Doc Rivers lost his cool Monday night, blowing his top on the final play of regulation. Chaos ensued when Ja Morant missed a free throw that would have put the Grizzlies up by one with eight seconds remaining. After securing the rebound, Sixers guard Seth Curry raced down the other end for one last shot, missing a 10-footer as time expired.
Incensed that a foul wasn’t called (Jaren Jackson appeared to make contact with Curry on his block attempt), Rivers went ballistic, needing to be held back by Tyrese Maxey as he rushed the court. That didn’t go over well with refereee Brent Barnaky, who whistled the Sixers coach for a technical foul. The T was enforced at the start of overtime with Desmond Bane beginning the extra session at the charity stripe.
It’s exceedingly rare for a team to start overtime in a one-point hole—in fact, many on Twitter didn’t know such an occurrence was even possible. But thanks to Doc’s prolific temper, fans were treated to a rare Easter egg.
The Sixers would ultimately overcome that deficit, extending their winning streak to five games with a 122-119 victory at Wells Fargo Center. Philadelphia needed to dig deep for this one, receiving monster contributions from Maxey (33 points), Tobias Harris (31 points) and Andre Drummond (16 points, 23 rebounds). Joel Embiid, the NBA’s second-leading scorer at 29.1 points per game, was not in uniform Monday, getting the night off for load management.
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