P.J. Tucker not tolerating sloppiness from Sixers, stressing the ‘little details’
P.J. Tucker does not do casual playoff practices.
Though the Sixers wont start their second-round series until next Monday, Tuckers standards apparently remain quite high.
Today he got angry in practice because it was sloppy, and he went off, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers said Wednesday. Nobody else did. He just does so many things that are (visible) only to his team, and thats why you brought him here.
Though Tucker shot poorly in his teams first-round sweep over the Nets 3 for 15 on corner three-pointers, which have historically been a sweet spot the Sixers appreciated a ton about his presence.
As Rivers noted after Game 4 in Brooklyn, Tucker has sometimes been rather forceful in helping the Sixers steer through trouble.
He was great,” Rivers said. There was a timeout at the end of the third, I think we gave up a 2-for-1 and then a three or a quick drive. And in the timeout, I stopped talking because P.J. was talking so loud that I just let him take the timeout. He was phenomenal.
Tucker, who will turn 38 years old next Friday, has accumulated extensive knowledge on what points are worth emphasizing to his teammates.
As he laid out following a turbulent Game 3 victory, Tucker doesnt want the Sixers to neglect the fundamentals, regardless of the situation.
In the timeouts: Hey, hey, hey here we go. Come on. Get back on the horse. Lets do this. Execute. Talk. Communicate better. Be physical. Box out. Its the little stuff that gets you going, Tucker said. We struggled early, but offensive rebounds, kick-out threes we started to get a couple going, get Tyrese (Maxey) downhill. We know what weve got to do. Its not rocket science.
Georges Niang is far from the only Sixer grateful that Tucker is no longer a playoff opponent, as he was last season when the Heat eliminated the Sixers in Round 2.
Did you see him in Game 3 (against the Nets) when he was, like, tackling people? I was on the bench and I was thinking, Damn, thats what he was doing to me a year ago. Im so glad that hes on our side, Niang said. So I think thats huge. You have a guy that gets you extra possessions, brings toughness, isnt afraid to tell people the truth and you need that.
He brings a sense of dog or nastiness that we need, and he does a great job of being a leader. And obviously, hes been to the mountaintop before, so its real easy to listen to P.J. because he knows what it takes.
Like Niang highlighted early this season, honest communication wont always correspond with being told youre doing a swell job.
Thats the case even for the NBAs only team to sweep its first-round series this year.
I think the biggest thing is (Tucker) knows the little things matter, Niang said. So some may look at it like, Oh, we have a week off. We can turn the ball over, toss the ball around. And hes the one to be like, No, were working on building habits that are going to pay off in the long run. I think P.J. is really intelligent when it comes to knowing what little things matter.
Other teams, they kind of just look past it and think their talent will get them through that, where P.J. is more or less like, We need to devour the details and win the little details so that when it does come time and we need that, we have practiced it over and over again and we know what were doing.
Waiting to learn more on Embiid
For a second consecutive day, Joel Embiid did not participate in practice because of his right knee sprain.
He shot a little bit on the side, but not much movement, Rivers said. No practice or anything.
Rivers said he thinks Embiid has an evaluation coming up with doctors in a day or the next day.
Beyond that, Rivers had no significant updates on his star centers status. He did acknowledge the impact of Trae Youngs clutch Game 5 in Boston, which gave the Sixers two extra days before their second-round opener.
Obviously, extending this (Hawks-Celtics) series does not hurt us. It does feel like were being iced out of the playoffs right now, Rivers said with a laugh. This is a long time off, I will say that. But for Joel, its obviously a good thing.
