Today, they are just a bad team, unfortunately.

And I say this as a former Kings fan: I used to root for the team with “deda” Divac, Bibby, Peja, Turkoglu, Christie, Webber etc when they were battling for the supremacy in the Western Conference with the fucking Lakers… now it’s just a nice memory.

Sixers (35-33, .515) made a quick work of Sacramento, on coast to a 100-112 W that wasn’t as close as the final score might tell.

We led by as many as 29 points, and let the Kings get closer only in the final period (92-103 with 5.40 to play), quickly putting them to sleep again after that “threat”.

The game was basically over after one quarter – which saves me a lot of typing, LOL. Sixers jumped to a 20 point lead (13-33) and closed the period at a comfortable 17-35. 

Iguodala simply DESTROYED Sacramento from the start, scoring 17 points in the first (!), on 6/6 shooting, including two treys and a couple of dunks. In the same period, Kings turned the ball over eight times (!!), many of them unforced.

Sacramento is a bad team, badly coached, and with horrible playmaking. Garcia did his best to keep them into the game (he was 4/5 from behind the arc at a point in the second) but he was pretty much left alone by his team mates.

Kings play few-to-zero defense, always fall for shot fakes and pump fakes, and when a man is beaten off the dribble no one comes to help, turning the painted area into a sort of a pool, where is fun to dive at will.

Don’t get fooled by Spencer Hawes’ stat line, he filled the sheet but his impact on the game was close to zero.

Iguodala, on the other side, continued his hot shooting night, going 10/10 before finally missing a jumper: too bad for Sacto, it happened just in the third !!!

It was the kind of game you can’t draw many conclusions from, given the value of the opponent. ome considerations could be the following:

1) Kareem Rush got finally some minutes. And not in garbage time, but in the second quarter (ok, we were already up by twentytwo, 25-47…). He played well, immediatly drained a three and showed some effort on D. The last time he played more than 10 minutes was on Dec 29 at Utah… The nice thing was seeing all his teammates cheering for him on the bench.

2) Lou Williams had a very effective game off the bench, except for a forced shot in the fourth, when Garcia knocked down his sixth three of the night, to cut our lead to thirteen, 90-103.

On the following play Kings scored again and “technically” it was still an open game, up eleven with 5.40 to play (92-103). But it was the same Lou to close it immediately with two consecutive baskets, so more power to him.

3) Marreese Speights was also very good, and his stat line shows it. He knocked down a lot of jumpers, and had 12 points at halftime. Good boost, one more time.

4) Thaddeus Young scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half, finishing the job initiated by Iguodala.

But to me the most shocking sighting of last night’s game was… CALVIN BOOTH ON KINGS’ BENCH !!! He is always as ugly as ever, of course.

I thought (better, hoped…) he retired, but it looks like he didn’t. Wanna know a funny thing? I think he’s still getting paid by the Sixers (maybe partially), because – and this is 100% sure - Billy King gave him a PLAYER OPTION for the second year of the two-year deal he signed with us… LOL

From Vlade Divac and the best Chris Webber (“When we were kings“, a fantastic movie I suggest you to watch) to Spencer Hawes and Calvin Booth…

The great Sactown Royalty blog is praising Hawes’ passing ability and links to a story that tells how Udrih’s days as a starter are numbered… anybody surprised??

Sixers improved to 2-2 in their five game road trip.

The upcoming game vs the Blazers will hopefully tell us something more about this enigmatic team. Check newly found Bust a Bucket for coverage about Portland, cool blog there.

I enjoyed it, replayed, until the horn sounded.

Then I realized that we just lost (102-96, .455) to a less than mediocre team, that not coincidentially had dropped eight straight games before matching up with us.

“They wanted it more than us” explained Willie Green at the end. “It was obvious”, he added. Well, not so obvious, since we were coming from three consecutive wins, just reached .500 and needed this win MORE than the T’Wolves, that will not make any use of it.

But yes, Minnesota wanted it more. At the end of the day the small things made the difference down the stretch, and shifted a close game in the opposite direction.

Al Jefferson scoring back-to-back almost identical layups against Dalembert in the low post (92-89, 94-91), Mike Miller knocking down a long three (98-94) off a double team on the same Jefferson, Andre Iguodala missing two, the first when he was open (Brand had a good off rebound and a putback for the 98-96), the second contested, with the score at 100-96: clank, game over.

The play when their Miller knocked down the trey is the same play that we should automatically run on clutch possessions, and sums the kind of offense we brought Brand in Philly for. Ball in the low post to a good scorer —> double team —> ball on the perimeter again —> jump shot by (insert name of a decent shooter here), or —> ball down low again —> 1-vs-1 play for the big man.

Minnesota won the game with that play. Good execution, even better conclusion. We lost: good execution, conclusion failed.

Last year in similar situations we could have had Evans in the paint, and, in the best case, Green on the perimeter. Not exactly an encouraging scenario, I know. 

But this year we could have Brand and Iguodala/Williams/Rush/Green. It should be the prototypical “pick your poison” situation for defenses, but Iguodala is shooting 23% from behind the arc and 38% overall, Williams 26% and 35%, Rush is buried under the bench, Green is playing well but usually sits in the final quarter. Comments?

Plus we often take HORRIBLE decisions down the stretch, resulting in forced shots, turnovers, bricks: static offense, no circulation, I said it many times before. We almost never run plays. When we do, and take a good shot, like yesterday night (Iguodala’s aforementioned first three was an excellent shot, nicely built), we miss it. So if you want at least to see an improvment in this, you could do it.

What else could we rank as “positive” from an unexpected loss that brings us back under .500?

1) some great, aggressive defense at the beginning of the fourth, that started the comeback that eventually took us within one (from 88-78 to 95-94)

2) Iguodala making a pair of big, tough baskets down the stretch, one drawing a foul

3) our Miller playing a good game offensively (but in the pic he’s just getting blocked, and read below…)

4) Sam patroling the paint

5) Thaddeus Young. Two words for you.

6) rebounding. We won the battle under the boards, 40-33, and allowed only six offensive rebounds.

What went wrong?

1) Sam getting schooled all night long by Jefferson, with his complete set of fakes, hooks, jumpers, step backs, using the pivotal foot very well. Last year Sam had a fantastic game vs T’Wolves, with nine blocks, this time he was Jefferson’s b#*§°h.

2) ONE three pointer made and Rush playing less than three minutes… I wonder what we signed this guy for…

3) our usual 13 point-quarter (this time it was the third, with MIller doing another unnecessary Iverson impersonation)

4) Brand taking too many jumpers

5) FUCKING FREE THROWS. Iguodala missed FOUR from the line in the first quarter, letting Minnesota getting back in the game and recovering from a crappy start (6-19 after the same Iggy connected from behind the arc off a dish by… guess who? Yes, a double teamed Elton Brand ! Next time, do it in the fourth, guys). If there is a thing that really makes me mad, is watching my team missing free throws.

Let’s hope that we will want to win more than the Clippers on Friday…

SIXERS4GUIDOS BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS: Ollie was in a suit, Carney was a DNP CD and Booth was… well, surely ugly like always, but nowhere to be seen yesterday. Injured, probably. Anyway, we DON’T miss you, guys, sorry - Hair of Mike Miller’s father looks actually normal – First shot of the night was a nice TURNAROUND AIRBALL by Elton Brand – Craig Smith, WTF ??????? – Both Speights and Brand scored at the buzzer to end the first and second quarter – During the game a stat showed that Sixers were third in the NBA for points in the paint per game, with 44.8. First is Golden State, second come the Lakers – Andre Miller is averaging 13.7 shots per game… enough said - Check Steve’s Clips Nation for the best coverage about my 2nd fav team. Either that, or Clipperblog – Guys from T’Wolves blog are deservingly enjoying the win - At least we were wearing the red uniforms.

Guys, I’m finally (?) back at FBP (full blogging potential).

After a long summer in which I changed job, moved to another town (Milan), got a new house, after a couple of months that saw me leaving for some long business trips, this week I finally got my brand new super-cool fast Internet connection at home, that finally allows me to update this blog just as frequently as it used to be.

So what’s the first post after this break about? Preseason games recaps? Predictions? World Series (Phillies up 1-0, but I don’t follow baseball, I’m sorry…)? No. In pure Sixers4guidos’ style, we’ll talk about something that other sites don’t consider: former Sixers stiffs. I mean, they are still stiffs, but at least they are no more Sixers. Ok, you got it. 

TRIVIA QUESTION for Sixers fans: name a team that this year has THREE former Sixers that LAST year were playing in Philly. 

Ok, even the most knowledgeable fan would say: “Wait, this can’t be right, it could be Minnesota but they have only two, they got Carney and Booth this summer…”.

WRONG !!!!!

Not only that, but the Timberwolves signed K-E-V-I-N frikkin’ O-L-L-I-E !!!! He retired was a free agent, and they picked him up (see him in the pic, sporting one of the cool, old Sixers uniforms I’ve been pushing for) !!!

Admit it, you had my same thought when reading this page: there must be a mistake or something, Kevin Ollie hung them up last summer, he must be with his family, still counting all the money he stole from NBA franchises in his (too) long career !

So I decided to email College Wolf, the finest blogger covering Minnesota, and here is our exchange of thoughts about Ollie and the other two bums players.

S4G: I was honestly and seriously shocked to see Kevin Ollie is on T’Wolves roster and couldn’t believe it until you confirmed it. Can you please enlighten us on how a NBA franchise in rebuilding mode, with a core of young players etc etc, could eventually sign this old bum, who stole money for his whole career from dozens of franchise, for mysterious (at least to me) reasons? Do you expect him to make the roster and play for Minn?
 
CW:  That run-on sentence was almost as brutal as Ollie’s jumpshot.  Unfortunately, it does appear that Mr. Ollie will indeed make the team.  The thing is, the Wolves are 3 players over the max roster size (we have 18 players and the limit is 15), yet we are short on Point Guards.  The conundrum is that Ollie is a PG.  It does not appear that our only other possible PG besides Randy Foye and Sebastian Telfair is ready for the NBA.  That player would be the D-League whirling dervish Blake Ahern.  I just don’t think he’s got what it takes to play consistent PG minutes in the NBA (when it matters during the regular season.)  By process of elimination, that leaves Kevin Ollie as our third string PG, since it would be cataclysmic to go into the season with just Foye and Telfair.  So yes, I do expect him to exceed even the lowest of expectations and make the roster.  Even worse, he will probably play some spot minutes this for us this season.  Don’t forget, Big O. was also signed for his “defense” and “veteran presence.”  Yay!
 
P.S.  If you couldn’t tell, I was not too excited about us signing Kevin Ollie this off-season.  It’s not like Shaun Livingston wouldn’t have had an opportunity to grow here with our squad.  Very sad.

S4G: Do you know how much money Ollie will make? If it makes you (and Mc Hale) feel better, Sixers gave him more than 12 millions over the last 4 yrs, which is already pretty unbelievable. Ollie should build a statue to his agent, who is a genius, clearly.

CW:  As far as I can tell, Mr. Ollie is making approximately $797,581 dollars this season to sit on our bench.  In my opinion, that’s $797,580 dollars too many.  His agent is quite clearly one of the most brilliant men on the face of this earth; and there is a good chance he was an executive at AIG in one of his previous lifetimes.  I need to look into having his agent “represent” me…

S4G: Speaking of stiffs/former Sixers, you guys took also Calvin Booth. If I’m not mistaken, Sixers are still paying his salary (thank Billy King, who gave him a PLAYER option for his second year, guess if he exercised it…), a fact that should at least make you forget how ugly he is. Is the Ollie-Booth duo the worst PG-C combo Minnesota ever had?  In Philly, it was.

CW:  Worst PG-C combo ever?  Are you forgetting about the Troy Hudson to Michael Olowokandi combination?  What out they’ll lull you to sleep by dribbling out the shot clock and then heaving up a brick with less than 2 seconds remaining!   How about T-Hud to Mark Blount?  T-Hud to Mark Madsen?  T-Hud to Oliver Miller?  Actually, T-Hud to Oliver Miller doesn’t count because Miller would just take the ball, walk off the court, and eat it. T-Hud to pretty much any center that was on the team during Hudson’s tenure here were all pretty bad.  With that said, Ollie to Booth probably still takes the cake.  Under no circumstances can I even seriously attempt to top that one.

I would like to point out, I am somewhat excited about having Calvin Booth on our team.  For what it is worth, the Wolves are now unequivocally the ugliest team in the NBA.  (Number 1 at something!)  Between Mike Miller, Booth, Brian Cardinal, Big Al Jefferson, Jason Collins, David Harrison, and Kevin Ollie, no one can touch us.  Heck, watching those four guys play would probably be some pretty effective contraception, for as quickly as they’ll drive the women away.

S4G: The other Sixer you guys have is Rodney Carney. He drove us nuts for a couple of years (see this post), but he’s definitely a talented player that could blossom there, in the right system. What do you expect from the kid, realistically?

CW:  To tell you the truth, I actually kind of like Rodney Carney.  I was intrigued with him a few years ago when he came out of Memphis into the NBA.  I wouldn’t have been sad if we drafted him (although it wouldn’t have been considered a very good pick now.)  Anyways, I think he has a solid chance to prove what he can do.  From what I hear, he’s a solid defender with good character and tremendous athleticism.  You can’t ask for much more than that from a player that is essentially on our team for free.  I realistically expect that he makes the team, gives 110%, and probably plays a few minutes per game off the bench.  If someone gets injured or traded, he could possibly step in and do ok.  Who knows, maybe this will be the year that he “puts it all together” and breaks out.  (Please, let me have my delusional optimism, it’s all us Wolves fans have got left.)  He could even be the beneficiary of a few patented Love to Carney outlet passes for easy transition buckets this season, who knows.  Bottom line, we have nothing to lose with him since you guys are paying pretty much his entire salary (hahaha!)  If he turns out to not be worth anything, we simply cut our losses and let him go at the end of the season.

Let me tell you, I love CW’s answers.

To be precise, I am not a Carney hater, I used to criticize him a lot but he showed some flashes indeed. I think he will not be missed here in the short term, he could eventually turn out to be a Matt Barnes-Raja Bell type of good specialist, but not a superstar.

As for the ugliness thing, I think the biggest improvement Sixers made this summer, was not adding Brand, or Rush, or resigning Iguodala and Lou. It was getting rid of Ollie, Booth and Amundson, that formed a scaring All Ugly Sixers Team. A three headed monster that kept thousands of fans (especially girls, like CW pointed out) out of the arena.

Hopefully a new era started – even if Evans will never crack any All Handsome Team, let’s be honest.

Stay tuned on S4G for more posts, and more serious ones, about our fav team. By the way, we’ll probably have a new contributor soon, eheheh…

(LA Ball talk has a Top Team Blog contest where they ask readers to select the best NBA Team blog.

I warmly recommend you NOT to vote for me, but give your vote to colleagues from Recliner GM, Depressed Fan or Passion and Pride, all sites that are way better than mine. )

It’s nice to break my long silence (not my fault, though) and take all of my lunch break at the new job to create the new “Elton Brand” category in this blog.

This morning I was simply extatic in reading that Ed Stefanski brought us Elton Brand, showing what a real GM should do. Now before I wrote my take about this move, let me remind you the major steps Stefanski took before closing this deal:

1) last season, traded Korver to Utah to clear cap space for this summer: around 4 mill off the books. Remember many fans complained then, but they should have known that the move should have been judged only some months later… 

BTW readers of this blog know I was, am and will always be a great Korver fan, but this time I was with our management, waiting/hoping for the eventual big move. I looked at the big picture, for once !!

2) seriously courted Josh Smith, involving even Philly’s mayor (!) and creating a smokescreen that probably helped him reaching the real goal  

3) traded Carney and Booth to Minnesota in order to be able to increase the offer(s) 

4) finally, signed Brand when everybody thought he was going to end up elsewhere (Golden State, Clippers etc)

I call this a great job by a GM who knows his stuff. (Ouh, and by the way move 1) was decisive in making Thaddeus Young getting some minutes… how did that turn out? Not surprisingly, he’s laughing, you see)

Now about Brand as a Sixer:

I say he is the big man we really needed. I asked Stefanski to sign Josh Smith, impressed by his potential, but it’s not like I was putting him ahead of Brand. They are very different players, but both would have been good in this team, in different ways of course. Brand gives us the desperately needed back-to-the-basket scoring, even more rebounding and a team/leader attitude that Smith probably (still) lacks.

Now let me reply to many things I’ve read around the web today:

“He’s old”. WRONG. He’s 29 and still in his prime. His contract is for five years, meaning he will be a Sixer until he’s 34 y/o. He will not be old for current NBA standards. Just to name one, Shaq is 36 and he’s signed for TWO more years…

“He will be overpaid”. WRONG. He will reportedly sign for 82 millions in 5 years: it means an average of 16.4 millions per year. I still don’t know if the contract is frontloaded or not, anyway the price seems pretty fair given the player’s value.

“He’s coming off a bad injury and never will the player he was before”. PARTIALLY TRUE. This is the risky part. He was supposed to lose the entire 2007/2008 season but he recovered earlier than expected and came back to play the last eight games of the regular season. He played pretty well, also. Was it only a way to showcase himself before becoming a free agent? It could be, but remember NOBODY thought he would have opted out then. But he did it.

I guess time will tell if this move will work or not, all I can say now is: THANK YOU, ED STEFANSKI !!!

With Brand Sixers could jump into the Top 4 of the Eastern Conference, behind Boston and Detroit, up there with Orlando and Cleveland. It will be Cheeks’ job to put the pieces together, as for now this team only needs a good three point shooter to be extremely competitive in the conference.

But all the Vujacics, the Houses, the Delfinos, the Kleizas, the Brent Barrys of this world now have another, big reason to come to Philly… (hopefully I will cover this in one of the next posts, together with the possible log jam at PF, with Brand, Evans, Jason Smith and Speights)

Billy King is gone, guys, and it shows. Now we only need to BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK !!!!!

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Sixers played ten minutes of embarassing basketball, had a nice reaction that lasted around four minutes, which was followed by thirtyfour, painful minutes of garbage time.

That’s the short story of the 113-95 loss at Orlando, that put us at 34-35 (.493). Call it “reality check”, “awakening”, “step back” etc etc, that’s it.

And don’t get fooled by the boxscore, the game was NOT that ‘close’ (LOL).

Sixers were completely outplayed basically from start to finish and in every possible way.

It started 4-0 with two dunks by Dwight Howard, both off Nelson’s assists, then 12-4 with Magic hitting all of their first five shots, then 20-6, then 25-8 when Evans (it was Maurice, don’t worry…) knocked down the fifth three pointer out of five attempts for the Magic, in your typical “pick your poison” situation.

Either Howard was getting a dunk or an easy basket (see the picture) or one of Orlando perimeter players was draining an open jumper.

Sixers defense was simply non existent, while the offense was atrocious, with missed layups, forced plays resulting in turnovers or offensive fouls (a ton of them, for the whole game), various bricks.

After the center put Magic up by twentytwo with an “and one” play (33-11 with 2.46 left !!) Sixers had a little reaction, sparked by Reggie Evans and Lou Williams, to close the quarter on a 8-0 run (33-19), that became 12-0 at the beginning of the second (33-23).

Nevermind: Orlando went on its own 8-0 run and the game was over at 41-23, 7.12 left. Good night. The rest of the game was so ugly for us that it’s not even worth reporting, with deficits always around the 30 point mark.

Just few flashes to give you the idea:

* how about four fouls in one single Magic possession, three of them on Dalembert ? It happened in the second quarter

* how about an airball by Iguodala immediately after the aforementioned three point play by Howard that gave the Magic a 22 point lead in the first?

* how about Iguodala, Green and Carney (“shooting” guards….) combining for 0/6 on free throws in three different trips to the line? My feeling is Sixers need an exorcist to solve this problem, more than a coach.

I would like to add some points:

1) Lou Williams was the top scorer but he played a HORRIBLE game in my opinion, going many times one-on-five, showing selfishness and poor basketball IQ at the same time. Mo has to talk to the guy, seriously.

I don’t know how many possessions ended with him taking an ill advised shot with nobody else even sniffing the ball… Yeah, he sparked that little run and eventually filled the stat sheet but he was detrimental to the TEAM at the end of the day. Awful.

2) Green played one of his old “garbage time” games, with his good part of forced shots, missed layups, offensive fouls. Terrible.

2) Iguodala & Miller were on the same, subpar level: you look at the boxscore and you think they weren’t so bad, but they were nowhere to be found when it counted.

3) Dalembert got embarassed one more time by Dwight Howard, who buried the game playing less than 23 minutes (LOL). I guess Howard bounced back after the poor performance vs Wizards. Sam, to put it simple, can’t guard him playing one-on-one.

In general, I noticed NO CIRCULATION, POOR SPACING, LACK OF EXECUTION, that was one of the reason for the many turnovers and offensive fouls: our guys didn’t know what to do with the ball and stubbornly continued trying to drive to the basket, even when the defense didn’t allow it.

Let’s not even talk about what happened in OUR half court: 14/23 from behind the arc for the Magic, 53% on field goals should be enough.

Reggie Evans was the best Sixer last night, but of course he can’t singlehandedly lead us anywhere: he can be the spark, but then fire should follow, by the team.

Ouh, one more thing: officiating was really bad. Needless to say, it had NOTHING to do with our loss.

SIXERS4GUIDOS BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS

Speaking of embarassment, we let Pat Garrity score on a low post move… - Our first defensive possession after half time wasn’t bad either: we were supposed to play some full court pressure but allowed Turkoglu to drive all the way to our basket, where he stopped and assisted Rashard Lewis for an easy jumper. Nice way to change momentum after the break – The mighty JJ Redick found a way to turn the ball over three times in garbage time – Shavlik Randolph scored his first points of the season, the only good note in the night - Guys over at Third Quarter collapse are probably drooling at the idea of finding us in the first round of the playoffs: Magic closed the regular season series 3-1, with all the wins coming in form of blowouts.

Let’s turn the page quickly: Sixers meet the Nets tonight and have a chance to show this one was only “one of those nights” vs one of our rivals for a playoffs spot.

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

(UNIFORMS UPDATE: guys, I’ve been in contact with the Sixers organization about this topic over the last days. I received a first, encouraging feedback and I’m waiting for a further follow up. Stay tuned on the first italian Sixers blog, as I could have interesting news soon. In the meantime, sign on the link above !!)

I’ll keep the recap of the 101-89 win vs Orlando (26-32, .448) very short, as it comes late due to “technical” reasons.

Sixers played one of the best halves of the season, the first one, to build a 19 point lead (61-42) that Magic could never overcome.

Andre Miller had a terrific 22 points (on 9/10 from the field !!), 6 assists and 3 rebounds stat line at the break, and abused Jameer Nelson and Carlos Arroyo all night with a complete set of low post moves, mid range jumpers, drives (like in the picture).

Willie Green, a player I really love(d) to bash, had a fantastic all around performance: not only his 26 points are a season high, but he also dished assists (5), played defense and even had two blocks, one on JJ Redick, one on Jameer Nelson, that sparked nice fastbreaks on both occasions. 

Green scored the first three points of the game, and never stopped. I take my hat off, Willie, and apologize to you. Best game of the season.

Sixers had a stunning start offensively, knocking down 15 of their first 17 shots (!!), with the only two misses coming from a couple of unusual not converted layups by Thaddeus Young.

In general, Sixers managed to play their best basketball last night, with tough defense & hustle plays (we saw Young diving on the floor for a loose ball, Evans getting offensive rebounds and second possessions, Iguodala, Miller and Carney going for steals, Booth drawing charges… everybody contributed, you got it) and transition offense, that led to many easy buckets.

Orlando – a team with HORRIBLE PLAYMAKING, that could/should have traded for Andre Miller, in my opinion - got close only in the 4th, cutting the deficit to nine points (89-80) but Willie Green had a jumper and a three point play over JJ Redick to put the game definitely out of reach. 

Nice win, and the crowd finally cheered. This teams deserves at least respect, but it can provide even a lot of fun on nights like this.

SIXERS4GUIDOS BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS

Dwight Howard was the only Magic to play well in the first quarter, with 12 points and 5 rebounds – Dalembert started with 3/3 and this time did a good job opposing the Magic center. Calvin Booth helped him too – Reggie Evans got a standing ovation in the fourth: he grabbed an offensive rebound after a missed free throw and then stole the ball from the Magic on another possession, seconds later - I am afraid Jason Smith was a DNP-CD… – Magic starting back court combined for 2 points and 1/5 from the field in the first half –  Iguodala’s struggles from the line seem over, let’s hope the trend continues.

Sixers now go West to meet Golden State, Phoenix and LA Clippers. The first two will be tough tests but also exciting games, I hope. I can’t wait.

Want to know what’s the best NBA blog? Golden State of mind hands down, check it for Warriors coverage.

Want a Magic fan point of view on this game? Third quarter collapse is your site.

Want ignorance, Sixers uniforms feticism & bad english? Stay here at Sixers4guidos

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I wrote many times and in many places that Sixers are perhaps the only team in the NBA that lacks BOTH low post scoring AND outside shooting: basically, we can score easily only on fastbreaks and in transition, which we do very well.

Well, how about meeting a team that has BOTH (great) low post scoring AND (terrific) outside shooting? The outcome is often close to the 115-99 loss in Orlando (24-32, .428), a game that saw Sixers trailing wire-to-wire.

It started with an alley oop for Howard on the first play (an emphatic dunk for the 2-0 Orlando initial lead) and it ended with Jameer Nelson’s three that marked the last points for the home team (115-96) and Magic fifteenth triple (!!).

I think it wasn’t just a coincidence, because between these two field goals, Ron Jeremy’s Stan Van Gundy’s team used a balanced mix of inside and outside offense that was too much to handle for the Sixers.

Howard simply dominated Dalembert, the comparison between the two stat lines is merciless but it also tells exactly the truth of how the matchup went. There was a play in the first quarter when Howard, guarded by Sam in the low post, took a couple of dribbles to get into the paint and shoot a little lefthanded hook: he missed it but pushed Sam aside so strong that he could go up again easily and slam home his own miss.

Sam was clearly frustrated and nervous all night, he missed also a lot of free throws, which is pretty uncharacteristic for a good shooter from the line like him. Sixers used also Calvin Booth on Howard for 14 minutes (!) and even if our ugly seldom used reserve blocked Superman once (!!!), he couldn’t do much to limit him either.

Howard had nine points and seven rebounds in the first quarter (26-16), when Magic built a ten point lead that was more or less the margin they kept for the rest of the game.

Things weren’t easy for us also on the perimeter: Hedo Turkoglu had a slow start, going scoreless in the first, but got hot early in the second, with two threes and an assist for Adonal Foyle (…). He scored 8 in the period and continued to torch us until the end with a lethal combination of threes (four in the fourth !!) and dimes. It was an AAAA-(absolutely awesome all around) game by “brother Hedo“, much respect for him.

For sure, nobody was expecting to see Jameer Nelson shooting 5/5 from behind the arc, but still he did it, while the fact that we NEVER scored from downtown is barely a surprise. The first of our three triples came with 2.39 left, by Willie Green, (107-91), but unfortunately it was too late.

Sixers got close in the fourth when Iguodala dunked the 82-76 with nine minutes left, but Orlando went on a 13-4 run to put the game out of reach: Rashard Lewis scored 8 points in that stretch.

Iguodala played well offensively but struggled on defense, Thaddeus Young had a tough game, first time I saw him a little bit lost: guess what, it’s the 56th game of the season and he has to turn 20 yet… so no worries for our kid.

Green and Miller were good on Magic’s half court, while Lou Williams was the only player to have some impact off the bench. I didn’t get why Jason Smith played only 8 minutes, honestly.

Check Ben’s recap over at Three Quarter Collapse for a Magic fan view of the game.

SIXER4GUIDOS BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS

At the half, Sixers were 0/4 from three, Magic 6/16: that counts for 0-18… - Keeyon Dooling had a terrific fastbreak dunk at the beginning of the fourth (80-66)- Reggie Evans missed his first game of the season due to a swallen finger, but honestly I think he would have been abused by Magic taller forwards, that like to play on the perimeter, facing the basket – Rodney Carney was completely useless in 15 minutes of action – Sixers play the Magic again in few days – Sixers used the lame, black uniforms… nice to see that Ben from Three Quarter Collapse is supporting my campaign !! - Booth 14 minutes and Smith 8 ???

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

If Sixers players wanted to show they were happy that Mo Cheeks got a one year extention, they did it pretty well. And if this is how they will play until the end of this season and for the whole next one, Stefanski’s move was good.

Ok, we all know it’s not gonna be always like yesterday, but still the 124-84 thrashing of the Knicks (24-31, .436) was nice to watch for many reasons.

The NBA is fun, and its schedule puts teams in weird situations. This game was the second of the back-to-back for both Philadelphia and New York: Sixers were coming from the AWFUL loss vs the Timberwolves, one of the worst teams in the League, Knicks from an amazing win at Washington, where they set a franchise record for points scored in overtime (23).

Guess what, Sixers TOYED (I’m stealing this from Walt Frazier) with the Knicks for 48 minutes and the game was over after one quarter (37-17). I have really troubles trying to describe what happened last night. Basically Sixers outplayed the Knicks in every possible way, scoring a ton of points in transition and even knocking down threes. On the other side New York was throwing a sort of “turnover party”, getting killed under the glasses and on every hustle play.

When Calvin Booth checks in and finds a way to score 4 points in the second quarter (ended at 72-36 !!!) , you already know all that you need. Flashes:

* with the score at 33-15 in the first, Sixers had many FASTBREAK points (20) than Knicks’ entire offensive production

* New York had 10 turnovers in the first quarter (!) and 17 by halftime

* at the break, Sixers’ 14 steals were a new franchise record

* Sixers reached a 30 point lead with 5.40 to play in the second (58-28, Carney’s layup)

* the lead was stretched to 40 with 5.50 left in the third, when Iguodala knocked down a three with the shot clock expiring

* Thaddeus Young made Sixers reach the 100 point plateu before the end of the third (!)

Add embarassing missed dunks (Curry, Balkman), airballs (Crawford), bricks (every Knick), a comical turnover immediately after a time out, layups getting blocked and you got the complete picture of NY last night. I won’t go on, you got the point.

Iguodala, Green (especially in the first) and Miller (a double double) had a fantastic game and our back court was followed by the rest of the squad. For the Knicks, Curry had a good start but then the night came, for him and his team mates.

Thaddeus Young set a new career high with 20 points coming off the bench: Evans was put in the starting line up again for defensive purposes, to guard Randolph. Thad’s ability to control his body in the air is something I rarely saw. He’s… fluid.

For more coverage and some funny gems check Aarick’s recap on “Passion & Pride” or Brian at “Depressed fan”, explaining how New York even double teamed Reggie Evans (LOL).

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Jason Smith rimmed an open dunk as well and on the following possession he went up for another try but was fouled: he missed both free throws – Gordan Giricek made a couple of threes in garbage time - Mo Cheeks called a timeout in the fourth after a 0-4 Knicks run: the score was 105-57 !! – Frazier is an excellent analyst – To me Sixers’ play of the night came in the first quarter, when Sam blocked Zach Randolph, starting a fastbreak led by Miller and ended with a three point shot by Green – Iguodala had a terrific fastbreak finish as well, showed in the picture – I really feel sorry for Knicks fans, such as Stop Mike Lupica, that was ugly to watch.

Trade deadline is few hours close and I hope I WILL NOT have to make a new post to comment a deal involving Andre Miller.

Sixer meet the red hot Magic on Friday, check Third quarter collapse for the latest news about Orlando and to read their perspectives.

Well done guys (in the pic, Lou Williams and Andre Iguodala congratulating each other*).

Play hard, fight until the end and then lose the game. Whether it’s for missed free throws, lack of outside shooting (like it was last night) or whatever else, I don’t care. We need more of those ping pong balls in the lottery.

Let the Knicks and other franchises rise to useless 33-35 wins, we need to stay below that number and get a top pick. In the meantime, it’s ok if you play like this, and with Mo at the helm, there is still more hope. He didn’t make any particular mistake last night, to be honest, but he can always f’k a game up with his decisions.

Some fellow tanker on the Sixers board of Philly.com described the matchup vs New York as a “must lose game”. Another poster followed him saying this is a “must lose weekend” (tonight we play the Bobcats). I second that. And that’s why the 81-89 loss (16-28, .364) has a sweet taste. Three losses in a row, 2-11 in 2008? Fine with me. Just let the young plays play, develop them, make them improve.

Versus the emerging (?) Knicks we saw one more time what is good and what is bad with this team. Among the good things:

1) we played hard for 48 minutes, one more time, and always as a team

2) we played solid defense overall

3) we limited the turnovers finally

4) we grabbed a lot of offensive rebounds, for many second chances points. Evans had a team high 6.

Among the bad ones:

1) we never scored from behind the arc, as usual

2) we couldn’t run for fastbreaks, at least just not like we usually do

3) we missed crucial free throws again. This time it was the two Andres combining for a 1/4 in the last 3.40 min, pretty uncharacteristic.

4) we gave up too many offensive rebounds, because we didn’t box them out (Sam with 3 defensive rebounds in 31 minutes ?), David Lee did his nice job under the boards once more. And New York made a better use of their second chances than we did.

5) our second unit had a sub par game. Lou Williams, Thaddeus Young didn’t give us the usual spark off the bench, the only Jason Smith was active but in only 19 minutes of action (Evans had 31, too many). Calvin Booth was decent in Sam’s place (Dalembert picked up two quick fouls in the first) but…well, he’s still Calvin Booth. Rodney Carney knocked down a three in the second, after missing a layup, and that’s the only play when he was noticed.

6) Iguodala had a terrific first half (18 with 7/11) but was limited to 6 points on the second, with 3/9. Those misses from the line costed us a lot, honestly.

7) overall, our offense was pretty much stagnant and the circulation poor. These guys don’t move much without the ball, if you pay attention, and many times our possessions end with a one-on-one play with the shot clock expiring. To NY credit, they played a very good defense, using a lot of zone (what a surprise, LOL).

The decisive plays came down the stretch. Andre Iguodala scored on a jumper to put Sixers down two, 80-82, then he had a chance to tie the game but missed both free throws with 3.34 to go, on the following possession he also fouled Crawford while the Knick scored on a drive (80-85).

Dalembert missed a jump hook and grabbed the rebound but Reggie Evans was called for an offensive foul under the rim, Knicks turned the ball over but Andre Miller made only 1/2 from the line (81-85, 1.40) and then the same Crawford drained a long jumper from the top of the key to close the game (81-87, 57 seconds left).

SIXERS4GUIDOS BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS 

We need a Zach Randolph type of power forward that can score and board. Just not Zach Randolph, please – Nate Robinson is horrible, for the life of me I wouldn’t want him on my team even for free – The funny thing is that he actually played well – Every team has its Reggie Evans I guess: Eddie Curry shot 3/9 from the line with four straight misses – The Sixers highlight of the night came in the fourth when Iguodala followed his own miss and dunked the ball over a couple of Knicks - Ed, sign TWO shooters next summer, please – Sixers started the 1st shooting 2/9 (4-14) then made four in a row (12-18) – Willie Green could never catch fire.

For some nice Knicks coverage check my friend Stop Mike Lupica, for Bobcats needings refer to Queen City Hoops. 

(*= that was actually BEFORE the game, LOL)

…and we are talking basketball, not ugliness, it means it’s a good sign for the Sixers.

Philadelphia whipped Miami basically for two quarters, saw an early 21 point lead (47-26, 3.57 left in the second) reduced to 3 in the fourth (84-81, 5.10 to go) and finished on a strong 12-4 run to win 96-85 (12-16, .429) in front of the second largest crowd of the year at the Wachovia Center, 18.430 fans (was it the Shaq effect or the “New Sixers” effect? We’ll see…).

One thing to be clear: I didn’t watch the game. At least not yet. It was broadcasted on NBA TV and I have League Pass, that didn’t include it: the game was nowhere to be found on the net. But I followed it live on Yahoo.com (by the way, they refresh the boxscore quicker than on Nba.com and the play-by-play update is very precise), that at least gives you an idea of how it went.

So I’m writing this recap basing on that + having seen the highlights: that’s why I will stick only to undisputed facts right now, waiting for an eventual update of the post with comments later. I really hope I will not break my streak of 25 consecutive Sixers games watched.

Facts are: Iguodala and Miller dominated the first quarter (25-17) in which Sixers shot 12/19, Heat 8/26. Iguodala scored 10 on 5/7 from the field, Miller 12 on 6/8: our point guard wouldn’t score anymore, choosing to set up his team mates for the rest of the game. He finished two rebounds short of a triple double in another excellent performance.

Carney started in Green’s place for the second game, Dalembert picked up two quick fouls and had to leave after only 1.27 played: his sub, Calvin “jeez, I am ugly” Booth, was the biggest surprise of the night. Booth had four blocks in the first quarter alone (!!) including one on Shaq and one on Wade, who was 2/7 from the field in the period.

Lou Williams gave the Sixers a big spark off the bench in the second, scoring 11 points (two on a great dunk off an alley oop pass from Miller) and finding team mates for easy baskets. Sixers reached the biggest lead of the night (+21) when Reggie Evans hit a couple from the line (how ironic is that ? he was perhapes stimulated by facing Shaq…), Miami got a little bit closer but Sixers gained momentum before entering the locker room because Korver hit a long jumper at the buzzer: 55-38.

Halftime stats had Sixers shooting 50% (20/40) vs Heat 34% (16/46, includng 0/6 from three point land). Iguodala had 19 (7/11 + 4/4 FTs), Miller 12 + 4 rebounds + 6 assists, Lou Williams 11 (3/5 + 5/5 from the line). Philadelphia had a small rebounding edge (22-20) – despite Dalembert collecting more fouls (3) than minutes (2.23) – and only 6 turnovers, vs Miami 8. Ricky Davis was Heat’s top scorer with 8 points (4/8), Wade was held to a nice 7 points off 2/9 from the floor, Shaq had 5 + 5 rebounds.

Dalembert and Carney had a couple of baskets each at the beginning of the third (67-50 Sixers) but Wade started to warm up and closed the period going all court to beat the buzzer and trim our lead to ten: 74-64. He scored 12 in the third, getting some help offensively from Cook (8).

Two quick threes by Iguodala and Korver (finally effective) seemed to put the game on ice immediately in the fourth (80-64) but here Heat showed some pride, going on a furious 17-4 run that made it a three point game with 5 minutes to go, like I wrote above. Cheeks called time out and Sixers came out of it in the best way: four dunks, two by Sam, one by Iguodala, one by Williams to close the game: 93-81 with less than two minutes to play.

Lou Williams had the wildest one, he drove past Wade (in the picture !) and threw it down over Udonis Haslem: it’s #1 in the ”Top 10 plays” of the night on NBA.com.

These are facts, that having seen – or not – the game won’t change. More facts following are:

1) believe it or not, Sixers are 1/2 game away from the 8th seed in the East: currently Cavs are ranked there at 13-16… Cool? Sad? Well, cool for us, sad for the Conference, I guess.

2) Sixers got a great confidence boost from the last two games and now will head West for a 6 games-10 days trip that includes stops at Sacramento (humiliated by Celtics last night, they will look for an immediate revenge), Portland vs the red hot Blazers (that will likely extend their open winning streak to 12 vs Minnesota before facing us… not to mention they have to delete that unbelievable loss at the Wachovia center from their minds), L.A. Lakers and Denver, house of our buddy Allen Iverson…

3) speaking of confidence, do you think it’s accidental that Iguodala had his season high (28) after he won the Memphis game on that buzzer beater?

4) Sixers are 7-3 in the last 10 (!) and I say coming back home in January at 15-19 would be really great. I expect more a 14-20 record at the end of the trip: I realistically think we will win at Seattle and can steal one between Sacramento (uhm… tough) and Denver. Ending the trip at 3-3 would mean this team is WAY better than everybody (included me) predicted. Of course I can’t wait to post my apologies here !!

(in the meantime, I made a new “Calvin Booth” category on this blog… talking about the lowest point ever for the site, LOL)

Update: I didn’t watch the game but three Sixers plays made it to the daily “Top 10″ of NBA.com, with Lou Williams’ dunks at #1 (the one over Wade/Haslem) and #4 (the alley oop) and Korver’s catch-and-shoot jumper at the half time buzzer at #10. Nice