Sixers lose 6th straight: T...

After the previous 5 losses, you wanted to find something, anything, to pin your hat on and keep your spirits up. After throwing away any chance they had at the 5 seed, and thus any realistic chance of advancing a round in the playoffs, I was begging for something to take my mind off the inevitability of the end of the Sixers season.

As such, this game had good and bad. The good is quite obvious. After missing 7 straight games, the huge question mark entering the game was whether Thad Young could successfully return from his ankle injury, and what kind of rust he would show after missing hte previous 2 weeks. The answer is yes, and not much. Sure, I think he was a little gassed, and it might have affected him a little, but he more or less looked like Thaddeus Young. And if the Sixers want to have any shot of making the first round close, he's going to have to play like he did the previous 15+ games before getting injured.

The bad? Equally as obvious. The Celtics had nothing to play for. Garnett continued to rest his injury, Ray Allen served his suspension. All the Sixers had to do for the 6th seed was to win out, and yet the Celtics still came out on top. Somehow, someway, with the Celtics missing 2/3 of their "big 3" and nothing to play for, the Sixers got out-executed down the stretch.

I think Paul Pierce is still hitting 3's.

Off topic for a moment. For conspiracy theorists out there, it was reported a while back that the Sixers were switching back to their retro 82-83 jerseys next year. This hasn't been substantiated. Today, the Sixers had jerseys and apparel for 76% off as part of their fan appreciation night. All except for retro garb. Or, as the cashier said, "anything with the circle on it". Hm....

Is that really the best play they could call up? I'm not talking about the prayer heave from Iguodala, but the isolation play on the previous possession. Iguodala is just not very good in those situations. Iguodala shoots a woeful 31.3% on isolations from the top of the key. Down by 1 with 20 or so seconds left? We need to find a higher percentage shot.

I agree with Brian at DepressedFan that the rotations tonight were questionable, but I'm going to leave analyzing rotations against Boston until it's 100% certain we're playing them in the playoffs.

Nice to see Thad back and healthy. Unfortunately, we may only see him for 4 more games this year.