Sixers Notebook: Just your average Isaiah Joe can’t prevent squandering a lead

PHILADELPHIA — Just when you thought the 76ers couldn’t get any more lineup permutations jammed into one season, Doc Rivers had to dial up something new Friday.

Isaiah Joe made his first start of the season in a calamitous 102-101 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Seth Curry (ankle) was ruled out an hour before tipoff. With Danny Green (hip), Shake Milton (back) and Matisse Thybulle (shoulder) also on the shelf, it fell to Joe, the second-year guard from Arkansas, to get his second career NBA start. He entered averaging 3.9 points in 12 minutes per game this season.

If you’re keeping score at home, that’s 22 lineups in 45 games.

Joe was, politely, a non-factor. He played 15 minutes, second-fewest in an eight-man rotation. He scored the Sixers’ first basket for his only points and went 1-for-4 from the field, all 3-pointers. He was a minus-15.

Joe started alongside Furkan Korkmaz against the Clips, while Curry and Charlie Brown Jr. had started Wednesday in Orlando. Brown started the second half in Joe’s place. The deficiencies in the Sixers’ second unit were one of the things Rivers pointed to in his team squandering a 24-point lead. Joe, Korkmaz and Georges Niang combined to shoot 3-for-17 from 3-point land.

“That second group came in tonight and just the turnovers, over and over, and the casualness,” Rivers said. “You get a 20-point lead against a team that can shoot the ball like that, a 20-point lead in this league, in a 3-point league, means nothing. It’s five shots.”

The Sixers committed seven total turnovers, five from Joel Embiid and two from second-unit center Andre Drummond.  While Curry was missed, much more than one absence cost the Sixers.

“Offensively, we missed him, his 3-point shooting, his playmaking as well,” Tobias Harris said. “When guys are up and have a role in our team, we’re going to miss them. But to be honest with you, we were up 20 points and we should’ve won the game. We still would’ve missed him then with the win, but at the end of the day, that should’ve been our game, for sure.”

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If there’s a silver lining to another COVID-riddled season, it’s a chance for the Sixers to audition potential complementary pieces to augment their core. Case in point, Brown.

If not for December’s COVID cascade, which has turned into a more conventional cluster of injuries, the Philly native and Saint Joseph’s grad may not have gotten an NBA look.

“He has a chance to be a great defender in our league,” Rivers said. “It’s going to take him a while, focus and execution, but he has a chance. He has length and speed very similar to Matisse, maybe a little more powerful physically, and guys like that, if they really focus on it, they have a chance.”

Brown started the season with the Delaware Blue Coats. He’s been with two G League and four NBA franchises in 14 months, but stuck with the Sixers when his 10-day contract became a season-long pact.

After a 10-day stint with Dallas, he’s averaged 2.1 points in 13.3 minutes per outing. Friday was his eighth game as a Sixer. While he’s unlikely to be an elite NBA scorer, he’s changed games with his defensive intensity. That’s endeared him to fans, garnering extra applause whenever he makes a play.

He’s one of many to turn 10-day deals into sustained employment, a trend Rivers is fond of.

“All around the league, even when I’m watching games, you’ll see a guy like, who is that?,” Rivers said. “So there’s a lot of that going on, and it’s good for the league, good for these guys that have a chance.”

Brown played 22 minutes with two points and seven rebounds Friday. He was a game-high plus-20.

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Rivers spent seven years coaching the Clippers, and the novelty of facing a former team has largely worn off, thanks to a lack of familiar faces on the LA bench.

For Tyronn Lue, who replaced Rivers as Clippers coach in 2020, Friday meant a tad more.

“It’s just good to see him,” Lue said. “He gave me my first opportunity, my first job. He thought I was going to be a coach before I knew I was going to be a coach, so he’s someone that’s mentored me my whole coaching career and someone I look up to.”

Rivers coach Lue in Orlando in 2003. When Lue retired from an 11-year career, the former guard got his start on Rivers’ coaching staff in Boston. Lue went on to LA before winning an NBA title as the head coach in Cleveland in 2016. When the Cavaliers fired him, he found a soft landing spot on the Rivers’ Clippers staff.

“In 2009, when I was done playing, I gave him a call and he and Danny Ainge gave me an opportunity to be in the position where I am today,” Lue said. “So I’ve always been thankful to those two guys for that.”