Starting small forward Danny Green will miss at least two weeks with a right calf strain, which he suffered in the first quarter Friday night in Game 3 of the Sixers’ Eastern Conference semifinal at Atlanta.
The Sixers’ bench is deep and versatile enough to get contributions from any — or, more likely, from all.
He’ll use any of six bench rats — the aforementioned four, as well as rookie point guard Tyrese Maxey and Dwight Howard, Joel Embiid’s rugged understudy.
As such, Rivers had an inkling about what Embiid and Ben Simmons needed to best complement their abilities.
One of those four losses coincided with an absence by Embiid, who should have won the league’s MVP Award, and two came without the presence of Tobias Harris, and one came without both Harris and Seth Curry.
Harris, the Sixers’ All-Star snub, missed six games after the first 30% of the season.
Curry, the team’s best three-point shooter, missed seven meaningful games after the first 30% of the season.
Best-case, he misses two weeks; more likely case, say team sources, at soon-to-be age of 34, he misses at least 5 weeks, which would mean a return in the middle of the NBA Finals …
“That’s an unintended consequence,” said Rivers — but not an unanticipated situation.
More recently, Milton scored 14 points in a 7-minute stretch when the Sixers evened the series with a Game 2 win over the Hawks on Tuesday.
When Harris and Curry missed the April 16 win over the Clippers, three-point specialist Korkmaz hit 5-of-12 threes and scored 18 points.