The number of signs that this could be a special year for the Sixers is rising.
The last one was the 115-113 win over the Nuggets (34-34, .500) in the long awaited first comeback of Stephen Hunter Allen Iverson to Philly.
It ended up in the best way it could: a great, warm, long standing ovation for Iverson, an amazing game by The Answer, a close, much needed Sixers win.
All in front of a 20.674 sellout crowd. I mean, can you ask for more?
I am writing this post one day late (wifey…), no need to recap the game. Just few thoughts:
* I guess Andre Miller had something to prove last night… impressive performance
* Green and Dalembert were solid as well, the first one having one of his best shooting games of the season. Again, the fact that Nuggets play no perimeter defense it helped. Read the rest of this entry »
Then root for the new, Iverson-less Sixers to beat his Nuggets.
That’s how it’s supposed to be.
I know Philly is the town where fans once booed Santa Claus(LOL @ that story, always one of my favorite…) but don’t be bad with one of the most exciting athletes to ever play this game. He’s no Santa Claus, and he’s no Webber either.
Andre Miller torched Spurs defenders all night long to give Sixers an emotional 103-96 win over San Antonio, the NBA champs.
With this one, the pile of “Biggest-win-of-the-season” games is rising. First it was the road win at Phoenix, then another road win, vs Pistons, then the comeback win at Chicago of last night… And guess who’s next? Allen Iverson’s Nuggets !!!!
If you take out the Rockets and their historic 21-game (open) winning streak, Sixers are the hottest team in the League right now and Mo Cheeks should be a legit candidate for the “Coach of the Year” award.
Yes, the same Mo Cheeks that I bashed for more than a year. Then again, I’m more than happy to take my hat off to him and admit I was wrong. Just like my 31 wins prediction is already off the mark
Cheeks is doing an extraordinary job of motivating, giving confidence and keeping together an athletic, unexperienced, damn exciting young team that at 33-34 (.493) has already exceeded every possible expectation and is playing fantastic basketball.
In one of the most emotional games of the season, Allen Iverson exploded for a more-than-predictable big game and scored 38 points to help Denver get a 109-96 win, and end Sixers’ trip West at 2-4 (14-20, .412).
Let me make this clear: I LIKE ALLEN IVERSON. I always liked him. I am a big fan of him. This said, I am a Sixers fan first.
To me the ideal conclusion of last night’s game would have been Allen getting his 38 (or more) points and Sixers come out with a W. This would have helped also my fantasy team.
The whole game went more or less like everybody thought: Denver always ahead with Iverson & Melo running (literally) the show and Sixers trying to stay close.
Well, maybe no one expected that the “lil’ man” would have dropped 15 (6/ on us already in the first quarter (22-29), or that Nuggets would have taken a 11 point lead (14-25) thanks to a ridiculously soft zone defense, that had Melo laughing (4/4, 10 points). Read the rest of this entry »
While getting ready for the Lakers game of this morning (4.30 GT = guidos time), the first italian Sixers blog is adding new features, that you will hopefully appreciate.
The first one is a brand new, very cool Allen Iverson You Tube video that my friend Matteo, a.k.a. “marco.materazzi.23“, made by himself. The interesting thing is that Matteo is a diehard Lakers fan (you will see it at the end of the video) but he always liked Iverson. I will follow the game live this morning chatting with Matteo and making fun of each other’s team, in the meantime show him some love, I think he really did a nice job.
The second video I would like to share with S4G readers is the Lou Williams block on Okur + alley oop dunk during the Jazz game, if you don’t know what I’m talking about read my recap. I thought that the play would have been Top 3 material but they didn’t include it even in the Daily Top 10… pretty unbelievable to me… well, I’m making up for it:
The third one is pretty much a joke, but I like it. I can’t post real polls on this site, you know, the cool ones, where you can click your option, see the results with the percentages etc etc… impossible on this platform.
So in order to reply to the “poll”, you should leave a comment below, indicating WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE RODNEY CARNEY MOMENT OF THE SEASON so far (links are to S4G articles, not to videos, I couln’t find any so far… any help would be appreciated here):
1) the “1-vs-0″ missed dunk (vs Jazz at Utah,Jan 2nd 200 - An amazing play that he’s making us used to and that follows many similar ones, see the finest case.
2) the airball on the free throw (vs Knicks at MSG, 8th December 2007) - Not bad for a supposed “shooting” guard that thinks to have also three point range.
3) getting blocked by Mike Miller (vs Grizzlies at Memphis, 22nd December 2007) - Well, not trying to influence you, but this is a great accomplishment and my personal favorite, I even have the picture: Read the rest of this entry »
At the end of the day that’s what is all about in the NBA.
So what can a 76ers blogger write after the San Antonio Spurs won their fourth NBA title, beating the Cavs (the team I was rooting for) 4-0?
Well, a Sixers-related thought came to my mind after game 4 of the 2007 finals. Actually more Iverson-related than Sixers-related, but you got the point…
It came when Michael Finley (in the picture) checked in for the last seconds of game 4. He even scored a free throw to secure the win, before Ginobili made another couple. So Finley has a ring and he played a part in this last Spurs achievement. How big was this “part”?
Numbers (and some basketball knowledge, since I watched the games) say that it was really small. Just for the record, here are Finley’s numbers for the four gamesof the Finals:3.7 pts, 6/23 FG (!!!), 2/3 FT, 2 reb, 1 ass in 20 minutes. Difficult to say he did well, uh?
A pretty interesting interview to George Karl was just published on the Denver Post’s site. The former coach of Real Madrid (ok, who remembers this? few of you, just admit it…) among the other things talks about the quick exit from the playoffs and how he managed our boy Allen Iverson (left, wearing the nicest jersey of his career as a Sixer, in his rookie year.. he looks better than in a Nuggets uniform, right?).
It’s a nice, even long reading: for the whole story you can click here, but if you want to know his words reguarding AI, just follow me for few lines.
The key sentence is this: “I didn’t do enough to help A.I., and I didn’t do enough for JR and LK - J.R. Smith and Linas Kleiza. Melo and Nene had outstanding series but I was still learning AI - (!!) - and I just didn’t figure out how to get him easier shots and do more for him when he was struggling. We could have had better spacing on the floor so the Spurs cound’t smother him. He wanted so badly to win and I failed him - (!!). I’m evaluating what more can we do for A.I. next season”.
Trade him, perhaps?
Ok, smart ass comments aside,here we have some new news (…) and some old news. These last ones are: Read the rest of this entry »
I do like this guy (left, in his debut as a Sixer, playing vs New York on December 23th).
A real playmaker like we haven’t seen for many years. Maybe since Johnny Dawkins. Or Maurice Cheeks (the player, I mean). And it’s not only that he’s old school, he’s really good too.
One of the reasons Sixers had that kind of exciting (?) end of the season. I won’t start the “makes the others better” bullshit debate, maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not, but the point is that he makes the team play well, sets up his teamates, can decide a game with an assist o a clutch shot when needed.
A keeperfor the next two seasons at least. Then we’ll see how Louis Williams has developed.
Rate: 7,5
WILLIE GREEN
As much as my hatred for the guy is well documented (well, not only mine, but I’m one of the leaders of the anti-Green party), I have to say he had a good season and I have to give him props for how he recovered after that bad injury. He’s definitely a NBA player, something I really doubted before. Now we can (and MUST) trade him, his trade value can’t get any higher.
So it’s Andre Miller, Joe Smith and two first round picks. That’s what Billy King managed to obtain from the Nuggets for Allen Iverson . Great? So-and-so? Bad? We say ok, good trade.
A solid player, who was an all star some years ago and can give us a nice contribution immediately and in the two years remaining on his contract, Smith’s 7 millions expiring next summer and two (late, probably) more picks in what it’s supposed to be one of the best, deepest drafts ever, in which the Sixers will likely have three calls.
We say “likely” because today nobody thinks that we will make the playoffs, even if Boston, currently pacing the Sad-lantic Division at 10-13 (.435) , is only five games ahead of our poor 5-18 (.217). And just to complete the outlook, keep in mind also that the last spot for the postseason today would belong to Miami, ranked 8th at 11-13 (.45 while we are writing this. That’s a 5.5 games distance, with 59 games to play !!!
1) Thanks for everything 2) All the best 3) Let’s move on 4) Go Sixers !
To sum it up, these are my feelings about theAllen Iverson case. You all know the facts so no need to repeat it for the 198.000th time. Here we want to express our standpoint about the facts. Just for your information, I am writing this post without knowing where he will land, rumors are countless and we won’t follow them. Let’s wait for new facts, again.
1) I loved Iverson as a player. A Sixers player. No, please don’t come up with the lame “groupie” stuff. I am old enough to know basketball and to realize when you are watching a great player. And Iverson is a great player. Not a leader? How come a player that carries a team with George Lynch and Tyrone Hill as starting forwards to the NBA finals, not be a leader?
(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN - SIGN HERE)
on us already in the first quarter (22-29), or that Nuggets would have taken a 11 point lead (14-25) thanks to a ridiculously soft zone defense, that had Melo laughing (4/4, 10 points). 
