Detroit has a new/old fan (Pistons 4, Sixers 2)

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I am back home after a 4 days romantic trip to Verona (the city of Romeo and Juliet !) with my wife, finally back blogging also.

I am changing job & town in the next weeks, so it’s possible that new posts and updates will have some pauses.

Anyway I’ll have BIG NEWS SOON, so give me a free pass and stay tuned on Sixers4guidos.

So the Sixers season is over after the 77-100 loss to the Pistons in game 6 of the first round: 4-2, end. While I’m typing this post, Detroit has a 2-1 lead over Orlando in the second round.

Of course no need to recap the game one week after it was played, and also because it was another blowout (2-15 Detroit to start it, 12-30 after the first quarter, 33-51 at the half…).

I’ll just point out some things, the feelings I had after the end of the series.

1) Detroit deserved to advance, of course. Can’t argue with three consecutive wins after trailing 1-2, also because the wins came in a pretty impressive way. The best team won, simple as that.

2) I am VERY HAPPY with what Sixers did in the season and in the series. Idiots complaining about the 2-1 lead we had, about the collapses in the last two games, about Iguodala’s (actual) shortcomings, perhaps forget where did we come from.

Detroit just being Detroit (Pistons 3, Sixers 2)

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Not much to say about Pistons’ 98-81 win of last night, really.

You just “copy & paste” game 2, and the recap of game 2, and you know what happened yesterday at the Palace.

It was Pistons from start to finish, no need to go quarter-by-quarter.  

The game basically ended after the first period (35-21), with Pistons shooting 15/19 (!), led by Billups, who had 14 points on 4/5, including two threes, to go with seven assists !!

The only sign of life by the Sixers was when Iguodala stripped Prince to feed Thaddeus Young on a fastbreak for a nice layup: it was 10-10, but a 16-2 Pistons run immediately followed that beatiful play.

Iguodala had finally a good game, but unfortunately with ZERO IMPACT on the team’s performance. Not blaming him again, of course, just stating a fact. Iggy went 4/4 in the first period, but fellow Andre shot 1/8, promptly extended to 1/10 at the beginning of the second, when he was finally pulled out.

Miller’s poor game (the first of the series, to be honest, so not sayin it’s his fault, or not only his) had a negative effect on the whole team, literally kicked in the butt for 48 minutes, while Pistons guards and Rasheed with his effective inside-outside game were partying all night.

Sixers wind blowing (Pistons 1, Sixers 2)

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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.

Your normal Game 2 (Pistons 1, Sixers 1)

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The 105-88 loss of last night is exactly the game that we were expecting. Even in Game 1, I mean.

Pistons absolutely destroyed the Sixers, outplaying us in every possible way and the final score doesn’t even give the idea of how hard we got beat.

I don’t think it’s necessary to recap the game, let’s say we could stay with Detroit only in the FIRST QUARTER and only because it lasted 12 minutes (LOL).

Andre Miller’s (lucky) bank shot at the buzzer made it 25-18, putting an end to a lesson of playoffs basketball. I would say ‘Detroit playoffs basketball’ if the expression wouldn’t remind me of that annoying chorus that you hear there….

To sum it up, Pistons played a damn stifling defense, pushing us to shoot FOUR AIRBALLS in the period, that Iguodala ended with 0/6, while Sixers as a team were 3/14 initially.

On the other side, Rasheed Wallace did his job, exactly like in game 1, scoring 11 points with a conbination of low post moves over Dalembert (embarassed in every one-on-one situation) and a long three. Thaddeus Young was the only effective Sixers, with 6 points off some nice offensive rebounds.

Looks like we’ll have a series… (Pistons 0, Sixers 1)

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I honestly didn’t think that was possible (who did it?), but still it happened.

(Check what I said before the game in this Q & A session with Jesse from Pistons Nation, that was so kind to contact me for exchanging thoughts about the series. You’ll find also some nice pics and more funny stuff…)

Sixers stole a 86-90 win in Detroit, lead the series 1-0 and gained home court advantage, all in a fantastic night. That came in one of the weirdest, craziest, most exciting of the possible ways it could.

Sixers trailed by thirteen at halftime (51-38 ) and fifteen midway through the third (62-57). Here they went on a 10-0 run that avoided a collapse (especially a mental one) and totally changed momentum. The quarter ended 70-63, and was followed by another 4-0 run at the beginning of the fourth (70-67) that set the stage for the final 10 minutes, in which Sixers came close (72-71), tied it (76-76) and finally took the lead when Miller made it 77-78.

Here came a pretty unbelievable sequence, a sign that things were turning in our favor: Evans made 2/2 from the line (!!), Billups went 0/2 (!!!!) and Evans scored again on the next possession (!!!!!!!!), this time on a fall away jumper (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!): 79-82 Sixers with 4.26 to go. Of course the game was still open then, but our confidence had a huge boost.

Bitter end for a fantastic Sixers season

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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.

Sixers dance towards the playoffs

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I know this recap comes late.

I am sorry but I am having troubles finding the games. Anyway, it looks like i just found a new, cool way :-) 

With that one, I just managed to watch the whole Nets game, so here are my (late) thoughts.

While the Sixers dancers were battling in the Eastern Conference finals of the NBA Dance team bracket, the guys were sailing to the first round.

Sixers beat the Nets 97-108 and at 38-37 (.507) got very, very close to clinching a playoffs spot.

With Toronto and Washington (38-36) still 1/2 game ahead and Atlanta (34-40) three and 1/2 games behind, Sixers could finish anywhere between the 5th and the 8th seed, especially considering that now they have to meet the Hawks in two games of a back-to-back, home-and-home series.

No need to go quarter-by-quarter now (it was a good, solid win on the road), but what was nice to see in New Jersey?

Sixers drop second straight in Cleveland

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“Technical” problems prevented me to watch the 91-88 loss in Cleveland.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a way to catch the game, at least not yet.

Like always in these cases, I’ll strictly stick to FACTS (boxscore, reports, highlights - that I saw - and mostly the play-by-play page) to come to some undisputable conclusions.

I will wait to eventually add more points after having watched the game.

Sixers at 37-37 (.500) are currently 7th and still in a good position in the playoffs race. Toronto and Washington lost, Hawks won.

I wouldn’t make a big deal of this loss, it seems that the team played pretty well for the whole game and simply came up short in the last possessions, failing to score in the last 2 minutes, when they went 0/5.

Suns school of basketball

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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.

In Sixersworld everyone is on a roll

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The whole Sixers franchise is passing through a great moment.

The darkest days seem behind our back, a new era hopefully started.

It might be winning, it might be not, at least it’s providing us a much needed extra fun.

Fun is the key word.

It’s a joy to watch this team play hard, run fast, win games.

Last night’s 121-99 win over the Bulls is only the last example (37-35, .514).

Wanna the recap? It was a blowout. End of the recap.

It was +15 at the end of the first (34-19), with Chicago starting 1/12 and the only field goal coming on a goaltending, +20 in the second (59-39), ended at +16 only because Bulls made a couple of threes in the last 22 seconds.