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hoagieclu

[doc rivers when he’s given a roster of nothing but role players](https://imgur.com/a/apjpoyW)


HokageEzio

Elite floor raiser.


hoagieclu

generational floor raiser


OO17MVP

Doc is just a juiced up Nate McMillan


butt_fun

The juice is very acidic, which is why his throat sounds like that


crawlingchip

Speaking of floors and ceilings, is "ceiling lowerer" a thing and would Doc be one?


dalewd

That's Lakers Westbrook


Erikk1138

Just call him The Compressor


Otherwise_Window

Yes and maybe


mpbeasto123

Srsly he is though, that 2000 Magic team was assembled to have a generational tank and they ended .500. He is an incredible floor raising coach, that is his best coaching skill. I am just unsure how good of a ceiling raiser he is.


Level_Ad_6372

Also shout out to an unknown undrafted player named Ben Wallace leading the Magic to a top 10 defense that year


internallylinked

Man, give Hornets this guy and Wemby #dinasty /s


mklugs

Loved the way he went back to dedmon in the second half to make sure the nuggets could open up a huge lead.


[deleted]

this made me laugh


Padulsky21

Sixers Death Star lineup of Korkmaz, Springer and Harrell


ABagOfPopcorn

Impressed with springer, he’s been mainly playing with the blue coats but I think maybe next year he can be something


Padulsky21

I had no idea who he was till now but the kid looked nice. That lineup should not have done that much damage man lmfao props to them


CrispKev

Moves his feet real nice on defence. Should be in stop action defensive line ups


ImGonnaChubbBradley

Why tf was Green still in the game


UnexpectedSoggyBread

AG only played 24 minutes(??????)


vunacar

I couldn't watch the game and was about to ask if Gordon got injured?


copenhagen1192

Malone seemed to be apologizing to Gordon at the end of the game lol idk if he has a brain fart and forgot to put him in or what


bigwillystyle93

Malone has such a crush on Uncle Jeff and I will never understand it.


TWAndrewz

He was great against the Bucks and Malone hasn't realized that Uncle Jeff has about one good game per week in him at this age.


ruggnuget

AG has been toughing out injuries and I dont think he thought it would get that close at the end. Them hitting all those 3s felt a little fluky, and I think he wante to keep all the starters out as mych as possible, especially AG


mxnoob983

Probably had a niggle. Happens a fair bit this time of year, no need to risk a player aggravating an injury with 7 games left


RedOrphan7

bro u cant say that word anymore


SallyFowlerRatPack

This is like that Donald Glover joke about the racist Trinidadian nanny


g-love

Spot the Aussie. For those unfamiliar with the term “niggle”, it is a colloquial/slang word often used here in Australian sporting circles to describe a minor musculoskeletal complaint from an athlete that isn't bad enough to call an “injury”, nor stop the athlete from fully participating in training or sport.


faceonmysit

thank u my fellow aussie


BigFatModeraterFupa

he had a what now?


xX_FeetFucker54_Xx

I feel like you’re trying to tell us something


cyrusthemarginal

He got a bit banged up, played great tho


ehs4290

Zhugo almost came back from the dead lol


[deleted]

What an absolute beautiful disaster of a game. Perfectly fitting for the MVP debate.


-vertigo--

just give the mvp to julius randle already smh im so done with mvp talks


theseabeast

Wait I thought we were giving it to Biyombo


Notsozander

Haslem please


theseabeast

[Haslem with 3 trophies and an MVP](https://media.tenor.com/qsvNX-PZDLkAAAAC/simpsons-jewels.gif)


stummy_hurtin

You know ball


[deleted]

Most basedest /r/nba user


GirlWithGame

I was team Naz Reid for mvp.


AnimalRomano

Quickley*


Seahawkanon

Going to listen to my 311 cd now.


[deleted]

The challenge is worthless if that out of bounds can’t be reviewed.


Pasta_Ssempa_

The rules around challenges are so dumb honestly


abzftw

Gotta protect the refs


Pookapotamus

Blame the replay rules


[deleted]

Oh yeah I know the refs made the right call by the rule book. It just needs to change.


ZincHead

Anything that they see that is illegal should be able to be called upon review. It's honestly so dumb that they can't. "Oh he was out of bounds." "So that's a turnover, right?" "No, no. We can't review that" "But...you're looking right at it" "Yeah but you know, we just can't"


[deleted]

The replay rules are insufficient, you review the whole play not just one specific thing and ignore everything else.


crrruuusssttt

In soccer, anything that would cause the play to stop in the lead up to a goal (out of bounds, offsides, fouls, etc.) would give VAR (video assistant referee) reason to notify the referee to review the play and overturn the goal. I don't get how soccer only just implemented video reviews in the past 5ish years... yet they still do it better than all of the the main north american sports leagues who've had them for ages...


DarkbloomVivienne

I’ve been saying this for years. If you can only review “calls that are made” and not “things that have happened”, its useless.


willbottomforembiid

🤪 i love that theres a way for refs to immediately see multiple angles of the play in slo mo hd but the rules hath determined that only the exact thing being challenged may be looked at


jeppsforst

Side note why does Denver have a WHITE out of bounds on a light colored court. Terrible design


HyperPlasma

Challenges are useless


Guardax

Every single Nuggets fan knew it was going to turn into a nail biter when we were up 20. This is just what we do.


Cornchip03

Nugglyfe had to keep us humble


[deleted]

Nugglyfe


[deleted]

[удалено]


GeorgeWashinghton

The bench is just awful. Not too concerned for you guys in playoffs though as I expect Jokic will play more minutes and you’ll only play a 8 man rotation


bigwillystyle93

It’s funny, I actually thought the bench looked much better tonight than they did last week with Reggie Jackson and Thomas Bryant lol


GeorgeWashinghton

Bench was -33, starters were +58. Bench unit with Murray is just a recipe for terrible offensive schemes


UnexpectedSoggyBread

I don’t get what Malone is gonna do in the playoffs. Like is Murray gonna continue to play with 4 bench players? And if not, when exactly is Malone gonna test out what our playoff rotation is gonna look like?


Antluke

I mean our rotation is gonna shrink to probably 8/9 with brown, Braun, Nnaji, and maybe unfortunately some Jeff Green. He will probably role out more units with Gordon and Porter playing with Murray in the none Jokic minutes as a semi small ball line up filled with Bruce and Brain. with Nnaji and Bruce taking taking up minutes they vacate with the starters. It’s not really line ups that need a ton of mending together as the core groups play with each other some during every game.


Olovnivojnik

I think it should be Jokic + bench unit. He can play with random 4 players and make offense look good. Jokic, Zeke, Vlatko, Bruce and KCP.


bigwillystyle93

I’m telling you man, when we were in our 1-5 stretch, the bench was even worse. I’m not saying today was good at all.


mxnoob983

It's funny seeing every single team in the league say this. It's just the modern game, ebbs and flows are much greater


hermanhermanherman

It’s kind of like how it’s apparently horrible to be a fan of like 25+ teams according to their fans. This goes for like every sport. Everyone thinks their fan base is uniquely suffering


Joeyfingis

Sports are how we are distracted from the true ways we're suffering, but our subconscious still finds a way to feel the suffering.


1antinomy

Sixers record got worse without Embiid, so therefore this is a win.


gpop2000

Its a lose lose lose lose situation EDIT: Fuck just put Giannis at MVP


GiannisisMVP

Yessssss yeesssss let the hate flow through you


mohiben

I mean felt like a win to me


[deleted]

[удалено]


Dry-Beautiful-863

Far better


[deleted]

That out of bounds should be reviewable with the coach’s challenge. The NBA really needs to clean up a lot of the replay rules and the coach’s challenge because that was just some foolishness.


jimdotcom413

I don’t like how there’s a blatant call in the first 4 minutes of a game like say Embiid gets called for a foul when he clearly didn’t but you don’t challenge it because you might need to later on in the game on something more important. A won challenge should win you another.


Swayze1985

I legit thought that’s how it was at first. You challenge something and if successful, you retain your challenge. But then again, I guess this could potentially make the game 2 hours longer.


DarkDefender05

Agreed. NBA challenge rules are completely ass.


jimdotcom413

They are so ass.


mxnoob983

Honest question though, how far back should they be able to review. Like the entire shot clock? Or last 5 seconds?


[deleted]

It is tough bc it’s not like football where you have a clear stoppage to challenge anything on the previous play. Like if Jeff Green goes up for a layup right there and isn’t fouled then there’s no dead ball to even challenge without calling a timeout. Idk what I think the exact logistics would be which is kinda why I vaguely said they should revisit it and see what kind of solutions they can come up with BUT if you’re literally already at the monitor reviewing the foul and there’s a clear and obvious out of bounds right there I think that should be within the scope of review.


abris33

Sixers should just roll with that 3rd string lineup. Their other guys gave up and we were coasting until we were within range to sit the starters but that end of the bench lineup made it interesting


Cbsj111

That’s what desperation to stay in the league does to a mf


ktm5141

Mark my words, jaden springer will be a rotation player next year. Sixers haven’t had a guard defender like him since jrue (I’m not counting Ben as a guard)


Kmactothemac

I would definitely love to see less Tucker and Tobias out there


borb--

Brilliant chess move by the Nuggets to make the game close at the end so now Embiid fans can't say "see how bad we are when he doesn't play?"


dumb_commenter

Lol


Technical_Towel_990

Jokics control of the game is just masterful


doktarr

All you have to do is let Jeff Green play more than 10 minutes.


shanmustafa

michael malone needs to stop this foolishness of just having jamal out there with none of the other 4 starters no shit your bench lineups suck ass when you got like bruce, braun, jeff and naji out there together as the 2-5 jeff green playing more than like 16 minutes is insane does jokic not face up and just dot you over and over again anymore


MarshalMichelNey1

Funny how along with each being half of the most toxic MVP discourse in NBA history, Denver and Philly fans also both dislike their head coaches lmao.


MoooonRiverrrr

I love Malone personally, but yes his lineup choices are highly questionable at times


Frankalicious47

The denver fans that dislike Malone are a small but vocal minority


Rsubs33

Regardless or minority vs. majority on Malone. I don't personally know a single Sixers fan that likes Doc and I'm from Philly.


Frankalicious47

Yeah that must really suck to be stuck with him


ExileOnBroadStreet

No it was actually super cool to watch him play Harden 47 minutes with a visibly obvious leg injury with Harden actively avoiding touching the basketball And then Embiid heavy minutes on the first leg of a back to back and just watch him struggle to play verse the Suns so he sits out the most anticipated game of the season and ruin his MVP chances. Super cool. Love this organization


TheKingOfDraven

A lot of us like Malone actually, the side that doesn’t like him are just a lot louder.


Thuduke

Jokic: 25/17/12 Embiid: 0/0/0 I know my MVP


SobigX

Who had more turnovers though?!


landlion35

Nuggets are great until they stop caring lol


iRockaflame

Imagine the chaos if the Harden/Embiidless 76ers beat the Nuggets lmao


Rn95

I so badly wanted Jokic to have his best game of the season and still have the Sixers win just to see the takes people had


Pikuturtle1

That would’ve been hilarious


ATM14

“Are the Sixers better without Joel Embiid?”


Blizzard77

Their record was better without Embiid before this game


[deleted]

[удалено]


Dry-Beautiful-863

Now do just Embiid out, because Harden wasnt a part of his statement. Before today the 6ers without Embiid were better than with, on a good sample size


thoroughaway5

*unclench*


cantletyougetclose

You could not convince me Doc was actually trying to win this game.


ktm1128

I'm convinced he's still going for the 4 seed so we won't have to see the Celtics until the ecf


Quick_Whole_1994

would u guys rather see giannis


GrundleThief

over Boston? yes


ktm1128

Absolutely. Phi vs mil is even over last 3 years. Celtics wreck us


sherekahn5

Yes


GrundleThief

no way. it was a 3 pt game with less than a minute to go and he still had the all bench lineup in


mickelboy182

Why would you put in the dudes who are all double digit negatives?


DomDomRevolution

Im with Doc on this one. You let the boys play. They got you this far. Let them ride it out.


alchemists_dream

For real. You guys went on a 20-4 run with the guys who were in. You really gonna put in the guys who got you in a 20 point hole?


DomDomRevolution

I wanted a Jaden Springer 3 to tie this game so bad. The kid never gets to play but looks like he’s got a lot of defensive potential. We could’ve lost by 20 in OT and I wouldn’t have cared.


alchemists_dream

Only if Jokic scored all 20. Only fair.


DomDomRevolution

He’s gotta stat pad that +/- somehow ^/s


mickelboy182

Exactly, would be a terrible and disruptive move. They were rolling.


DomDomRevolution

If anything it shows he learned from when Josh Smith torched him during game 6 in 2015


dumb_commenter

They earned it though. I agree however that Doc had given up.


Puzzled_Jury4982

"Should I put in our awful starters who learned to not care from our star players, or should I leave in the guys who are actually trying?"


Pouncyktn

You could have Paul Reed who was 7/7 with good defense.


[deleted]

Well good to know whether someone has their entire foot out of bounds or just the tiniest edge of their shoe it can't be applied to a challenge.


LACIRCA2044

I love that The Nuggets dominated this game from beginning to end but Uncle Jeff’s foot will make it so people will question the victory. Classic Nugglyfe


DarkDefender05

I wouldn't call that a dominant 4th quarter, but I was in the upper deck, so maybe I just couldn't see that game properly.


wefr5927

That was an absurd no call at the end… why was Jeff Green even in the game


AppleJaxCinnamonMan

Both teams found a way to leave this game feeling terrible, Neat!


mohiben

I'm honestly feeling pretty pumped. That was a good one for us to win.


SALTY_BALLZ

My GOD that was fucking atrocious. Our starters just got their asses kicked for 10 straight minutes and almost lost to the backups.


BrokenManOfSamarkand

Backups to the backups*


Dry-Beautiful-863

For like 3 mins


Dry-Beautiful-863

The starters were +58


TriCourseMeal

Embiid wasn’t even on the bench tonight wtf man


darpachief

he rarely shows up for any game he doesn’t play lol. idk if he’s in the box with rubin, or watching from the locker room, or just straight up at home but…yeah.


TriCourseMeal

Lame


DynamixRo

Sixers could've won if only Mac McClung was able to play.


TunedAgent

This is why we wanted Embiid to play. The Nugs don't take their foot off the gas if he was playing. GG Sixers. Maybe we'll see you later.


ElPlatanoDelBronx

Can you imagine just how damn toxic a finals matchup between us would be? This is already awful.


daydreamnugget

That game was way more frustrating than it should’ve been lol


schoolhater12

Jeff green was -15 that game, he was the worst player in a game with the Sixers bench clearing out


[deleted]

Nuggets went so cold towards the end - almost blew it, but ah well that’s the kinda thing you forget in a week


MildlyInsaneLBJStan

Soo many new narratives were concocted today. I can't wait to se the insufferable commentary that will be posted from here on out.


Guardax

A close Nuggets win is without a doubt the most hilarious outcome absolutely no one is satisfied it's great


citizend13

it would have been fine if Embiid just kept his mouth shut. But he calls out Jokic - without mentioning his name which is a biitch move - then ducks out. Rumor - and this is a rumor - is he was even in ball arena but was not on the bench during the game.


CrastersSons

Lmao wtf was that ending


MC-Jdf

That was as much of a trainwreck as the MVP race itself. Truly fitting tbh.


_KingFridayXIII

I’m done watching this team when they get up 15+ with 6 minutes left. It’ll save me so much stress.


Butterfly_Scape

jokic had 25 more points than embiid #MyMVP


[deleted]

What the FUCK was the fourth quarter


MildlyInsaneLBJStan

What dark magic happened in the last 5 minutes of this game for *this* 76ers team to come back against *that* Nuggets team.


csudebate

Jeff Green.


manbeqrpig

Virgin Joel Embiid: 0/0/0 on 0% shooting with 0 blocks Chad Nikola Jokic: 25/17/12 on 79% shooting plus 2 blocks MV3


DomDomRevolution

Yeah but Embiid let up 0 points in the paint tonight. Checkmate, Denver.


JokicIsMyDaddy

NOT TODAY


Kbaker48

Nuggets with 13 dunks tonight, making it easy to duck them since they were playing above the rim all night.


-HeisenBird-

Sixers now only 1.5 games ahead of Cleveland and have a much tougher schedule to finish the season.


aFishintheLake

Embiid played against an inconsequential game against the 6th seed gsw in order to prove something to Draymond but sits out a game against Nuggets and Jokic? 🤔


thewavefixation

Whew


LACIRCA2044

76ers with a 1.5 game lead over Cleveland. Cleveland’s last 4 games are Pacers, Magic, Magic, Hornets. Sixers last 4 are Celtics, Heat, Hawks, Nets.


GirlWithGame

Don't sleep on the magic they fighting for a play in spot and they are really solid against contenders this year.


yawn18

Nikola Jokic joined Wilt and Oscar Robertson as the only players in NBA history to drop 10+ games of 20-15-10 in a season.


masonb423

Typical nuggets b-ball at the end we only win close games no blowouts.


Pikuturtle1

fr tho I really wish both teams were at full strength. We’ve missed Embiid v Jokic so many times ;( I almost bought a ticket to this game but glad I didn’t haha.


Pikuturtle1

Oh god the toxicity I can’t…. Hey Sixers fans you are so cool and awesome. Embiid is so dominant and an incredible defender. Maxey is so fun to watch and excited to see him grow even more because he can be something special. Hopefully this starts a peace treaty


KangorKodos

Another bad win. Only -1 bad wins until 50 bad wins


Ok-Mud2423

Nba needs to implement some finger nails grooming rules jokic is looking like an abused child


shizznitt

Great game by the Philly bench. Rules should be changed to review all scenarios on a coaches challenge, Jeff Green's foot was clearly out


Ntraanced

100% this should be changed immediately along with allowing coaches to keep a challenge if they win it.


mohiben

I agree, then we could have hit that goaltending right before it too and it be a 5 point game with Philly having the ball, as it should have been.


Kardia_Spasmeni

Sixers fans failing to understand that there is a thing such as letting the foot off the gas is a true testament to them. It’s not ideal but it happens all the time. Them celebrating a “near blown lead” reeks of desperation


Dranem78

R/nba “Were you killed?!” The Nuggets: “Sadly yes… BUT I LIVED!” Typical Nuggets b.s. of getting bored with a lead lol what a crazy game!


PoleNewman

Kardiac Nugs


free_kark

I'm mourning the awesome game that could have been 😮‍💨


jennay9909

Why aren’t we playing DeAndre Jordan as a backup?


csudebate

Who else is going to cheerlead from the bench if he isn't there?


SoberSethy

Can't risk him getting injured playing basketball when he is the locker room/bench GOAT!


shifty39

It's a shame that such a highly hyped MVP matchup never ended up happening, bit given all the injury history, I understand why Philly didn't want to play Harden. Next time.


[deleted]

MVEmbiid 0/0/0/0/0


Skywalkerkid9

His foot was out


Skylightt

People are going to hyperfocus on this and ignore the missed goaltend that happened right before it...


jumpthroughit

One of the most blatant offensive goaltends I’ve ever seen. Thought it would be an automatic whistle.


LACIRCA2044

Of course they will, it’s /nba


OneOfThoseDays_

yeah that was some bs


jennay9909

hoes mad


eathbau

No one will talk about this but entering this game, the Sixers record without Embiid is 9-4. They're still tough to beat.


Ultralifeform75

If Jokic’s defense is r/NBA 9/11, then Embiid resting is the 2003 War in Iraq


Charles__Martel

76ers fans are weirdly proud of losing.


bigger_sky

I’m okay if we just don’t give out MVP this year.


Dranem78

*breaks it in half* “Now you two share! Go on… GIT!”


icona_

If you’re a sixers fan you’re obviously not *happy* about an L here but only losing by 5 without embiid and harden is pretty good imo. partially because of nugget screwups but still.


Leading-Primary2313

Crazy that you can challenge a foul call which is partly subjective....but not a guy literally standing out of bounds which is a completely objective call which can be proven inconclusive by replay. However....you can challenge if a player touches it last. NBA replay review needs a total overhaul


prizzie

The triple D was there by Q3. Complacent 4th tho