Sixers vs Clippers game tho...

I finally caught up with the DVR from last night's Sixers game. I can't say I'm entirely surprised, as the Sixers have been flirting with disaster trotting out the starting lineup they do. They got away with it during the first quarter, actually outscoring the Clippers 25-16 to start the game. It was largely fools gold, a combination of Rasual Butler missing some point blank attempts and bad passes by the Clippers preventing them from taking advantage of the obvious mismatches they were presented with by the Sixers starting a backcourt featuring Allen Iverson and Louis Williams and moving Thaddeus Young to the power forward position.

Much has been made of the Sixers defensive play the past two games, and while I agree the Sixers defense contributed greatly to their win at Portland (mainly fueled midway through the 3rd quarter when Eddie Jordan abandoned the starting lineup to go with a bigger frontcourt). However, the Sixers defense against the Kings was porous (especially considering the Sixers were playing a team without their two best offensive players), and was overcome only because of the Sixers uncharacteristically efficient shooting from the field.

Not surprisingly, when the Sixers failed to shoot 52% from the field and 56% from 3 their lack of defense caught up to them. Unless the Sixers have magically turned into the best offensive team in the league, that little two game winning "streak", while entertaining, means virtually little in terms of bringing the Sixers into a legitimate team.