Sixers Game Thoughts

Just about to head down to the Wachovia Center for tonight's game. Just a few quick thoughts on what we need to do in order to win, and my prediction:

• Defensive rebounding. Against Washington earlier this year we posted a miserable 58% defensive rebounding rate. That was improved a bit the second game,and has to be handled again tonight.
  
• Control Arenas. He's averaging 24 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5 assists and shooting 50% from us on the season.
  
• Limit small-ball. Jamison absolutely destroyed Thad in the first encounter (albeit Thad handled him extremely well the second), and Nick Young has been an extremely efficient shot off the bench for the Wizards against us (starting in the first game). Both could have big mismatches if we run too much small ball tonight.
  
• Turnovers. The Sixers got killed in the turnover department the last time these two teams played, a 7 point loss despite the Sixers shooting over 50% from the field.
  

Prediction: Sixers win, 108-102
Player of the game: Louis Williams (he'll score 23, give up 27, but the stat line will look good).
Serious player of the game: Elton Brand

3-2 road trip! The Sixers have turned the corner!

Don't be fooled. The only one who turned a corner tonight was Ty Lawson, repeatedly, after coming off of screens. The diminutive guard tied careers highs in both points and assists and played a near flawless game, converting on 8 of 13 shots and committing 0 turnovers to get his 23 points and 9 assists.

He has Eddie Jordan to thank for that.

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.

It's becoming a running theme, but the results from tonight's 108-101 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers wasn't entirely unexpected, but it represents another example of the team's inability to close out close games. Continually late game failures generally placed on the coach, and some of the substitutions towards the end of the game certainly bring the coach under fire (cough*Willie Green for Jrue Holiday*cough).

Another game with the small lineup, and another game where it didn't kill them on the offensive glass (by the same token, it didn't help improve their 3 pt defense, either). Except for a few times Iverson was able to get into the lane, he was largely ineffective, and that ended up showing on the boxscore in the +/- column. The Sixers built their run largely while Iverson was on the bench in the third quarter, and they held a 1 point lead when he entered in the 4th. That's not to say it was all on "the little kid", but after two promising games earlier this week it was definitely a bit of a letdown.

I've been fairly vocal about my dislike of the Iverson signing, including right here on this site. I think the move was made for the wrong reasons, and I don't it has a legitimate chance of solving the many problems that ail this team on the basketball court.

All that being said, I would be remiss to deny the excitement I felt leading up to the game, during pregame, and throughout the game. The man may be a flawed basketball player, teammate, and person, but there are very few players in the game today as entertaining to watch as he is.

There's a very large part of me that wishes I believed this would work out. Iverson riding back into town to carry the Sixers on his back and get them into the playoffs (and back into NBA relevancy) would be an insanely fun time. I just don't see that happening. But I hope it happens.

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.

Anything left to play for?

Not a whole lot. If the Sixers win out, they have a chance for the 6th seed, although they would also need Chicago to lose their last game against the Raptors. Neither situations is likely.

The Sixers own the tiebreaker over the Pistons, so even if the Sixers would lose out, they couldn't get the 8th seed.

That means, despite a tremendous opportunity during the last week+ of the season, the Sixers will be taking on the Boston Celtics in the opening round of the playoffs. Yipee.

That being said, there is still somethign to play for. Primarily, it is rumored that Thaddeus Young is going to try and play tomorrow. Any hope the Sixers have, as little as it may be, of pulling an upsets lives and dies with Thaddeus Young. I will be watching the game intently to see whether he actually does come back, and how close he is to his previous form.

Other than that, there's not much to look forward to. The Sixeirs struggles the past 5 games have been of epic proportions.

I've mentioned before that the Sixers don't have any strength they can hang their hat on. At times they'll play above their heads, and look good. At times they'll play horribly, and look bad. When they're undermanned? They can look really bad. Not being effective in the half court, either offensively or defensively, while being a bad rebounding team? Not going to win many playoff rounds.

During the 5 game losing streak?. Bad stuff. Being outscored 104.6 to 92 ppg. Outshot 48.6% to 43%. Outclassed from 3, with their opponents making 8.6 three's per game at 39.5% compared to 5.2 per game at 33% for the Sixers. They can't even make their free throws, hitting only 69% over that stretch.

Maybe they match up well with Boston? Not likely. The last game was close, a 100-99 Ray Allen buzzer-beater. Before that they lost their previous two games by 24 and 19 points. They're making, get this, 1 3 per game at 10.7% against the Celtics this year, while the Celtics are hitting at a 41.7% clip. They don't have a player averaging 16 ppg or more against the Celtics this year. Of the Celtics "big 4" (including Rondo, who kills Andre Miller when they're matched up), 3 of those 4 are shooting over 52% from the field against the Sixers (Allen at 58.4%, Rondo at 65%, Garnett at 52%).

Combine dribble penetration, great defensive bigs, and a bevy of 3 pt shooters, and you have a sweep. The Sixers only hope tomorrow night is that the Celtics will rest Garnett (which they will, for the remainder of the season), and that they don't care. The Sixers have little hope in the eventual series against the Celtics. If Garnett can't come back? And Thaddeus Young returns to form and averages 20+ ppg? Maybe the Sixers can steal a game. Even that I'm not confident in.

Links
- Sixers vs Boston team page
- Sixers last 5 games

Like Brian at DepressedFan (an apt name for this game), I take no solace in the Sixers coming back from a 20 point deficit last night. I'm not even impressed they took a 4th quarter lead. I'm disgusted that, after that dreadful New Jersey game, after coming into the game a half game behind Miami for the 5th seed, they came out with that kind of effort in the first half.

The first half offensive struggles presented about the hardest basketball to watch that Sixers fans have had to suffer through in at least....48 hours. The half was eerily reminiscent of the debacle in New Jersey two days earlier. I can't fault Sixers fans who turn the game off midway through the second quarter. In fact, I envy them. For as much fun as the 3rd and beginning of 4th quarters were, losing a 4 point lead late in the 4th was almost as infuriating as watching the discombobulated mess of a first half.

Major props go out to Willie Green, who typically draws my ire much more-so than my praise. His 3rd quarter run gave the Sixers, inept for much of the night, a punchers chance at the end. It wasn't enough, but I can't fault Green for that.

5 games left and tied in the loss column with Miami. An optimist would say the Sixers are still right in the thick of the chase for the 5th seed. After the last two games, I'm not sure the 5th seed is a realistic expectation.

The good news? Looks like the two games we have left with the Cavaliers should have no significance to them, and hopefully the Celtics can put some space between them and Orlando to lock up the 2 seed.

The Sixers missed their first 9 shots from the floor, leaving the the bench standing for nearly 5 minutes of game time before making their first field goal.

If you can believe it, the game actually got uglier from there. The Nets 15-2 run late in the second was incredibly disheartening to watch.

27-77 from the field.
4-19 from 3.
9-23 from the free throw line.

Yes, they shot under 40% from the free throw line.

One player in double figures, and it took him 15 shots to get his 14 points.

In one of the ugliest games one could possibly imagine, the Sixers snapped their 3 game winning streak and, for the first time since he went down with his ankle injury, showed signs of missing Thaddeus Young on the offensive end.

Coming out the day after they clinched a playoff spot and laying an egg isn't exactly a surprise. Doing so in epic fashion certainly was. Coming into the game in the 5th spot, and with a slim chance at the 4th seed, this loss hurt. The Nets had come into the game losing 6 of their last 7. Struggling that much, against a team who had also played the night before, and is that bad of a defensive team, is inexcusable. I'm not sure if it was effort, or focus, or just one of those days, but this was a game the team needed if they want that 5th seed.

Lose to the Nets on a questionable buzzer-beater? Check.
Lose to the Nets on a historic 4th quarter collapse? Check.
Lose to the Nets in an epic show of offensive ineptutide? Check.

I'm not sure why, but thank god we won't play them anymore this year.

The Sixers currently occupy the 6th seed, with 6 games to play. 4 of which are on the road, 2 games against Cleveland, and one against Boston. The 5th spot may very well come down to whether the Cavs and Celtics have anything to play for when the Sixers take them on. The Sixers are certainly capable of losing any of these last 6 remaining games.

Game to game, quarter to quarter, minute to minute I can't get a firm grasp on this team.

After hanging tough in the first quarter, the Sixers pulled away in the second. The Blazers then score the first 12 in the 3rd, and the teams run neck and neck until the Sixers pull away in overtime.

This road trip is the prime example of the enigma that is the Philadelphia 76ers. The wins against Portland and Los Angeles were exhilarating. The losses to the Warriors and Suns infuriating.

3-2 was the record I was aiming for to start the trip, but this was certainly not the way I envisioned them getting there.

This team is nothing if inconsistent. That probably means a short exit in the playoffs, but at the very least there should be some excitement along the way.

I haven't a clue who to give the game-ball to, as there are a good 4 people who deserve it. Thad, for his 11 third quarter points that kept the Sixers afloat after starting the half on a 12-0 Trailblazers run. Iguodala, for his excellent all-around game and late surge, Miller for carrying the team early. Even cases for Green (for his defense on Roy) and Dalembert (for his defensive stands down teh stretch) can be made, to varying degrees.

We'll call this a collective team effort, and the game ball can be shared among Miller, Iguodala and Thad. Considering the unselfish nature of the 3, that's probably appropriate.

Final mention tonight, it's great to watch Thad develop the way he has. The confidence he's playing with is a great thing to see in a 20 year old player, yet having the maturity to play within himself. 21.8 points per game in his last 10 games. Coming from a 20 year old playing out of position in the middle of a playoff push.

I'm not going to go too far with this win. It is, ultimately, one game. Whatever momentum was gained tonight could very easily be lost with bad outings against the Warriors and Kings later this week.

I'm also not going to go as far as to say this was Iguodala's transformation into a star, as Brian from Depressed Fan makes the case for. I said the same thing two years ago, when Iguodala out-dueled LeBron and Kobe down the stretch 2 years ago after Iverson was dealt. He's capable of playing halves like a superstar, but he's not a superstar. And I don't think his 4th quarter tonight changes that.

Still, this was a great win. An unexpected win. And in this tight Eastern Conference race, a huge win. After losing our fair share of buzzer beaters, and blowing our fair share of big 4th quarter leads, this one feels sweet.

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