Sixers’ bench must improve with meeting against Milwaukee Bucks looming

BOSTON — Doc Rivers’ ability to tinker with the 76ers’ rotation combinations is boundless.

However a main question remains: Will his reserves be more productive than last season, when the Sixers were routinely obliterated in bench points?

They surely didn’t show improvement in Tuesday’s season-opening 126-117 setback to the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. They’ll look to do a better job in Thursday night’s home opener against the Milwaukee Bucks.

“It’s one game,” Rivers said of the season opener. “There’s going to be a night where two guys score 30 and 40. I like how the starters played overall. I didn’t like how our bench played overall.”

The Sixers starters combined for 106 points on 53.7% shooting, while the bench combined for the other 11 on 30.7% shooting. The Celtics, however, had 34 bench points on 13-for-20 shooting (65.0%).

» READ MORE: Sixers-Celtics takeaways: Matisse Thybulle’s short leash and Jayson Tatum’s offensive explosion

This season is supposed to be different for the Sixers with the additions of 2020 sixth man of the year Montrezl Harrell and three-and-D wings De’Anthony Melton and Danuel House Jr. But the only thing different Tuesday night was the names on the back of the jerseys.

Harrell had more fouls (three) than points scored (two). Melton had five points on 2-for-4 shooting, but was a minus-13. House missed both of his shot attempts and finished with more steals (two) than points (one).

Georges Niang had three points on 1-for-4 shooting. And Matisse Thybulle, the other reserve who played, logged just 23 seconds. His only statistic was being a minus-1 on the floor.

Asked why the bench struggled, Harrell said, “Honestly, I don’t know.”

“We weren’t even out there with each other a good deal normally how we would be,” Harrell said. “A lot of adjustments need to be made, but thankfully, there’s 81 more games to do that.

“It’s only Game 1 ... so it’s a lot to take away from this game both offensively and defensively. We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and do that.”

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Milwaukee will be a good team to test themselves against even though the Bucks will be undermanned.

Milwaukee will be without standout Khris Middleton (wrist) and key pieces Pat Connaughton (right calf strain) and Joe Ingles (knee). But the Bucks will still have two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and former Sixers All-Star Jrue Holiday.

The contest at the Wells Fargo Center will serve as another early-season barometer.

Milwaukee went 51-31 last season, finishing in the top three of the Eastern Conference standings for the fourth consecutive season. And the Bucks won the 2021 NBA title.

» READ MORE: Sixers fall 126-117 to Celtics after sluggish showing in NBA season opener

The Sixers are eager to improve on Tuesday’s performance.

“We can always be better, especially that second unit,” Melton said. “I think our job is to keep the energy high. Keep the pace going.”

But they’re going to have to be more disciplined in certain areas.

“We just have to learn how to play with each other,” Melton said, “and that’s just going to come with time and effort.”