PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia 76ers won't play their first playoff game until Sunday. They won't know their first-round opponent until Thursday night.
That's just fine with Head Coach Doc Rivers and his players.
The Sixers began a busy stretch of practice days on Tuesday as they get ready for their opening round. With the new playoff format, the 7th through 10th place teams in each conference are going through a play-in round.
Once the play-in round ends on Thursday, the Sixers will finally know who their opponent will be in round one. Rivers will be settling into his easy chair and enjoying the action knowing the Sixers earned some time off by finishing first in the east.
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"You watch every game," said Rivers. "Both conferences. First of all, it’s fun. It’s something you want to watch. I really look forward to it. The best part of the playoffs is when you’re not playing, you can sit there and watch all the different things that happen in a playoff game."
The Sixers may be doing some playoff watching at home this week, but they will be playoff prepping at their practice facility. The Sixers were unable to get a normal amount of practice time in during a condensed season.
As far as Rivers is concerned, preparing for the playoffs this week will almost be like a second training camp for his squad.
"It's a training camp for the playoffs," Rivers said.
"You have a training camp for the regular season and training camp for the playoffs. In a training camp for the In the regular season, you’re just learning how to play with each other. For the playoffs, you’re fine tuning what you already know. That’s what we’re doing."
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The players also appreciated the opportunity to get the proper amount of work in before the post-season. Tobias Harris said despite earning the number one seed in the Eastern Conference, the Sixers had little time to make adjustments at practice during the regular season.
"We haven’t gotten much time to practice at all," said Harris.
"I think probably the only time was when we had a three-day block. We’ll get a day of practice and that for us is not as strenuous. This period of time, I think, is good for us to maintain our health and rest and at the same time, to be able to get some good work in."
It has been a long wait for the Sixers to get to this moment. They suffered a first-round flameout in the bubble against Boston a year ago. The fell in Toronto on a buzzer beater in 2019. Harris and his teammates believe this version of the Sixers is ready for a deeper post-season run.
"I'm not a person who dwells on the past," Harris said.
"I'm a present moment type of an individual. All I can really focus on is where we are right now, and it's an amazing opportunity to be a team in the playoffs and to be a number one seed. There's expectations with that."