and coach Doc Rivers has his concerns.
“I don’t even know if I had a training camp this long,” laughed Rivers. “I mean, this is a long time. It really is and, listen, from a coaching standpoint, there’s clearly a concern. Obviously, this is a long time, and, like today (Thursday), we got two guys running into each other in our scrimmage. You got to play, because we’re basketball players, but you’re scared the entire scrimmage.”
Scrimmages can be good for any team to get out and run, but there can be scares as Rivers mentioned.
“We went three different scrimmages and you’re sitting there holding your breath the entire scrimmage,” Rivers continued. “Just get through it. Let’s get out of here. That’s how you’re thinking, but that’s not a real game and that’s not how you’re gonna think in the game. So it’s a tough little thing.”
It’s rare for teams to actually go hard and scrimmage during a practice in the playoffs. Teams don’t want to push their guys in practice, and they want everybody to be fresh for the games. This is a different situation.
“That’s rare and that’s really — unless you have time,” Rivers said of playoff scrimmages. “I’ve done it. I’ve had times where we won early, and we had four days or five days and we would scrimmage one day, but this is back-to-back days. We’re gonna have a day off here. It’s unbelievable, but it is a good thing somewhere. At some point, it’s gonna turn into a good thing.”
On the flip side, this long layoff allows the Sixers to have their guys well-rested and healthier for the next postseason challenge.
“I think it’s good,” Tobias Harris said. “You get guys rested. We were able to sweep the first round; we handled our business. So every day, we come in the gym, we still got to handle our business in the best fashion that we know.”
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