The Sixers' athletic (and chaotic) bench trio looked like a unit that can live with a blown dunk or two in Friday night's win over the Raptors.
With five games left before this year’s playoffs, Rivers called the Sixers’ rotation “always in flux."“If you just studied rotations, they start at 10 a lot of times in the playoffs, they go to nine, and by the Finals, they’re seven,” Rivers said with a laugh. “That’s just how it works. The deeper teams can go deeper, though. We hope we’re one of those teams that, first of all, can get to the Finals. And second, we’re hoping that when we get there, we’re still using eight to nine guys.
Along with Harden, the Sixers received downright sensational first-half minutes Friday from House, McDaniels and Reed. Although there are nuances to each player’s game, much of their collective success stemmed from simply playing very hard and fast. Both creating and smoothly adapting to chaos is another broad strength for that trio. Reed blows an awkward attempt inside? He’ll grab his own miss and kick the ball out to a shooter.
“When he keeps it in that box — straight-line drives, running the floor, rebounding, making shots — he’s a benefit for us to have on the floor,” Rivers said. House straying a bit from “that box" isn’t automatically negative. He’s able to effectively use his pump fake, spot open teammates while driving downhill, and make creative dishes. Reed also had a nice pass under pressure and McDaniels sensibly cut to the front of the rim during a bright second-quarter sequence.
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