Sixer-by-Sixer 07/08 breakdown: Andre Miller

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Sixers4guidos starts its player-by-player analysis of the season with the guy who in my humble opinion should receive the ‘Sixers MVP award’, point guard Andre Miller.

OVERALL EFFICIENCY AND RATE

Miller had arguably the best season of his career.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you should know I am not a stat maniac, but his 17 PPG and .492 % FG (both career highs) are pretty impressive, especially coming at 32 y/o. 

Seven assists for 2.5 turnovers is a nice ratio as well, considering he plays 36 minutes in an up tempo team.

He’s always been known more as a playmaker than a scorer, but this year we saw that in the right system he can be also a reliable #2 option for his team, carrying the load offensively in many nights. He often knocked down clutch shots down the stretch, which never hurts….

My rate for Andre Miller is 9 (scale is from 1 to 10, being 10 the top).

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 blow a unique chance (Pistons 2, Sixers 2)

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Yeah, the series is still open, yeah before it started everybody would have thought that being 2-2 after four games would have been damn good, but still I have the feeling that we missed a great chance.

1) First off, give Pistons their props for the deserved 84-93 win of last night, they proved why they have been to the Conference finals five years in a row.

2) we better try to analyze how we let a 14 point lead (43-29, 4.30 left in the second) turn into a 15 point deficit (65-80, 8.30 to play in the fourth. That means a 22-51 break in 20 minutes of action !

3) we should think about possible solutions to avoid that happening again.

Pistons played like a veteran team, never losing composure also when everything looked going in the wrong sense for them.

Sixers’ FIRST QUARTER was great: Sammy knocked down a couple of free throws and had a huge block on Billups (0/3 + 3 turnovers to start the game…), igniting the crowd and setting the tone for his team mates. Iguodala hit his first two shots, one being a step back jumper (the same shot that NEVER went in before) and the other a thunderous dunk over Rasheed Wallace. We all thought it could be the right night for him and for the Sixers.

By the half of the period all Sixers starters had already scored, while Detroit (with Maxiell in at PF) struggled: it was 17-10 and it ended at 25-19, with Green and Dalembert scoring six points, Iguodala five and Young four. Mo didn’t make any substitution.

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.

Last second loss heads us to Detroit

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I’m finally back after a 11 day absence due to a business trip. And I finally managed to see a whole Sixers game again: the last one before I left, was the win vs Nets.

Right now you’d already wacthed and read everything about the 90-91 home loss to the Cavs (40-41, .494) and the way it come.

In case you didn’t, David Aldridge has the best recap, as usual. Point is, we lost the game, will finish at the seventh place and meet Detroit in the first round.

I’ll just add my two cents. Unlike many Sixers fans, I think the call on Dalembert was correct. He fouled Devin Brown - in the pic, sealing the victory - and before the buzzer. So no “robbery”, no “steal”, no “scandal”, in my opinion. It was a foul, coming after a great play, the block on LeBron James. (EDIT: after reviewing it for the 157th time I finally realized Ilgauskas pushed Sam towards Brown… that foul should have been called as well).

No big deal though. Sixers played a heck of a game, a playoffs game and I really enjoyed it. If it could end 0.2 seconds before, it would have been nicer. Whatever.

I’ll try to remind the good things:

Sixers to playoffs, S4G temporarely off

Guys, I’m out on a business trip

I have troubles finding an Internet connection, let alone wacthing the games.

I’ll be back on Monday 15th, in the meantime I saw Sixers reached playoffs thanks to the win over the Hawks.

This is great, I admit I thought that was impossible this year and I also admit I was for tanking the season after the Korver trade.

Neither of that happened, and I am happy I missed all the predictions because this Sixers run was stunning, I fully enjoyed it.

Back in few days with full coverage !!

Children and… dancers need Sixers fans’ help !!

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Guys, while we are waiting for the Bulls game, it’s time to make an effort for people who need our help.

1) The first is a serious one, I received this email and I’m pasting it here, hoping that:

a) it’s not a fake (it doesn’t look like, but you never know…also, living here in Italy it’s difficult for me to tell - UPDATE: it’s not a fake, continue reading)

b) it could help

“I am hitting the Sixers blog trail to try to find bidders for 4 club box tickets to the 4/9 Sixers v. Pistons game.  They were donated by Comcast to our organization for this charity event.  I’ve divided them up into pairs starting at $85 for a pair. 

Link number 1

Link number 2

We also have some Phillies memorabilia.  Signed baseballs from Jamie Moyer, Michael Bourn (now with Houston) and Gregg Dobbs.  Also a signed cap from Tom “Flash” Gordon.

Link number 3

We have these and many other exciting items for people to bid on at  www.ayudacc.org/auction. 

Please pass this info to your friends and readers.  Every dollar bid on these items benefits children and families in the Hunting Park neighborhood of North Philly. Thanks !”

Among the “memorabilia” you will find also an autographed Mo Cheeks jersey, check it. The mail is signed and I have all the contacts with the organization so in case somebody wants to check and/or have more details, feel free to email me at sixers4guidos [at] gmail.com.

2) The second ”effort” is surely more fun.

SIXERS DANCERS (insert drooling smiley here) ARE ANTICIPATING THE FUTURE RUN OF OUR TEAM IN THE PLAYOFFS AND ALREADY REACHED THE CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS in the NBA Dance Team Bracket !!!

Vote here to support really hot chicks the Sixers dancers vs the Magic and they will give us something back be thankful for our support !!!

Go Sixers, go Sixers dancers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**** COUGH **** If any of you girls will ever come to Italy please dial +39-010-37…

Showed balls, beat Bulls

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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.