Doc Rivers, Philadelphia 76ers fighting history of past playoff collapses

CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers practiced here Wednesday morning ahead of a return to Toronto for Game 6 of their Eastern Conference first round playoff series against the Raptors Thursday night, halfway to what would be an unprecedented collapse after taking a 3-0 lead in this best-of-seven series.

76ers coach Doc Rivers is the only coach to preside over more than one loss after taking a 3-1 series lead — something that's happened to him three times in his career. But when Rivers was asked about that playoff history Wednesday, he said that there's a need to go back and check the record.

«Well, it's easy to use me as an example,» Rivers said after the team finished practice. «But I wish y'all would tell the whole story with me. All right?

»My Orlando team [in 2003] was the eighth seed. No one gives me credit for getting up against the [Detroit] Pistons who won the title. That was an eighth seed. I want you to go back and look at that roster. I dare you to go back and look at that roster. And you would say, 'What a hell of a coaching job.' Really.

«I mean, the Clipper team [in 2015] that we lost 3-1, Chris Paul didn't play the first two games, and was playing on one leg, and we didn't have home court. And then the last one [when the Clippers lost to the Denver Nuggets in 2020], to me, is the one we blew. That's the one I took. We blew that. And that was in the bubble. And anything can happen in the bubble. There's no home court. Game seven would have been in LA.

»But, it just happens. So I would say with me, some of them is… I gotta do better always. I always take my own responsibility. And then some of it is, circumstances happen. This one, let's win it, and we don't have to talk about it."

In 2003, Rivers and the