The Philadelphia 76ers got back to work on Wednesday night in the Windy City as they prepared to take on the Chicago Bulls on Thursday while missing star duo Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. The two of them are in the league’s contact tracing protocols and will miss the game.
There was another key piece missing at practice on Wednesday and that was coach Doc Rivers who was feeling under the weather with a non-COVID related illness. In his place, assistant Dave Joerger took over the coaching duties as the team got back to work in Chicago.
“A little strange because generally, this is the most difficult practice of the season, in my opinion, as a coach,” said Joerger. “They’re still a little groggy, they’re like ‘Come on, I’d like to have two more days off on my break’ and so we just tried to bring a lot of juice a lot of energy. Certainly, we miss Doc and certainly also missing Ben and Jo out there, it had a bit of a strange feeling.”
Doc Rivers is feeling under the weather and he was not at practice tonight. The team confirms that it is a non-COVID related illness and that he is in Chicago. An update on his availability for tomorrow’s game will be provided at a later date. #Sixers
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) March 10, 2021
There is one player who seemed to get back on the right path for the team and that was veteran guard Seth Curry. The veteran out of Duke was up and down after his bout with COVID back in January and he shot only 35.9% from deep over the final 19 games of the first half. This comes after he shot 59.6% from deep over his first nine games before being out with the virus.
As he got back to work on Wednesday, it looked like he had a spring in his step.
“He was not groggy!” laughed Joerger. “His body looked lively today I was loving it. I thought he looked sharp today, made shots, just seemed like maybe as much mental. You don’t know what he got hit with and having to try to fight back through that, I’ve not been through it, but it seemed like it was wearing on him a little bit and so we’re looking for big things from him in the second half.”
It is so important to have Curry get back into a groove. The Sixers brought him in here in order to provide spacing on the offensive end of the floor and in a few games where the team won’t have Embiid or Simmons, the team will need him to get back into his shooting groove.
As far as the two stars are concerned, Joerger did not have an update on them. However, Embiid is still expected to return Friday with Simmons set to return on Sunday if they keep testing negative.
“I am not the head coach in that area that I know what exactly the protocol is when they’ll be back,” Joerger stated. “I can’t speak to.”
Tipoff in Chicago is set for 8 p.m. EST on Thursday.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[lawrence-related id=43406,43392,43389]