For the second time in as many nights, the Philadelphia 76ers recorded a one-point road win. First against the Utah Jazz and then against the Los Angeles Lakers. As Joel Embiid and James Harden continue hitting a stride together, Doc Rivers is working on ways to surround them with the best combination of talent the Sixers have to offer.
Rivers decided to tinker with the Sixers' lineup by moving Tyrese Maxey to the bench against the Lakers. He explained after the game that Philadelphia is going to go with three lineups depending on certain factors.
“We told our team, there's three lineups that we'll be using from this point on. We were gonna do it in the Utah game but Tobias was out,” Rivers said. “They know the lineups — I'm not gonna share 'em — but there's three different lineups we'll use on different nights…Some nights it'll be to match up to them, some nights it'll be to make them match up to us.”
Rivers said that Maxey reached out to him to discuss the idea of coming off the bench. He said that the Sixers guard knows he's going to still play 30-35 minutes per game. The debate to use him off the bench heated up when he came back from injury and Rivers had him as a reserve to work him back up to speed. Thanks to his willingness to do so when healthy, the Sixers can experiment with lineups.
Each of the Sixers' two most-used starting lineups features Embiid, Harden, Tobias Harris and P.J. Tucker. Maxey and De'Anthony Melton fill in the remaining gaps. Surrounding the two stars with Maxey, Melton and Harris in one lineup could work well but so far hasn't been very effective this season in a small sample size. In the minutes Embiid and Harden have spent with Georges Niang, they have done very well despite Niang's defensive shortcomings. Rivers has plenty of options at his disposal and could have more if the team makes any trades.
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