PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers looked dead in the water on Thursday at home against the Milwaukee Bucks. They weren’t able to come up with any rhythm on the offensive end and they couldn’t get any stops on the defensive end either.
Milwaukee built a 13-point lead before coach Doc Rivers made an adjustment and went small by putting PJ Tucker at the center spot. Rivers had been going to Paul Reed and Montrezl Harrell initially when Joel Embiid went to the bench, but when the two of them were ineffective, he went with Tucker and the Sixers took off.
The space allowed James Harden to do what he does and he scored 16 points in the fourth quarter on his way to 31 for the game before Philadelphia came up short in the comeback attempt in a 90-88 loss at home.
Afterward, the Sixers explain why they went small with Tucker and the benefits of it.
Rivers on the play of Reed and Harrell causing him to go small
“Tonight (Thursday), I didn’t like either one, honestly. That’s why we went with Tuck and I thought that lineup changed the game for us. They’re both gonna be great. They’re gonna have good nights, too. Trying to find who fits James the best is the key with that when Joel’s off the floor. Usually, both of them are pretty good rollers. Today, neither one of them did that very well.”
Harden on the smaller lineup helping them get back into it
“We were just active. Our defensive intensity picked up, we got stops, and that gave us opportunities in transition to slow them down so that fourth quarter was really good defensively. We gotta find ways to be more consistent in the first three quarters as well.”
Tucker on his role in the smaller lineup
“I always like it because then I get to kind of anchor defense. I get to do that anyways, but really when we go small, I get to keep the matchups and have guys kind of do a lot of what I go through when I’m at center, but I think that’s just an ace in the back pocket. A lot of times where teams are rolling, we’re playing a little slow, or you just want to pick it up, get on a break, let Tyrese (Maxey) and James get out and play fast and it opens everything up everybody.”
Rivers on when the Sixers made the decision to go small
“We made that decision at halftime. I thought ‘if we can get it’. It’s tough because we tried matching PJ’s minutes with Giannis (Antetokounmpo) and then the one stretch, I just said ‘We’re gonna keep PJ out there’. He said he can take the…