That -90 (!!) is  the updated stat of the points scored on three pointers in the last four games, after the traditional butt whipping in Utah, this time 112-95, (12-18, .400).

If you want more details, Sixers are 6/40 from behind the arc in those games (that counts for 15% !!), while allowed opponents to shoot 36/79, which means a whopping 45.5%.

Indiana shot 6/16 vs us, Boston 7/14, Denver 15/31, Utah 8/18, while we went respectively 0/8, 0/11, 5/12 and finally 1/9 last night, when the only three pointer was knocked down by Young in garbage time, just two minutes before the end.

One would say: “Nothing new here, sorry”. Partially true. While we all know that we are an awful three point shooting team (still dead last in NBA with our 29.5%), the trend on the defensive end is becoming worrying.

Actually we are in the mid of the pack as for three point % allowed (16th with 35.5%), but at this rate we will fastly climb the rankings: currently New Jersey leads this not-too-glorious list with 41.5%, followed by Sacramento (41.3%) and Golden State (40.1%). We have to stop the bleeding asap.

So, getting back to the Utah game, did we lose it because of three pointers? Well, not because of that, or not only because of that. We lost because Utah is a better team, even without forwards Millsap and Boozer (Okur was back, and hurt us a lot with his inside/outside offensive skills).

They play hard, they are organized, balanced (five players in double figure + two very close), focused, tough. And they can shoot the ball, of course - unlike us.

That’s how they completed the second consecutive sweep of the Sixers in the last two seasons (I thank God that we play the Jazz only twice a year).

Actually I was surprised to see it took them that long: they were up only by eight at the half (51-43), and took care of business only in the third, when Deron Williams caught fire, scoring at will, also  from behind the arc (two consecutive threes), and dishing the ball to his team mates for easy baskets.

Not only that: Jazz came before us on every loose ball and completely outhustled us, showing their unselfish basketball, a pleasure to see for every real fan of the game.

Don’t get fooled by the boxscore: a lot of Sixers filled their stat lines in garbage time (Miller and also Iguodala), and I have a hard time trying to name one player that was actually good all night.

Lou Williams and Marreese Speights were ok in the firt half, and Evans did a good job under the boards: too bad he has the IQ of a mosquito (another 2-3 idiotic offensive fouls, when someone else was either in a position to score or make a good play).

Thad Young had some exciting dunks (like in the pic) and flashes, but little impact honestly.

At the end of the second quarter Sam Dalembert had a sequence of turnaround lullaby-spin (missed) shot after an offensive rebound, instead of simply dunking the ball, + a pass to… Okur after a defensive rebound (= layup by Williams). Classic.

Bring on my beloved Clippers on 31st, I hope my buddy Steve from Clips Nation will let us take a win to put this ugly end of 2008 behind us.

SIXERS4GUIDOS’ BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS – How about our 3/8 from the line at the half ?? – Evans got a tech for slapping Korver’s butt after Kyle was called for a loose ball foul on Reggie. I guess the refs didn’t know the two of them played together. I’m not defending Evans, but that was a stupid, useless call – As I said in the preview post, Korver looks much improved as a passer, and his five dimes confirmed it - Jazz started the game shooting 2/12, and missed an unusual amount of layups and putbacks in the first half – I like CJ Miles a lot, nice glue player.

Sixers meet the Jazz tonight (btw check SLC dunk), and apparently Utah will be again without Okur, Boozer AND Millsap, meaning the three top scorers.

Nothing to be happy for, anyway, because yesterday I’ve watched their 120-115 double OT loss to the Houston Rockets and they are the same tough team that traditionally loves to destroy us, and that won 17 of the last 19 matchups at Salt Lake City.

Few observations after that exciting game, that I enjoyed from tip off to the final horn.

The Jazz are still a very deep team, that will use nine men to keep the intensity high and play hard nosed basketball for 48 minutes - and even more if necessary.

Just as you would expect from a team coached by Jerry Sloan, they never give up, reguardless of what the scoreboard tells. Rockets had a 16 point lead and were up basically the whole game, but had Brewer made both free throws with 8 seconds left in the first OT, they would have probably lost the game.

If you laughed this summer hearing the names Kosta Koufos and Kyrylo Fesenko as part of their roster, you better stop it immediately, because these two guys can ball.

Apart from Fesenko’s terribly ukrainian looking-face, and his awful shooting form (a couple of memorable bricks from the line), he’s more than a big body to throw out there. He’s athletic, can run, jump, dunk, block shots, BOARD. He played some stretches of outstanding defense vs Yao Ming who, as you might know, is NOT Sam Dalembert.

Koufos is another european seven footer, who will turn 20 next February (!), and had a career game just three days ago vs Dallas (18 and 8, with 8/11). The greek center played well last night vs Rockets, showing also some mid range touch, and despite some predictable foul troubles, having to keep Yao. He fouled out but in only 20 minutes of action managed to put up 14 and 4, with 6/9 from the field and a presence in the paint.

You should know the rest of the band pretty well: lefthanded swingman CJ Miles is continuing in his progresses and nearly doubled his offensive production (10 PPG versus 5 of last year). He’s now a legit starter in the League, he’s clearly more confident in his shot (3/3 from downtown last night), having career numbers in FG%, 3 PT % and FT %.

Ronnie Brewer is no more a suprise, after last breakout season. He’s not a great outside shooter, but does everything pretty well. He reminds me a little bit of John “Summer League” Salmons as a Sixer. Brewer plays at 100%, plays smart and will rarely force a thing or take a bad decision (probably he fears Sloan’s reaction…). Nice player indeed.

Speaking of former Sixers, Matt Harpring is always there, another perfect fit for Sloan’s system. Not to mention Sixers4guidos’ and everyone’s favorite Kyle Korver (in the picture, few days after last December’s trade), earning his paycheck with the killer outside shooting.

Korver actually looked much improved as a passer, last night he dished out six assists (!), a couple of them really tough, in a crowded paint, or after being double teamed: it’s something we didn’t see often during his days in Philadelphia. He stole something from Deron Williams probably. Well done my dude.

So expect your usual fight in Salt Lake City, with nine-ten possessed Jazz players on the court and a roaring crowd all around, ready to jump on us.

BONUS FEATURES: Ryan from Hoops Addict has a post with the Carnival of the NBA #62, including a collection of the best NBA blog stories of 2008.

There you’ll find a link to a S4G post of this summer with an interesting provocation: “do you guys regret having signed Brand?” is basically asking Ryan. Personally no, it’s clear things aren’t working well, but I liked the move at that time and I would have done the same.

And since it’s Christmas time (well, already past, but anyway…), I would like to share with all S4G readers, especially the non-american ones, the true story of Philly fans booing Santa Klaus, courtesy of Ronnie Polaneczky from Philly.com. It happened just 40 years ago (December 1968), and it always crack me up. The legend of Philly fans was built on that day.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!

Not the Liberty Bell, but Charlie.

Bucks guard had 21 points with 4 triples and a nice game off the bench to lead Milwaukee to a 87-83 win last night in your empty-as-usual Wachovia Center (14-21, .400).

It was an ugly show and a display of overall poor basketball between two sorry ass teams that at the end become Sixers fourth straight loss, and Bucks third consecutive win on the road. I honestly can’t blame who decided to stay home this time.

Philly fans realized it was going to be another long night two seconds after the tip off (…), when Reggie Evans blew a layup. A 2-12 break followed, with Sixers shooting 1/6 and Bucks 5/6. So much for the “get off to a quick start” theory. Sam Dalembert with three low post moves (!!!) helped us getting back in the game and Sixers tied it at 16, but then came three empty possessions to take a possible lead.

Sixers missed their last 7 shots of the quarter (8/25 at the end, 32%…) and Milwaukee had a 8-0 run to close it with your usual buzzer beater, this time by Bell: 17-26 with Mo Williams pacing the scorers with 9 points on 4/4. Sixers 5 turnovers gave them a lot of help, no doubt.

The second quarter wasn’t better either: the same Mo Williams immediately extended Bucks’ lead to 11 (17-28), Villanueva had an immediate impact off the bench and, in the highlight of the game, dunked on Jason Smith while being fouled. Bell started getting hot as well and Milwaukee took advantage of our many turnovers and missed shots (Lou Williams was 0/6 from the field, included three shots blocked) to end the half up 10, despite Yi piling up bricks. It was 36-46 at the break and I honestly would have booed them: no circulation, poor ball management, poor effort. Instead, fans chosed to ignore them, and I don’t know which is worse.

Half time stats were something to think about: Sixers shot a whopping 37% from the floor (17/43), including 0/5 from downtown and had 10 turnovers vs only 8 assists. Our advantage under the boards (24-20) didn’t help much because Milwaukee had 14 assists out of 19 field goals (on 41 attempts, 46%). Iguodala was our best scorer with 11 (5/8), Dalembert followed him with 8 (3/6) + 8 rebounds and 3 blocks but 4 turnovers, Miller (in the picture, my MVP for last night) had 6 (2/6) to go with 4 dimes and 3 steals.

On a balanced Milwaukee team, Bell had 12 (5/8), Mo Williams 11 (5/7) + 5 assists, Villanueva 7 (3/6) + 4 rebounds, Bogut 6 (2/6) + 6 rebounds and 2 rejections, Simmons 6 (3/6). The only Yi played bad, 2 points (0/5) and 2 rebounds.

In the third quarter Sixers played their best basketball (…), a nice zone press defense and took advantage of five early turnovers by Milwaukee to cut it to 46-49: They took the first lead of the night with Andre Miller’s low post spin move: 52-51 (5.38 left). But don’t worry, Bucks had 9 unanswered points to regain the lead, 58-64 at the end of the period. Sixers had another six turnovers and missed five free throws in the quarter but, hear this, Reggie Evans shot 3/4 from the line. Bogut went up for a nice block on a dunk attempt by Jason Smith in the best play of the stretch.

Bell scored his fourth three pointer of the night to start the final quarter (58-67), Smith couldn’t guard Villanueva but Lou Williams finally gave signs of life and made it 73-76 (5.35) on a nice fastbreak. Green misfired on a potentially tying three pointer from the corner in the next possession but Sixers came close thanks to a tough jumper in the lane by Iguodala, and it was 79-81 with 50 seconds left.

In what should have been the best defensive play of the night, Villanueva got past Green and drove from the baseline for a pretty easy layup, Dalembert went for the block so that Bogut could tip the ball in off Charlie’s miss and give Milwaukee a 4 point lead with 25 seconds left (79-83). Iguodala then missed another three and Sixers were done.

So what is wrong with the Sixers, to lose to a bad team – sorry, but Milwaukee is really bad – that was even without its best player (Redd) and Desmond Mason ?

1) The 0/13 from downtown of yesterday’s night speaks volumes for our struggles in scoring from the perimeter. We all knew without Korver it would have been even tougher (Sixers were among the worst teams in 3 point shooting even with Kyle, remember) but this is getting crazy. How about 17/61 from behind the arc after the Korver trade? That means 27.8 % guys…

2) we always knew we NEVER had a real low post threat. Sam’s exploit in the first period was occasional, he has 80% of his points on alley oops, put backs, dishes and mid range jumpers. I don’t even want to start talking about Reggie Evans, while Jason Smith is a big man with a sweet touch but with no back-to-the-basket moves so far. Actually our best player there is Andre Miller ! He is excellent in posting up smaller players, but he happens to be our PG…

So for defenses guarding us it’s pretty easy: we struggle scoring from the outside and rarely score down low. A win-win situation for our opponents, like I said to Brian/Depressed fan. Our only choice is TO RUN and get easy buckets in transition. When we can’t do that, night comes.

3) slow starts are becoming a rule. I hope I will have time for a deeper analysis with some stats, but it’s a fact that Sixers put themselves in early 8-10 points decifits in the first quarter of many, many games. Too many. The 2-12 start of last night was only the last, and worst, of a long streak.

4) guys are getting nervous. I watched Iguodala angry at Jason Smith when the rookie got hit in the face by a close pass from Andre (LOL) and then frustrated because Lou didn’t give him the ball on another possession at the end. 

Judging from body language and faces of many of them the atmosphere isn’t exactly the best one. I sense also that Lou Williams forced shots and lack of defense is getting on his team mates’ nerves. I hope they will regroup soon because in situations like this, breaking apart it could be a nightmare, and playing together, playing hard every night is (was?) one of this team’s strongest assets. Going on losing games is not the best way to come out of this situation of course.

5) things will likely get worse because we play four of our next five games on the road, and with very good teams: the only game with an under .500 opponent will be at home with Chicago so it’s possible that ten days from now we will be at a 15-26 record. The schedule is not helping us at all.

For a Bucks fans point of view about the game check out Brew Hoop’s nice recap.

I will be out of town for a business trip and come back on Friday afternoon, new Sixers coverage from S4G will be up on that night.

It was more or less like the picture shows, and for 48 minutes.

I guess it would have been better to get drunk with friends or something rather that going to bed at 7 AM to watch live the embarassing 124-93 loss to the Lakers that puts us at a 14-19 record (.424).

The Odom and Radmanovic-less Lakers completed a season sweep of the Sixers basically with no fatigue, while we looked tired and lost, and I’m being nice. The good thing is that I will put the same (few) effort in recapping the game, since it was a “no contest” after few minutes from the tip off.

As usual, I won’t repeat the things that you can get by yourself checking the boxscore or the play-by-play report, but focus on other aspects that you will likely not find elsewhere and that I noticed. Here is a short list: 

1) Kobe didn’t score a single point in the second period, when Lakers won the game, and didn’t even take a shot, despite playing 6 minutes. Terrific defense by the Sixers? No, the fact is L.A. didn’t need him to score, because his team mates were already destroying us. Crittenton had 8 in the quarter and netted a career high 19.

2) Remember when Bynum had a career high 27 points in Philadelphia, shooting 10/11 from the field and schooling Dalembert and our big men (?) all night long? Well, he basically went on from that point yesterday night, having 14 (5/7) in the first half, to go with 12 rebounds: Sixers had 16 AS A TEAM. Lakers center finished with 16 boards, career high.

3) Turiaf’s 5 blocks are the third career high of the night (…): he had 4 in the first half, and paired them with 8 points on 4/4. He looked like the best Rasheed Wallace, hitting also outside jumpers.

4) half time stats were pitiful: Lakers shot 67% (25/37), Sixers 34% (16/46), Los Angeles had a 25-16 rebounding lead, assists were 12-8, blocks 7-1 (!!). Talking about a pure ass-kicking. Iguodala was our top scorer with 11, but on 4/13.

The only thing to save in the first half was that Willie Green made his return to the line up after six games: his last game played was on December 21st vs… the Lakers. He looked ok, scoring 6 in the first period, which is nice (I can’t believe I’m writing this).

5) just like the 24 point lead wasn’t enough, Kobe Bryiant set the tone at the beginning of the second half, with a reverse dunk and an unbelievable fall away jumper nearly from behind the board: Cheeks called timeout after 45 seconds !

6) Sixers inability to finish under the basket reached embarassing peaks in the third. The quarter ended with the Lakers IMPROVING THEIR SHOOTING PERCENTAGE to 68 % (36/63)… the final 66.2 % is “the best in more than 23 years”.

7) not that shooting from outside was any easier for us: Sixers first three point shot made came with 2 seconds left (!!), when Lou Williams set the score to the final 93-124. The ugly thing is that with Korver gone, it will be like this until April: we are 13/38 from downtown in the four games after the trade. 

8 ) individually, I think the worst Sixer was Dalembert, completely overwhelmed by Bynum. After grabbing 1 defensive rebound @ Utah in 40 minutes (! but he had nine offensively), Sam got zero yesterday @ L.A. (2 in the other half court). It means a total of one defensive board in 58 minutes of playing time…. is it a record for a center ???

But it’s a tough race bewtween him, Miller, Iguodala and Evans. Giricek was horrible too but he got plenty of help (LOL) from all his team mates while on the floor.

Lou Williams’ final stat line might look decent but he had more turnovers than assists and I didn’t like how he played and “led” the team. Also in garbage time, yes.

Thaddeus Young showed at least some flashes and Jason Smith some attitude and will to fight, but it all came in the last 24 minutes of garbage time. Good only for their confidence, hopefully, a part of the learning process.

Rodney Carney was UAU again, and managed to get beat off the dribble and let Coby Karl score the first field goal of his NBA career on the last play of the night for the Lakers. Karl jr is Calvin Booth-ugly, by the way (LOL).

Sixers take on Iverson and the Nuggets on Sunday to end their trip West: the record is 2-3 now.

Well, to be precise he actually sealed it, but anyway… we lost.

Sixers4guidos favorite Kyle Korver hit 5 of his 6 free throws in the final 27 seconds of the game to secure a 110-107 Utah win (14-18, .438, 2-2 on our 6 games road trip).

Before that, it was Deron Williams & Carlos Boozer combining for key plays down the stretch to prevent what could have been a spectacular comeback by the Sixers. Trailing by ten points with 4 minutes left (91-101, Deron Williams 1-vs-0 fastbreak lay up after a bad turnover by Andre Miller), Andre Iguodala led the Sixers to a 8-0 run that trimmed the gap to two with 1.31 remaining: 99-101, 2/2 by Miller from the line. 

But Deron Williams run consecutive pick & rolls for two long jumpers by Boozer that basically made the game out of reach for Philly. Between those two shots, Lou Williams scored on a drive, and after the second basket by the Jazz forward Dalembert had a putback, every time to put the Sixers within two, but it was useless. Korver did the rest from the line.

That’s how the game ended and how Utah won despite being severely outrebounded (40-26 Sixers !). Deron’s final assists to Boozer (“Stockton-to-Malone” anyone?) were his 19th and 20th, to cap another fantastic performance against Philadelphia.

The game was enyojable and interesting for many reasons, and here is what I liked:

1) Sixers never gave up, again. We trailed by 10 in the first (8-18) and closed the quarter down 4 (20-24); we trailed by 12 in the second (30-42) and closed the half down 6 (47-53); we trailed by 13 in the third (64-77) and closed it down 7 at the buzzer (71-78), thanks to a mid court shot by Iguodala (in the picture); we trailed by 11 in the fourth (83-94) and made it a two point game (99-101, 101-103, 103-105, as I just said).

2) Sixers collected great individual performaces: Iguodala had his new season high (30) and scored in every possible way, Andre Miller was another force offensively, especially in the first half (19 with 8/10, + 4 assist), Dalembert was very solid too (curious how he had 9 offensive rebounds vs 1 defensive !), Lou contributed, even with some forced shots

3) I watched many fantastic plays: the best one came in the second when 6′2 Lou Williams went up and blocked the 6′11 Okur while he was attempting a dunk on a drive and run full court to catch an alley oop pass from Miller for the big throwdown.

Jason Smith had another great one, dunking off a miss by Iguodala while being fouled by Harpring.

4) boarding & hustle. The aforementioned edge under the glasses gave us many second chance points. I also liked that everyone seemed really spirited and gave 100% effort playing in a tough arena, against a tough team.

So what was wrong in Utah?

1) perimeter defense: Jazz knocked down 7 three pointers out of 10 attemps. And once Okur hit a jumper stepping the line, so it could have been 8/11 easily. CJ Miles shot 2/2 from behind the arc and was very good for Utah off the bench (10 points in the 4th). In general, Utah players were left wide open too many times for outside jumpers. Of course, you have to give Deron Williams a lot of credit because he has a wonderful ability to find the open man and to give him the ball timely.

2) Rodney “UAU” * Carney. Another poor game. In the first he missed a layup on a fastbreak, Sam grabbed the rebound and dished him the ball, he went up for the spectacular throwdown only to be rejected by… the rim ! The missed “big” dunk is one of Carney’s traditional trademarks, you have another fine example here.

I have some few things worth covering:

* former Jazz Gordan Giricek got some boos from the home crowd when he checked in. He looked obviously nervous, missed his first two shots and traveled once, but in the third he had a three pointer and a nice steal to stop a dangerous Jazz run. Overall not bad.

* former Sixer (wow, that still sounds strange) Kyle Korver was nervous as well - he stated that after the game – but scored his first shot (a three pointer, guess that)  and ended with a nice 14 points in less than 12 minutes of action.

He’s already a crowd favorite, he still sucks on defense (Iguodala abused him), and he didn’t find the time to get a haircut in Salt Lake City yet… some things never change, you see

Sixers play the Lakers on Friday to avoid a season sweep by L.A. A firey guido in Italy will follow live at 4.30 AM, screaming at his desk.

(* = Useless As Usual, Sixers4guidos’s nickname, see here)

You can’t take some days off for a little vacation around New year’s day, because that’s what happens… In chronological order: 

1) taking advantage of Ricky’s absence, Sixers traded Kyle Korver (in the picture) for Gordan Giricek and a first round pick

2) Sixers lost at Portland 72-97 (13-17, .433) “thanks” to a memorable fourth quarter collapse

3) Sixers won at Seattle 98-90 (14-17, .452) after a far-from-memorable game

After having spent the whole New Year’s evening reading all the news and watching the two games, I have to say the level of interest of those three facts is just reverse:

3) The Seattle game was simply bad. To me it showed few things, that I want to  mention very quickly.

* we have to work on our killer instict. We let a Sonics team without Durant, Wilcox and Ridnour (!!! and they weren’t good even with them…) stay in the game too long. Seattle cut the deficit to three twice in the fourth, (86-83 and 89-86) both on jumpers by Delonte West, and the same West misfired on an open three that could have made it a two point game with 2.16 to play… we should have closed it earlier and with a larger margin… to sum it up, there were all the conditions for a blow out, basically. 

* Lou Williams is amazing at the offensive end (13 points with 11/12 from the line in the fourth) just as much as irritating in the defensive end… he let Earl Watson AND Delonte West score repeatedly over him, and could NEVER defend a pick and roll… at times, it seemed the Knicks game all over again, when Jamaal Crawford scored 16 consecutive points on him… it looks like Lou can turn any opponent into an offensive threat (LOL): I expect Eric Snow dropping threes on us or Dan Dickau exploding for a career high soon… but he really helped us win this game so I’ll give it a cut

* Iguodala scored two terrific baskets when we needed it the most, one off an alley oop pass from Andre Miller (spectacular dunk + foul: 89-83, 3.29 to go), the other on a tough jumper to basically win the game (95-88, 26 seconds left): his confidence is rising and rising and rising… add also a nice three pointer at the 3rd quarter buzzer for the 73-62.

I’ll take the W + some other good things – Dalembert’s six blocks, Giricek’s solid debut, Andre Miller’s long three !! -  and forget the rest (starting from the 9/19 from the line we had at a point…)

2) The Portland game was another one to remember. It seems like these two teams can’t play “normal” games when they meet. You saw by yourself that we got outscored 35-9 in the fourth, that Blazers went on a 21-0 run, that we were up 11 at the beginning of the third (47-36) bla bla bla, so I would add only few considerations:

* we played a poor first quarter, giving up four threes and shooting 7/21 from the fiield. It’s no coincidence that Andre Miller was horrible offensively, 0/6 including a couple of lay ups and many “easy” mid range jumpers

* our second quarter was simply perfect, and again it’s no coincidence that Miller was very good in the period (11 points)… I have only some doubts about the “three point guards” line up that Cheeks used for a while, with Miller, Williams and Ollie on the floor at the same time (??!!)

* to me the key in the third (and perhaps in the game) were Brandon Roy’s three “and one” plays that gave the Trail Blazers new life and ignited the crowd

* the fourth quarter disaster is simply unexcusable, just as much as the 4 technical fouls we collected in the stretch (Cheeks, Williams, Dalembert, Miller)… how about taking care of the ball and slowing the tempo down instead of trying idiotic alley oops or rushed shots when the other team is clearly on fire ??? How about knocking down shots (0/7 to start, 2/14 at a point) instead of getting blocked and/or bitching with the refs ??

1) I have mixed feelings about the Korver trade (you perhaps remember I’ve been a great Korver fan since he came here… I will go on following and rooting for him, by the way) . I think it would be also stupid to judge it now, since it’s clearly a move to free cap space.

From a purely technical point of view, we could even not miss much with Giricek: the croatian is a great shooter too, maybe just not as deadly as Kyle is behind the arc, but close. Giricek is four years older but a little bit more athletic and slightly stronger, while defensively they are more or less at the same level, below average (Korver) vs garbage (Giricek).

The loss of Korver will mean more minutes for Young (finally !!) and Carney (…) in the rotation, something I definitely like. I don’t expect Giricek getting more than 8-10 minutes per game, and no one does, I think.

Gordan’s most appreciated “skill” is his expiring contract, though, be sure of that.

That’s why I think that we will have to wait this summer to weight Stefanski’s first move (it didn’t take him that long to pull the trigger for the first time, uh ?): right now Sixers are the franchise with more money to spend in the free agent market (insert drooling smiley here…), being 10 millions UNDER the cap, according to the same GM.

Whom we will sign will tell us if this trade (these trades?) worked. If losing my boy Korver is the price to land a Josh Smith, a Jose Calderon, an Elton Brand  in few months, well, Kyle, it will mean that you did great playing with us just as much as you did leaving us.

We will have more chances to analyze this over the next days/weeks, right now we have a trip West to finish (2-1 the current record, three tough games to go) and our buddy Kyle to meet, this time as a Utah Jazz (uh ! Doesn’t that sound weird?).

Happy 2008 again, it’s gonna be a wonderful Sixers year !!

Yeah, I know the Kings were Bibby/Martin/Artest-less.

Still coming out of the Arco Arena with a 92-80 win (13-16, .448) is a nice accomplishment for our beloved Sixers on their first matchup of a 6 games trip West. And it was definitely worth staying up until 6.30 AM to watch them live again.

I am out for vacation and I don’t have a fast connection so I’ll keep this pretty short.

It was an ugly game with few flashes: in the first Udrih shot 6/6 on a variety of layups, threes and drives: Sixers were not protecting ther paint but stayed closed mainly thanks to Dalembert who had 10 on 4/5: Iguodala with a shot at the buzzer gave us our first lead at 25-26.

In the second our bench made the difference for us: Korver, Smith and Young all started with 2/2 from the field and played finally some tough defense, with many steals, deflections, forced turonovers and hustle plays. It paid off immediately and we could build a 10 point lead (31-41) that later become larger (36-47). But Brad Miller scored 5 points in a 10-3 Kings run that made Sacramento close the half down four, 46-50.

Half time stats showed how Sixers did a good job containing Kings big men – that destroyed us in Philly, remember? A combined 19/23 from the field… 

Dalembert was our best scorer with 14 (6/7), Korver and Smith followed him with 7, Iguodala had 6 on 2/4 but he had already 4 assists. Udrih paced the Kings with 17 on 7/9 (! including 3/3 from downtown), Salmons 9 on 4/9 and Brad Miller had 6 + 5 rebounds. Mikki Moore was held to 0 points. Bench production was in our favour: 20-9, with Cheeks going deep in the rotation.

The third quarter was simply bad: our big men started shooting jumpers (Evans hit one, by the way), Carney was UAU (= Useless As Usual, this is a Sixers4guidos copyright…), bricking consecutive open shots. Kings made their defense stronger, with double teams and putting some pressure on us. Countless ugly possessions started to pile up, with shot clock and three seconds violations, forced and unforced turnovers. Sacramento could count on some offensive rebounds and gained the lead again with Moore (59-61), Brad Miller closed the quarter on a jumper at the horn: 63-63.

At the beginning of the fourth Andre Miller led the way for us scoring 4 points and assisting Jason Smith for a thunderous dunk on a fastbreak: 69-65 Sixers lead. Our lineup in that stretch had the rookie from Colorado State at center and Thaddeus Young at power forward: it worked.

I think Thad was the key in the last period and he’s my MVP for last night (S4G gives him also a double honour: put him in the pic and creates a new nickname: Thad-dunk… too lame?): he had a wonderful rejection and a putback that lifted us at 76-69 and was very active defensively and under the boards. Sixers played a not-so-impressive zone that still was enough to win the game: Sacramento was misfiring on several open jumpers, couldn’t feed its bigs inside and turned the ball over repeatedly.

Udrih’s last triple cut our lead to five (78-73) but then Iguodala finally took over on both ends and capped a 10-0 run with a tough fallaway three as the shot clok was winding down: 88-73 with 3 minutes left, game over.

Final considerations:

1) we kept the Kings to 34 second half points. Again, I know they were shorthanded but give some credit to our guys

2) Sam got some revenge vs Brad Miller and was a factor, as his excellent stat line shows

3) Salmons still goes only right. It’s unbelievable. Like 110% of the times he has the ball. But somehow manages to get his drives to the basket. 

4) Korver should get an haircut IMMEDIATELY.

5) for an “enemy” stand point on the game check Sactown Royalty, a fine Kings blog.

I don’t know if I will be able to post again this year, in case I won’t…HAPPY 2008 EVERYONE !! And possibly my 2-4 prediction for this trip will have to be corrected

…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

Andre Iguodala did his best Santa Klaus impersonation and sank the Grizzlies with a tough fallaway shot at the buzzer over Mike Miller, giving Sixers a 99-97 win in Memphis and all fans a happy Christmas (11-16, .407).

Iguodala’s last second 18 footer (in the picture !) capped a fantastic fourth quarter, in which he shot 7/9 from the field and scored 17 points, after going 2/12 with 6 points in the previous three.

That’s exactly what a franchise player is supposed to do. I wrote this several times and I am happy to see him playing like this. The point is he can do it almost on a daily basis, but he rarely does (did?). Let’s hope that the first buzzer beater of his NBA career becomes a turning point of his, and Sixers’, season.

The sweet end of the game – and the red uniforms – could make us forget all the things that happened before, good and bad ones, but I think it’s fair to remind them all. Let’s start with what didn’t work :

1) Dalembert could NEVER stop Pau Gasol in the low post. You can read by yourself Gasol’s stat line (31 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, 65% FG…), what is worse is that Gasol scored 7 points in the last 1.20 minutes of the game, and all on Sam.

First came a three point play off an alley hoop from Navarro, and it was Dalembert fouling him (from 92-87 Sixers to 92-90, 1.18 to go), then a left handed layup after an isolation play to bring Grizzlies within 1 (96-95, 15 seconds to play), then an IDENTICAL shot to tie the game at 97 with 5 seconds left. Sam, take a look at the tape, you got schooled again: you can/have to do better than this.

2) Korver missed two clutch chances to ice the game. First a wide open, “easy”, three pointer that could have given us an eight point lead with 1.25 left: on the next possession it came Gasol’s “and one” play, so instead of a possible 95-87 it became 92-90. Then, after being fouled with 15 seconds to play, he missed the second of two free throws, that could have given us a three point lead: it remained 97-95 Sixers, and Gasol tied it moments later.

You would expect better from a 90% FT shooter… especially considering he committed the same mistakes in similar situations last year.

3) Carney played like garbage, again. He “had” to start because Willie Green was out due to a “muscle strain”. Well, in front of his many Memphis friends he showed he still lacks personality and fundamentals (is it actually true that he went FOUR FULL YEARS to college? I am starting to doubt it, he is still unbelievably raw and unconsistent).

Some Carney’s “highlights”: he started on Mike Miller, got beaten twice off the dribble, missed a couple of shots and was pulled out after 8 completely meaningless minutes in the first.

In the second, just before the half time buzzer, he had a nice steal on Stoudamire but he turned it over immediately and fouled Damon on the loose ball: 52-47 Grizzlies after the ensuing free throws.

In the third he got blocked by Mike Miller (!!!) –  I found a nice picture of this but it’s Christmas time and I decided to keep it in my computer…  – and missed a layup on a one-on-one fastbreak because he doesn’t know to go left and stubbornly tried to score with his right hand.

Then he missed his sixth consecutve shot in a row on another fastbreak but somehow managed to put it in the hole, off his own miss, just under the basket. He ended the quarter, and his embarassing game, airballing a jumper at the horn: 2 points, 1/8 from the field in 19 minutes and a dramatic sensation that he’s really a complete bust. Send him to the D-League, NOW.

Sam, Kyle, Rodney: take Iguodala to dinner and thank him.

So let’s conclude with the sweet notes:

1) Andre Miller played another wonderful game, reaching his season high already in the third (27) and knocking down a clutch mid range shot (94-92 with 28 seconds left). He was amazing, he understood that the team needed his scoring and he did that, drawing a lot of fouls with his set of pump fakes and post moves.

2) Thaddeus Young was very good, contributing on both ends of the floor and hitting a couple of perfect shots from the line under pressure (96-93, 22 seconds to play). He showed some balls and had only a couple of turonovers that are more than forgiveable for a rookie.

I had a special look also on fellow serbian Darko Milicic but the guy is still a mystery to me: four nice blocks in eleven minutes but also four fouls and only one rebound. It looks like he doesn’t care about what’s happening on the floor and maybe he doesn’t care at all about basketball. Pretty sad, the guy is apparently wasting all his talent.

Merry Christmas Sixers fans worldwide !!

At least judging from last night’s 106-101 Lakers win at the Wachovia center (10-16, .385).

Sixers lost the first game to the Lakers since 2000, breaking a 7 home games winning streak, and despite keeping Bryant to a very quiet 19 points with 30% FG, including 0/5 in the fourth.

It was the so called “supporting cast” (Bynum, Odom, Fisher) to carry Los Angeles to its 16 win of the year in the second night of a back-to-back. That made me optimistic about the end of this game: I was thinking that Lakers could be a little bit tired, also because their loss at Cleveland of the day before was a tough, close one.

I was thinking that the good recent aforementioned tradition, the atmopshere of a finally crowded arena, the fact that usually Iguodala steps up against Kobe could give us a win.

I was even mopre optimistic when I found out that we were wearing retro uniforms again (yeah !! in the picture, Andre Miller, my MVP) and that Doctor J was attending the game: he even gave a speech before the tip off, stating that “Twenty five years is much too long, let’s get it done !” after receiving an ovation from the fans. Well, it was all useless. Anyway. Here is my recap.

Sixers started well in the first, with Andre Miller knocking down his first 4 shots and tying the game at 12 after Lakers lead by 6 at 6-12. Young checked in for Reggie Evans, who picked up two quick fouls. Lakers gained a lead again with a 7-0 run, sparked by an excellent Derek Fisher (I’ve always liked this guy, too bad he always played for the wrong team…) who was distributing the ball to his team mates, and finding Bynum for multiple alley-hoops.

A three point play by the young Lakers center made it 14-22: Carney went in and had a couple of baskets (!!)  but Bynum continued dominating the glasses, especially under the offensive end, and the quarter ended with Lakers up 8 (24-32): Bynum collected 11 points on 5/6. Interesting how Cheeks used 10 players in the first, including Kevin Ollie, who was replacing the injured Lou Williams in the rotation.

In the second Bynum’s dominance reached its peak: Lakers’ big man almost singlehandedly put his team up 9 (29-38) and had 18 on an a ridiculous 8/9 when Phil Jackson, pretty unexplicably to me, decided to pull him out for a rest: moments later Ronny Turiaf pushed the lead to 11, Lakers’ largest (31-42).

Sixers’ defense was simply atrocius, allowing Farmer go for an uncontested coast-to-coast lay up, for instance, or Lakers reaching 50 points with more than 4 minutes left. It was Andre Miller keeping us in the game (16 points at the half, 8/11) because Iguodala was setting for long jumpers that weren’t falling… five Lakers turnovers in the last five minutes helped us too: a dunk by Willie Green, who played some solid defense by the way, cut it to 53-56 at the half.

At the break Bynum had 18 points on 9/10 + 8 rebounds and Lakers scored 36 points in the paint (…) vs Sixers’ 16: under the boards LA edge was 24-17. Iguodala was 2/10 from the field while Sixers overall shot 48%. Kobe didn’t score in the second and was kept to a more than acceptable 9 points.

Iguodala started the third very effectively, putting 9 quick points including a three and a driving dunk, and immediate benefits followed: Sixers first tied the game at 59 and then Reggie Evans with two free throws, coming after a previous 2/2 (!!!), put us ahead at 70-68 with 6.41 to play.

One could think that it was a sign by the basketabll gods, right? Well not exactly: after a sweet mid range jumper by Sam stretched Sixers’ lead to +3 (75-72) Lakers went on a  10-0 run, with Fisher scoring 8 consecutive points (he had 11 in the quarter).  My boy Lamar Odom was very hot too (17 at the end of the period), scoring at will over the smaller Evans and Carney.

Hey, seems like Mo loves to put our 6′7” small forwards on ou opponents’ 6′10” power forwards…. remember the Kings game, with Korver on Mikki Moore ??? Well, same result here, of course. The quarter ended with Iguodala dishing to Ollie for a 81-84 Lakers lead.

Not much to say about the fourth, unfortunately: after Carney’s jumper made it 83-86 Lakers had another 7-0 break off 5 points by Farmar and the 83-93 lead with 9 minutes left was basically the decisive one.

After the -6 highlighted by the same Carney (87-93) the teams combined for 9 consecutive empty possessions (misses, turnovers etc). Willie Green gave Sixers the last hope (91-96, 4.32 to go) but then Iguodala dumbly fouled Kobe on a three point attempt and at 91-99 the game was definitely over.

At the end of the day it suck losing liking this, I would have preferred get killed by a 45 point game by Kobe rather than allowing Bynum a career high.

More random thoughts:

1) THIS Korver is HORRIBLE. I am a big fan of him and I understand that you can’t pull out a shooter after the first two misses, that it makes sense to wait for him a little bit because he can give us a spark at any moment etc etc…but for God’s sake, 31 minutes and 3/11 (he scored his fourth field goal in garbage time) is unbelievable !! 

Please notice he is going on misfiring on WIDE OPEN shots, where he should be almost AUTOMATICAL, and also pretty easy two pointers, with no defenders around him. Under the basket he got blocked twice but this is somehow normal… put his ass on the bench please.

2) Rodney Carney was actually very good ! Eight points in 16 minutes (4/7 with  a missed long three he had to take because the shot clok was expiring) and a decent defense… last game he played was on December 10th vs Houston, when he was scoreless in 10 minutes, with 0/3: this means he came from four consecutive DNPs, on two he sat out due to the flu, though.

He (finally) let the game come to him, didn’t force or rush anything… why he didn’t play more TONIGHT in Korvers’ place is beyond me, it was clear from the beginning that the two of them were in opposite conditions last night. Clear for everybody but one.

3) the old checks stealer Kevin Ollie was solid off the bench but to be honest with you I would prefer to have Lou back soon…guess why, LOL.

4) Andre Iguodala missed another chance to step up in a big game and show he’s a really franchise player. Yes, the 9 assists are nice, he was good defensively on a (injury bothered, remember) Bryant but he again didn’t understand than in games like this, when your outside shot is not falling, you have to take it to the rack. I hate Kobe but his comments after the game were funny:

“You get a little tired defending him,” Iguodala said. “There were a few times I was trying to catch my wind.”

Bryant laughed when asked about Iguodala’s defense. “He did OK,” Bryant said.

… and ”ok” here means ”yeah, ok…”

5) Cheeks used a 11 men rotation and threw also Booth’s ugly face and butt on the floor. It didn’t work (the 11 men rotation, not Booth’s butt) but I like this.

Tonight vs Memphis, and it will be us Sixers playing on a back-to-back.

I would like to end with a Doctor J quote: asked if he can still dunk, he answered with a smile: “I still dunk, once a year”. Priceless.