The Philadelphia 76ers tuned up for the play-in tournament with a 126-106 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday night.
Tyrese Maxey led the Sixers with 21 points, Quentin Grimes had 20, Justin Edwards 17, while Kelly Oubre and Paul George added 11 each.
Meanwhile, a few hours after the game, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that Rivers was not expected to return as Milwaukee’s coach next season.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because no formal announcement about Rivers’ decision has been made.
However, Sixers fans loudly booed Rivers after coaching the team for three seasons, even as he was recognized by the public address announcer, Matt Cord, for being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The 64-year-old Rivers said before the game his final answer on retirement will come “definitely sooner” rather than later in the offseason.
The Bucks head coach is going into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame this summer. Only Gregg Popovich, Don Nelson, Lenny Wilkens, Jerry Sloan, and Pat Riley have more coaching wins than Rivers.
Milwaukee played without All-Star and former MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, while the 76ers were without Joel Embiid after he was stricken last week with appendicitis.
Antetokounmpo and the Bucks could be headed toward a separation in the offseason after a tumultuous season that limited him to 27.6 points and 9.8 rebounds in 36 games, by far the fewest games of his 13-year career.
For the 76ers, head coach Nick Nurse provided no health update on Embiid, yet the recovery timeline from an appendectomy would surely rule him out of any early postseason play.
Embiid has been limited to 38 games this season, with the former MVP and two-time scoring champion sitting out primarily to manage injuries to his knees.
The seventh-seeded 76ers host No. 8 seed Orlando in a play-in game Wednesday.
