Philadelphia 76ers: Want to force a Game 7? Tighten up the rotation

Front runners no more.

After recording the best record in the Eastern Conference in the regular season, and the third-best overall record in the NBA, the Philadelphia 76ers are a game away from etching one of the more disappointing ends to a season in recent memory, right up there with Kawhi Leonard’s quadruple doink and 2002’s first-round exit versus Boston.

*sigh* there’s surely a whole list of disappointing ends to a season at the hands of the Boston Celtics, but I digress.

With Joel Embiid indefinitely limited due to a torn meniscus in his right knee and the not-so-dynamic duo of Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris combining for 12 points in 76 combined minutes of action, morale around the City of Brotherly Love isn’t particularly high. Au contraire, some have already resigned to the fact that Doc Rivers‘ 2008 championship win was a fluke, Simmons was called both a bum and worthy of landing Damian Lillard via trade, and that, for the 38th season in a row, the Sixers will not be parading down Broad Street with the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy; a trophy so seldom brought back to Philly that some may not even know its name.

But hey, why be so gosh down in the dumps? I mean, sure, the Sixers’ chances of making the Eastern Conference Finals are a good bit lower than at the beginning of the series, but they are still favored to win Game 6 by two points to force a Game 7 despite being the road team in this particular outing.

Considering the Philadelphia 76ers still maintain a +22 point differential for the series despite having a 2-3 record, it’s not like the team has been outright blown out in any of their three losses. All it may take is some lineup solidification, a few adjustments, and a better game plan, and the Wells Fargo Center could be rocking on Fathers Day for a must-watch Game 7 for a chance to take on the winner of the Milwaukee Bucks-Brooklyn Nets series.

The Philadelphia 76ers have to tighten their rotation in Game 6.

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If there’s one thing Doc Rivers loves more than anything see, it’s lineup consistency.

With very few exceptions, even the most casual fan can pretty easily predict when players like Joel Embiid, Matisse Thybulle, and George Hill will check in and out of games, and thus when the team’s offensive potency will wane.

Now granted, when the team is taking on a lesser squad, like the Washington Wizards (no offense), this isn’t much of an issue. Sure, the lead will shrink, and the momentum in-arena and on the court may suffer as a result, but once JoJo and company return to the court, the squad bursts back to life and delivers the same sort of effort fans have become accustomed to.

However, in the playoffs, no lead is ever really safe – as fans in Philly can now attest better than most.

In the Brooklyn Nets’ Game 5 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, Kevin Durant played all 48 minutes of action. While that isn’t a particularly tenable situation long-term, as Durant took a little under eight minutes off in the team’s Game 6 loss, he’s still averaging 41 minutes in the Nets’ second-round series, which is 5.5 minutes more than Emiid plays on average, 4.5 more minutes than Tobias Harris plays, and 28.3(!) minutes more than Shake Milton earns on average.

Considering Milton is averaging the most points per game of any Sixers bench player since his 14 point performances in Game 2, that seems like a massive oversight.

While it may be enticing to get a guy like Tyrese Maxey into the game as a fun change of pace performer or insert Hill into the game to serve as a veteran presence, neither scored more than six points in a game versus the Hawks and have largely been ineffective when the Sixers needed them most. Milton, by contrast, has scored an average of .525 points in every minute he’s been on the court since Game 2; why is he splitting time with Hill instead of taking the brunt of the team’s reserve backcourt minutes? It’s not like Hill has contributed much to shut down either Trae Young or Lou Williams on the defensive end of the court.

Four more minutes of Harris – well, not Game 5 Harris but Games 1-4 Harris – should generally prove more effective than 12 throwaway minutes to either Hill or Maxey, so why give either an extended look when 48 minutes will define the season one way or another?

Remember, the Philadelphia 76ers are already running a starter down thanks to the untimely Game 3 loss of Danny Green. Even if they initially wanted to go with a 10 man rotation – which is one player more than either Milwaukee or Brooklyn use on average – Green’s absence kicks everyone up a spot in the rotation and forces the Sixers’ 11th man to go up against the Hawks’ sixth, seventh, or eighth guy.

That, my friends, isn’t a winning strategy.

Next. The Doc Rivers experience is already old. dark

Ideally, Doc Rivers should give 38ish minutes to his four regular season starters, 10 minutes to Dwight Howard, and spit up the final 78 minutes between Furkan Korkmaz, Shake Milton, and Matisse Thybulle. That should guarantee the team fresh players at all times, scorers on the court for most of the game, and the optionality to sub in shooting, defense, or scoring depending on the situation.