Even in practices, Tucker not tolerating sloppiness from Sixers

P.J. Tucker does not do casual playoff practices.

Though the Sixers won’t start their second-round series until next Monday, Tucker’s 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 that’s why you brought him here.”

Though Tucker shot poorly in his team’s 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 doesn’t 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. Let’s do this. Execute. Talk. Communicate better. Be physical. Box out.’ It’s 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 we’ve got to do. It’s 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, that’s what he was doing to me a year ago. I’m so glad that he’s on our side,’” Niang said. “So I think that’s huge. You have a guy that gets you extra possessions, brings toughness, isn’t 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, he’s been to the mountaintop before, so it’s real easy to listen to P.J. because he knows what it takes.”

Like Niang highlighted early this season, honest communication won’t always correspond with being told you’re doing a swell job.

That’s the case even for the NBA’s 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 he’s the one to be like, ‘No, we’re 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 we’re 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 center’s status. He did acknowledge the impact of Trae Young’s 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 we’re 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, it’s obviously a good thing.”