Doc Rivers focused on winning games, giving players proper rest down the stretch

SAN ANTONIO —The key to the home stretch of the regular season for Doc Rivers is keeping the 76ers healthy.

He wants to continue to win games while giving his players the proper rest.

“We obviously have a plan on what we want to do, and so we’ll follow it,” said Rivers, whose squad will have eight games remaining after Sunday’s road contest against the San Antonio Spurs. “We are not going to look at the standings or anything like that to decide what we are going to do. I can say that.”

Before Sunday night’s jump ball, the Sixers were tied atop the Eastern Conference with the Brooklyn Nets, one up in the loss column. Sunday’s matchup jump-started a five-games-in-seven-days stretch, which includes a pair of back-to-backs.

The Sixers face the Chicago Bulls Monday night at the United Center in the Windy City. Then they’ll fly to Texas for Wednesday’s game against the Houston Rockets at the Toyoto Center. After an off day, they’ll have a home back-to-back versus the New Orleans Pelicans (Friday) and Detroit Pistons (Saturday).

Rivers was asked if he has settled on a playoff rotation.

“Nah, I don’t really focus on all that,” the coach said. “I let everybody else talk about rotations and stuff. ... We’ve done it all year. Like we haven’t had one set rotation. We’re not going to have one. We have 11 guys that I would say have a chance at playing every night, and we’re going to feel free to do that. Maybe even 12 guys.

“We’re free to do that even by game circumstances. But we don’t get stuck in a rotation.”

Rivers has been known to play a lot of players in the postseason. He’s had a core group and played a couple of players depending on the circumstance.

Right now, one can argue that Dwight Howard, George Hill, Shake Milton, and Matisse Thybulle should be the first four off the bench. Minutes for Furkan Korkmaz and Tyrese Maxey could be circumstancial. Last season with the Clippers, Rivers basically played nine guys and used a couple of others for special situations.

Asked if that’s how he typically does things, Rivers said it really depends on your team.

“If you only have seven good players, you just play seven,” he said. “So I think it always depends on the team that you are coaching. If you are deep, you can go deep. if you’re not deep, you shouldn’t go deep. I think that’s what most coaches do.

“I don’t think it’s really the rotation. I think it’s who they trust and who they think they can play. I think it really comes down to that.”

The Sixers made it official on Sunday, signing Anthony Tolliver for the rest of the season.

The team was always expected to sign the power forward after his second 10-day contract expired at 12 a.m. Sunday.

Tolliver, 35, averaged 1.3 points, 1.3 rebounds and 10.8 minutes in six appearances heading into the contest against the Spurs.

He was signed partly to mentor the young low-minute guys.

“I’m really excited to be with the guys,” Tolliver said. “You know, obviously, I’ve only been here a few weeks. But I’ve really come to like and have great relationships with a lot of guys on this team and looking forward to making this [postseason] run.”