“John Collins was the toughest player on the court”: Doc Rivers gives his flowers to the Hawks big-man instead of Trae Young following the Sixers Game 4 loss

Doc Rivers claims John Collins was the toughest player on the court in Game 4 and shows him his due respect after he dropped 14 and 12. 

After having won Game 1 of this series, a game where Joel Embiid did not play, it felt as though the Atlanta Hawks had something stirring up for them and could upset the no.1 seed out East. However, after the Sixers won Games 2 and 3 with ease, everyone’s opinion swayed towards the Sixers as Joel Embiid dominated the John Collins and Clint Capela matchups. 

Game 4 was a different story altogether as Embiid clearly did not look like himself and the Hawks seemed to take advantage of this. Despite dropping 17 points and grabbing 21 rebounds, Embiid shot an abysmal 4-20 from the field. On the defensive end of the floor, it was clear in the second half that he could not box out properly.

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This became clear when John Collins rose up for two monstrous put-back dunks and strolled to the rim for his 3rd of the third quarter with Embiid not challenging. 

John Collins receives high praise from Doc Rivers following the Hawks Game 4 victory. 

Rumors of John Collins being unhappy with how many touches Trae Young receives per game seemed to have died down ever since Young has been lobbing the ball up to him for what feels like 15 times a game. The Sixers were helpless against Capela and Collins’s cuts to the rim and Rivers showed the latter respect for it. 

“I though Collins was the toughest player on the floor all night. I just thought they were he more physical, tougher team. And it wasn’t close tonight.”

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The last part is quite surprising as even though the game ended with a score of 103-100, Doc claims the bout was never close. Perhaps he’s referring solely to the physicality between the two teams. If so, then this is obvious as without a healthy Joel Embiid, both John Collins and Clint Capela will dominate down-low. 

The Philadelphia 76ers should count their stars that both Cam Reddish and Deandre Hunter are out due to injury.