Doc Rivers, Seth Curry acknowledge ‘awkward’ personal matchup in Sixers-Nets playoff series

Ahead of Game 3 of the 76ers-Nets first-round playoff series, Doc Rivers will spend Wednesday night visiting with family in New York City. But the Sixers coach’s temporary enemy, Seth Curry, will also be hanging around.

Rivers and Curry have become experts over the years at navigating their families, who are intertwined with each other and in the NBA. Curry, who married Rivers’ daughter, Callie, in 2019, has been a Rivers opponent. Then, he was coached by Rivers with the Sixers from 2020-22. He was then traded by Rivers’ team as part of the James Harden-Ben Simmons blockbuster deal in February 2022

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Yet Rivers acknowledged some additional “awkwardness” in facing Curry in a playoff series, which the Sixers lead, 2-0, entering Thursday’s matchup in Brooklyn. Curry added he has learned how to compartmentalize his professional and personal lives, especially after numerous matchups against his future Hall of Famer brother, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry.

“You’ve got to kind of flip the switch when I come in here,” Curry told The Inquirer following Saturday’s Game 1. “It’s not tough to do, especially growing up in my family, competing against my brother my whole life. When you get on the floor, it’s nothing personal. It’s business.

“You want to go out there and compete. I feel like the way you show the utmost respect is by competing your hardest against them and seeing who comes out with a win.”

Curry called the months since joining the Nets a “whirlwind.” The franchise has undergone immense upheaval, including the midseason coaching change from Steve Nash back to Jacque Vaughn in November before trading All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant before the deadline.

That all has caused Curry’s on-court responsibilities to fluctuate while averaging 9.2 points on 40.5% shooting from three-point range in 19.9 minutes per game (his lowest since 2018-19). In Brooklyn’s Game 1 loss, for instance, he scored 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting but did not play in the second half until the game got out of hand, a decision Vaughn implied was due to the defensive lineup he wanted on the floor. In Monday’s Game 2 loss, Curry had nine points on 3-of-8 shooting and four assists.

“It’s honestly been really tough,” Curry said, “just all the different rosters, my role changing pretty much every month. [I’m] just trying to make the best of every situation and, when I’m out there on the floor, try to be as productive as I can. …

“All the different teams I’ve played on, with a bunch of different systems and different coaches, I feel like it’s maybe prepared me for this season as well. Because it’s been up and down.”

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Rivers joked that his Saturday morning phone chat ahead of Game 1 with Callie was “cold” and that he “didn’t appreciate the conversation.” The coach said he will attempt to squeeze any Nets strategy for Game 3 out of Seth during his Wednesday visit, but noted his son-in-law “rarely talks, so I’m pretty sure I’m not going to get anything out of him.”

“But I’m going to ask my granddaughter,” Rivers added. “Maybe she talks to him and she can tell me some stuff. You never know.”

Embiid took a postgame swipe at the Nets on Monday for “begging” for whistles following their Game 1 loss, after Vaughn coyly wove “Hopefully, they’ll be calling travel and three seconds on the big fella the next game, so I look forward to that” into an answer to an unrelated question during his news conference.

But Embiid also advocated for James Harden to be rewarded with more foul calls, following zero combined free-throw attempts for his star teammate in the series’ first two games. Harden has struggled to finish at the rim against Brooklyn’s length, going 1-for-7 from less than five feet from the basket so far in the series. He shot 3-of-13 overall from the floor in the Sixers’ Game 2 victory.

“He was aggressive, and it’s kind of crazy that he’s not getting any free throws,” Embiid said. “I thought he’s been getting fouled a lot, and I don’t think he’s been to the free throw line at all during these two games, which is kind of insane to think about. So hopefully they change that.”

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That was one of several deadpan zingers from “Troel” Embiid during Monday’s nine-minute media session.

When notified that he had three blocks Monday, Embiid referenced the amateur Internet investigation of the Memphis Grizzlies’ official statistician, who was incorrectly accused of inflating Jaren Jackson Jr.’s blocks numbers at home games. The timing was notable, because it occurred hours after Jackson was named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year.

“I probably need the Memphis scorekeeper in Philly,” Embiid said “ … I thought I had more. But that’s the level I’ve got to get to, and I’m going to do it every game.”

Then when asked how getting dunked on by the Nets’ Cam Johnson late in the first half impacted his play coming out of the break, Embiid retorted with, “I don’t remember getting dunked on.”

Finally, Embiid had this to say about the Nets’ game plan: “We just figured out what worked and we kept doing it over and over and over. They stuck to their game plan and they didn’t make any adjustments, and we just figured [it out] and kept playing together.”