The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the heavy favorites of winning the NBA. However, for that, they would need to get out of the first round. Philly is currently leading in the series 3-2 against the Toronto Raptors. But they have lost the last 2 games and Doc Rivers has the awful rap of being a coach that chokes leads.
That means that even though the 76ers are up, they could still lose because of Doc Rivers’ coaching. Coach Doc has coached a championship team. But none of the teams in over a decade have won a title under him.
Doc Rivers sounds off after hearing the potential of another choked lead
Doc Rivers has coached for a long time in the NBA. That leads to having some great peaks and really low moments. The peak would be the NBA title he won with Boston. And his low would be all the times he has blown leads.
Currently, the Philadelphia 76ers are playing the Toronto Raptors. The 76ers were leading 3-0 in this series and needed just 1 win to advance. However, since then, the Raptors have won the last 2 games, putting all the pressure back on Philly. Game 6 will be played in Toronto which is their homecourt and losing that game creates all nothing scenario. Fans are afraid that Philly will choke this lead due to the experience Doc has in that category.
“It just happens. Some of them, I gotta do better. I always take responsibility. Then some of it is circumstances that happen. This one, let’s win it and we won’t have to talk about it.”
‘Well it’s easy to use me as an example, but I wish ya’ll would tell the whole story.’
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— theScore (@theScore) April 27, 2022
He tried to make a case for the teams that choked previous leads. The first by saying the 2003 Orlando was the 8th seed and should have never had a lead in the first place. The 2015 Clippers choked the lead because Chris Paul had a broken leg and the 2020 Clippers choked the lead because of the bubble.
Every season teams go with many such issues, but making up reasons for it would not change what happened. Doc’s focus should be on winning this series and silencing all doubters with his coaching on the court. Can Philadelphia save Doc’s stature by winning this series?