I’m out on a four day business trip and I completely missed the 96-88 W over the T’Wolves (37-33). Two things I noticed about that game.

First, Minnesota started Kevin Ollie (!!), Bobby Brown, Brian Cardinal, Rodney Carney and Craig Smith: that has to be the worst starting lineup in the history of the League.

Second, former Sixer bum player Carney went 7/8 from behind the arc, but Sixers, led by Thaddeus Young (29) and with only two other plyers in double figure, won the game, playing basically just one quarter (the third) and holding off Minnesota down the stretch.

I did watch the 95-100 home loss to the Bobcats, though (37-34, .521).

Not an enjoyable show, to be honest. Talking about a 33-50 half time score, that included Sixers’ 36% FG pctg (13/36) vs Charlotte’s 51% (19/37), with a -15 difference in rebounding (12-27). The first two quarters included multiple three seconds violations, tons of second chance opportunities allowed, limited circulation of the ball, no movement offensively.

You think that after such a poor effort, Sixers would have come pretty spirited after the break.

Instead, on their first offensive possession, Bobcats found Okafor under the rim for an easy dunk, extending the lead to nineteen (33-52), their largest. Sixers gave few sign of life, and Charlotte remained always in control, thanks to great circulation (they played even too unselfish bball, passing up on many open shots) closing the period at 60-73.

Sixers finally woke up in the fourth, sparked by Thaddeus Young and mainly Lou Williams, who scored 12 of his 14 points in the quarter, but the best they could do was cutting the lead to two (92-94 with 1.20 left). Nevermind, Okafor from the high post found Diaw for an easy layup (92-94), Miller missed a shot and Bell secured the game from the line (92-96).

I would forgive just Young, Williams and Evans, who gave 100% as usual and is having a good stretch of games. Iguodala played so-and-so, Green and Miller were horrible, Sam (reportedly slowed down by the flu) subpar.

We got killed under the boards all night, and when three of your five starters combine for 18 points on 6/20 from the floor there is not much you can expect.

Charlotte is a good, rising team, of course well coached, with balanced offense and many solutions.

Diaw is in great shape and creates mismatches with his inside-outside game, Bell is always reliable and Wallace does a lot of good things on both ends of the floor. I must say I appreciated Larry Brown’s work, his hand on the team is pretty evident.

Sixers play the Pistons tonight: Detroit has won ony two of its last eight games, the wins coming vs the Clippers and Wizards. BTW yesterday night Butler missed the last second shot that could have won the game for Washington. You draw the conclusions….

Check Need4Sheed and Pistons Nation for coverage about Detroit. I’ll be back at FBP (full blogging potential) on Monday.

First off happy 2009 to all Sixers fans and loyal Sixers4guidos readers worldwide !!

Despite our beloved team’s recent struggles, the first italian Sixers blog is having a good success and saw a significant traffic increase in 2008, to the point that I’m thinking about upgrading it.

It will take a while (months rather than weeks) but it’s something I will definitely do in this new year, together with “technical” partners that I will have to find. So stay tuned and you’ll hopefully get better services and features in the upcoming future. 

Back to the Sixers, I couldn’t catch the 92-100 victory over the LA Clippers because it wasn’t broadcasted in Italy on League Pass. So, like always in these cases, let’s rely on sure facts, such as the standings (13-18, .419), the boxscore, the play-by-play page and the highlights I watched.

It was a close game for 48 minutes (highest lead for both teams was eight points), but the good thing is that Sixers finished it strong, outscoring the Clippers 14-6 in the final 3.30 minutes, after Thornton tied it at 86 with a couple of foul shots.

The decisive basket was a fantastic alley oop dunk by Thaddeus Young off a pass from behind midcourt by Andre Miller: it was 86-92 and Clippers didn’t recover after that. Ratliff (very good contribution off the bench) blocked a shot by Thornton that could have pulled LA within three, the Clipper forward got a tech and Iguodala finally put the game on ice.

Sixers passed through a long draught at the beginning of the third, and didn’t score for the first four minutes: that’s how Clippers turned the three point deficit at the half (47-50) into a eight point lead (58-50). Anyway Thaddeus Young had eight consecutive points in the period.

We had another awful shooting night from three point land (1/9, 11%…) but were good at the line, finally. Iguodala’s 14/17 on free throw shooting capped an excellent night for him: seven rebounds and seven dimes are other signs of an excellent all around game (deserving the first S4G pic of 2009).

I also liked the 26 assists, with Willie Green contributing five (!). We took care of the ball better than usual, limiting the turnovers to an acceptable eleven.

“It was only the Clippers”, remember. The better partner to snap a four game losing streak, heading into the next tough games: Dallas on Friday 2nd, then San Antonio on Saturday.

In the meantime, the stat about the three point scoring reached this embarassing level: in the last five games it’s Sixers 21 – Opponents 120 (-99 !!!).

As for the pctgs, it’s now Sixers 14.2% (7/49…), Opponents 41.2% (40/97). I’ll leave the comments to you guys.

SIXERS4GUIDOS’ BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS: looking at those nice Clippers uniforms makes the pain of watching our horrible black jerseys even more unsustainable: if you haven’t done it already, please sign my Bring the old Sixers uniforms back ! petition and we will hopefully get rid of that crap in 2009 – My buddy Steve from Clips Nation is on holiday but ”supac” took his place and that’s his recap about the game. The site is great and always worth a visit – A couple of days ago, I watched Minnesota-Memphis and had sightings of Kevin Ollie and Rodney Carney: the old bum is somehow still serviceable and went 6/6 from the line in OT to help T’Wolves get the W, while Carney is the same old ‘young’ and useless stiff that stands around the three point line and does nothing helfpful, finishing scoreless in nearly 16 minutes, with 0/2. We don’t miss you guys… – That (interesting) game snapped a nine game losing streak for Minnesota at home. If you can guess which was the last team that T’Wolves beated on their court before Memphis, you’ll get a special Louis Amundson wig signed by S4G…

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. )

Yeah, that’s right: the end of the bench.

Phil Jasner is informing us that the 35 y/o forward will join the Sixers for the veteran minimum of 1.2 million.

Marshall should be known to every Sixers fan because of a memorable game of March 2005 in which he dropped TWELVE THREES on our team, then coached by Jim O’ Brien, to tie a NBA record and lead the Raptors to a 128-110 win. Enjoy our tough defense that night (click here if the video below doesn’t work):

Of course the current Donyell Marshall is far from being that effective (not to mention he won’t find similar horrid defenses…) but I think this is a good move. We didn’t have any real SF to back up Thaddeus Young (a solution there would have been switching Iguodala at the three, with Rush, Green or Williams at the two): Marshall can smoke weed hit a three, has playoffs experience and after all will barely play.

In such a young team some good veterans will have to play a role of teaching the game to their team mates, being a presence in the locker room and in practice, and being ready when there will be need.

Right now Sixer’s roster is set like this:

PG: Andre Miller/Louis Williams/Royal Ivey

SG: Andre Iguodala/Kareem Rush/Willie Green

SF: Thaddeus Young/Donyell Marshall

PF: Elton Brand/Reggie Evans, Marreese Speights

C: Sam Dalembert/Theo Ratliff + Jason Smith

That is a total of 14 players under contract: Jason Smith is out indefinitely so it’s more like 13 guys. Only twelve can dress up for a game, and this could mean that Cheeks will have to keep one of the aforementioned out. I think at the beginning of the season it could be Ivey or Speights to wear a suit instead of the Sixers uniform.

I am not worried at all for this, and if you think that last year we had Kevin Ollie, Calvin “His uglyness”  Booth and Louis Amundson in the spots now covered by Ivey, Theo and Marshall, you should realize how big of an improvement Sixers made also at the end of the bench.

Welcome Donyell, let’s see how many threes you can hit playing FOR the Sixers !

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I don’t know if there are Reggie Evans groupies yet. If not, time to create a group of them.

Evans, a reborn Dalembert and Andre Miller were – in this order, to me – our key players in the 95-75 unexpected thrashing of the Pistons in game 3.

This means few things:

1) my 4-1 Pistons prediction is already off the mark (and I love it, of course…)

2) young Sixers are psychologically more solid and mature than we all thought, bouncing back from the blow out of game 2 and answering it with another blow out. This against a veteran team that was supposed to regain the lead of the series, also mentally I mean, after the “distraction” of game 1. It didn’t happen, I see.

3) Pistons might still win the series, of course, but after these three games they are actually closer to a memorable collapse than to a “routine” advancement to the second round. Some signs (looks, faces, body language etc) should worry a lil bit their hot fans.

4) the most worrying fact for Detroit should be that Sixers are up 2-1 with their best player completely out of the series. Andre Iguodala had another bad game last night, but we still won, with no real struggles. This tells us a lot about the team’s capability to find other solutions, with different players stepping up. The only Reggie Evans (+ the wonderful Thaddeus Young, but with less impact) has played very well all three games

5) Billups – a player I am a big fan of - the heart, the soul and the brain of the Pistons, has been completely outplayed by Andre Miller so far, and Pistons bench has never left a sign on the games. Twentyfive turnovers is an impressive stat for a team like Detroit, that averaged only 11 in the regular season (#1 in the NBA).

Few flashes from all periods.

In the FIRST QUARTER Sixers started with a 6-0 run, and Pistons first possessions were an airball (Mc Dyess) and a bad turnover (Billups). Pistons stayed in the game because Tayshaun Prince was very effective on both ends of the floor, scoring at will and pushing Iguodala to take bad, forced shots from the perimeter. Andre, take it to the rim please….

Reggie Evans sparked us in the SECOND QUARTER, stripping Rasheed and going coast to coast to draw a foul and, later, scoring on an (unlikely, let’s be honest !!) fallaway jumper. Sam Dalembert gave him a lot of help, including a nice jump hook and a sweet mid range jumper.

But Sixers built their win in the pivotal THIRD QUARTER, starting hot and connecting on all of their first four shots: it was 56-46 when Thaddeus Young made a pair from the line with 8.30 to play. Hamilton’s fourth foul anticipated a sequence by Reggie Evans that made me scream of joy: offensive foul drawn by Wallace, 2/2 from the line, another offensive foul drawn by Prince: the crowd went wild (in the picture). Iguodala capped that with a layup for the 64-50.

Pistons started a streak of consecutive misses that reached fourteen (!!) and that continued also in the beginning of the FOURTH QUATER, until a goaltending called on Evans ended it at seventeen (!!!!!). Too late, because Carney had already scored the first four points of the period (74-55), a lead that Miller quicky lifted over twenty with a coast to coast (78-57, 9 minutes to go).

Then the fun began, with Sam Dalembert dunking everything, Lou Williams completing nice plays and even Shavlik Randolph scoring the first playoffs points of his career.

What a night !!

SIXERS4GUIDOS BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS

I didn’t check but I’m pretty sure Pistons shot 8/35 in the second half, with two field goals coming in the last minutes of garbage time – Mc Dyess had to leave the game with a broken nose with the score at 56-46: Iguodala accidentally hit him – Thaddeus Young was hit in the nose as well, after a hard foul by Maxiell – The only thing that makes me nervous is the fact that we are making a favor to the Celtics… even getting the Pistons tired, I mean, reguardless of the final outcome of the series – No sell out ????? 18.805 fans is pretty disappointing… they were loud, though.

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REGULAR season, I mean.

It ended with the 115-109 loss in Charlotte, the fourth straight, that kept us under .500 (40-42, .488).

Big deal? No, it was a fantastic run, and this young, exciting, athletic Sixers team probably overachieved, thanks mainly to the wonderful job done by Maurice Cheeks, a guy I bashed on these pages many times. Time to apologize again.

Some of you would perhaps remember I predicted 31 wins, but hundreds of ”colleagues” (in the category I put journalists, experts, bloggers, fans) were more around the 24-28 W range, with Sixers finishing from last to second last in the Eastern Conference.

So I won’t complain about these final four games, even if I would have preferred to take at least this last one, in order to avoid finishing with a losing record and to build some momentum before the playoffs (starting on Sunday at Detroit).

Cheeks rested most of his starters last night, with only Iguodala logging his usual minutes. Sixers were down 23 in the third (76-53, after a three pointer by Jason Richardson) but rallied back and closed the quarter 87-80 thanks to a 12-2 run with five consecutive points by an active Thaddeus Young and an alley oop dunk by Willie Green (season high 27 – in the picture, getting a rare S4G front page honour ) right at the buzzer.

The fourth quarter was interesting, three consecutive three pointers – two by Iguodala, one by Green – cut the deficit to three (97-94), two (99-91) and one point (101-100). Proud Sixers even gained the lead twice, first when Young closed a fastbreak with an easy layup (103-104) then when Iguodala knocked down Sixers’ tenth three pointer of the night (!!), 106-107.

Unfortunately in the last two minutes our defense allowed a couple of easy baskets and Jason Smith had three costly mistakes: he missed both free throws with Charlotte up one (110-109, 1.09 to play), then coulnd’t finish under the basket after Carroll extended Bobcats lead to three (112-109), and finally fouled Felton on the last offensive play for Charlotte, allowing the “and one” that closed the game at 115-109 with five seconds left. It will be a learning experience for our rookie, a player I really like, by the way.

Time to think about the Pistons, then. I repeat, I think Detroit will win the series 4-1, but all games will be close. First because the Pistons rarely rip (no pun intended) their opponents, playing at a slow tempo, second because Sixers apparently found a way to win some games against a team that for the last 3-4 years literally toyed with us. 

Sixers and Pistons split the regular season series (2-2), and even if the last win at the Wachovia center came against a team that had its starters watch for most of the game, our guys were able to steal one in the D earlier, one of the (many) turning points of this surprising Sixers weason.

Brian/Depressed fan has a suggestion for Mo Cheeks that I agree with. Unfortunately, it won’t happen. Willie will remain in the starting line up. But usually he plays well versus his home town team so let’s be positive !

A guidoesque breakdown of the Detroit series will follow before game 1, together with a post celebrating Mo Cheeks (any seat left in the bandwagon? LOL).

SIXERS4GUIDOS BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS

Dudley airballed a free throw in the third… no, not Chris, Jared Dudley !! – Sammy had five offensive rebounds in the first quarter – Amundson blew a layup for the possible 93-91 in the fourth – Matt Carroll looked like the best Dan Majerle in the first half, when he had 15 points – The finest Bobcats blog Queen City hoops hasn’t posted its recap yet… do guys there care at all? – Bobcats were without Gerald Wallace, Sean May, Adam Morrison – Sixers were with Kevin Ollie, though – Shavlik Randolph saw some action and had a couple of nice plays before injuring his hand !! – Redlasso rocks, thanks again Joe.

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Lesson #1: how to close a game in the first quarter.

Teachers: Steve Nash, Amare Stoudamire, Raja Bell & the rest of the Phoenix Suns. 

Students: all Sixers.

Development: jump off to a quick start using a combination of drives, layups, threes, three point plays.

Let the students crash the rim with their first 13 shots, turn the ball over, get blocked by your big men. Conclude with a basket at the quarter buzzer.

Outcome: 19-38 Suns lead.

After that, extend the lead and/or control the game at will. As soon as the students come closer (-10, say), make sure to get a couple of plays to push them away again: three pointers or ”and one” plays will be preferable.

Final outcome: 93-107 Suns win.

Let the students (37-36, .507) think about the lesson and do their homework.

That’s the story of the game. Sixers’ dreams of sweeping the Suns (remember the great win in Arizona? It sparked our fantastic streak in March) were over after the first 12 minutes. Phoenix killed us in the paint, constantly feeding their big men for dunks or easy baskets, or getting layups and three point plays with their guards driving.

Sixers’ start was horrendous: 5-15, 10-23, 15-30, until the final 19-38 marked by old buddy Gordan Giricek with a jumpshot. Raja Bell was terrific from behind the arc, hitting four threes in the first half, ended by another jumper at the horn, this time by Steve Nash (44-61), that counted for two only because he stepped the line.

Sixers came within twelve when Williams hit our first three pointer (65-77, 3.20 left in the third) and even within ten later (67-77 and 69-79), but the second time it was Giricek with a three to make Suns lead still comfortable.

Calvin Booth happened to score on a weird jumper at the beginning of the fourth (75-85) but Diaw built a 5-0 run with a nice assist for Stoudamire and a corner three to bury the game definitely (75-90).

“Reality check”, “step back”, “cold shower”? Don’t think so. Just a bad game facing a tough, veteran team, also highly motivated after losing its last two. Problem for the Sixers is all our rivals in the playoffs run won (Toronto, Atlanta, Washington) and we are currently at the 7th place again.

New Jersey lost, though, so that we kept a 6 game edge over the 9th team in the conference.

Sixers go to Cleveland on Sunday and I can’t wait to watch this game, another tough, exciting test: remember we stole one there in December.

SIXERS4GUIDOS BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS

Iguodala adjusted his shot from the line, 7/10: not great, but still an improvement. Overall, he played a very poor game - I think Dalembert reached double figure in idiotic plays (turnovers, goaltendings, fumbled passes) – Carney did a good job with his drives but missed a couple of wide open threes that could have changed momentum – Reggie Evans was the best Sixer last night, with hustle plays and his usual efficiency under the boards – Miller struggled with his shot all night long – I would have played Smith and Young more.. – Sixers dancers beat the Magic and reached the Eastern Conference finals in the NBA Dance team bracket, wow !! Congratulations to the girls, that is brilliant.

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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.

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When Reggie Evans shoots 6/6 from the line, everything is possible.

Heart, balls, an unbelievable streak of free throws (+ a serious help from our opponent) gave Sixers an exciting 106-110 comeback win in Chicago (32-34, .484).

Down eighteen at the beginning of the fourth (88-70) the game seemed over.

This also because Bulls led it with pretty safe double digit margin for more than 36 minutes: it was + 17 in the second (54-37, capping a 11-0 run), + 18 in the third (70-52).

Deng and Sefolosha were killing us with jumpers and drives, while Sixers looked really bad: poor circulation, no defense, no fastbreak/transition points, and – of course – no outside shooting.

By halftime the score was 58-43 and Sixers had four assists (!) vs Bulls’ fourteen, ZERO threes (on zero attempts) vs Bulls’ four: but the most impressive stat was fastbreak points, that were a whopping 0-11 for Chicago. You read it well, we didn’t score a single basket on fastbreak.

Bulls had also an advantage on the offensive glass, grabbing eleven boards under our rim: we stopped at four. To sum it up, we got outplayed in every aspect of the game that we usually build our wins on.

Things didn’t change in the third: we made a little run to cut the aforementioned 70-52 lead to 72-60, but then Iguodala missed a wide open three pointer, we allowed an easy dunk to Deng on the following possession and when Gordon connected from downtown (79-64) I thought we missed our chance to get back into the game. True, we put a lot of points from the line (escpecially with Iguodala, Smith, Carney and Evans), but the 86-70 score at the end of the quarter didn’t give us much hope, honestly.

But (luckily) Sixers had different ideas about the end. Starting the fourth quarter with a line up of Kevin Ollie, Lou Williams, Rodney Carney and Calvin Booth (!!) Sixers let the Bulls gain their largest margin (88-70) but then sparked one of the most exciting comebacks of the season.

It was 92-83 thanks to Lou Williams, 94-88 (6 minutes left) when Carney knocked down Sixers’ first three pointer of the night (…), 98-95 with Rodney’s second and 98-98 when Iguodala followed an offensive foul by Hinrich and, showing balls & clutchness at the same time, hit his own three.

The first lead came at 102-103, on Carney’s third consecutive three pointer. Sefolosha had another offensive foul and Lou Williams made two big field goals, the last one on a drive to give us a three point lead with one minute left (104-107).

The final sequence was: Gordon’s jumper (106-107, 51 seconds left) - Williams’ miss – (idiotic) offensive foul by Larry Hughes – Iguodala 2/2 from the line (106-109, 19 seconds).

Bulls had the ball to tie it with a three pointer but Ollie played great defense on Gordon, not falling for his pump fakes, so that Bulls guard had to force a three pointer that was off the mark: Dalembert got the rebound and put the game out of reach for Chicago with a free throw (106-110, 8 seconds). 

I think the picture says a lot about the team’s attitude: Andre Miller sat out for the entire fourth quarter (!!) but was cheering for his team mates and jumping of joy on every good play. Miller was all smiles at the end, giving high five to his veteran back up who carried the team in his place.

Think about it, in a League where players’ egoes often reach disturbing levels, you have a 32 y/o leader not playing at all in the decisive quarter but giving his team mates support instead of bitching or sitting all alone at the end of the bench. That’s one of the sweetest things I noticed last night.

SIXERS4GUIDOS BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS

Sixers are 2-0 without Willie Green, LOL – Sixers had six turonovers in the first quarter, when Reggie Evans had eight points with 4/4 from the line – Carney’s biggest game of the season came after a slow start: he missed all of his first three shots - For the Bulls it was one of the toughest losses of the season, and I guess it won’t help their confidence – Tyrus Thomas is horrible and nobody taught him how to play basketball, but he had a fantastic block on Jason Smith – In the third Sixers allowed a fastbreak after a free throw !!

Sixers play host to the Spurs in the second night of the back-to-back: our confidence should be at an all time high after the last two wins and the way they came.

Recap coming in few hours here on Sixers4guidos.