The Philadelphia 76ers slumped to a six-game series loss to the Miami Heat in the second round of the playoffs. For a team that has aimed to be a Finals contender for multiple consecutive seasons now, another year without making it past the second round will be a worrying trend.
Doc Rivers has coached this team through consecutive underperforming seasons that have resulted in second-round exits and many believe his job may be at risk. The coach has already been linked with other jobs but faced the music after the loss while talking to reporters.
Coach believed that the 76ers roster was just outmatched compared to what the Heat had on the court. Rivers didn’t have Embiid at his disposal for the first few games of the series and then had a heavily injured Joel who wanted to keep playing. In addition, the Heat depth came out superior to what Philly has.
Doc Rivers: “I came to the conclusion at the end of this game that we were just not good enough to beat Miami”
— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) May 13, 2022
The 76ers bringing two wins back despite the injuries Joel Embiid was playing with is impressive. Their defense showed a lot of positives in the last few games. However, the offensive production was extremely below average. James Harden’s passive play coupled with the injuries to Embiid didn’t let the 76ers find an offensive rhythm or identity they could hang their hats on.
The roster depth can only be blamed on the team itself, as they traded away a lot of pieces to get James Harden and hope that Harden would be the one to pick up the offensive production of the team. As Joel Embiid said himself, this isn’t Houston James Harden anymore.
Rivers and Daryl Morey will need to do a lot of work in the off-season to fully understand what pieces they need to add to help the team be more competitive. With young teams emerging in the East, Philly can’t be lazy and hope this current squad makeup will yield good results.
