So this afternoon, at 3 PM guido time, meaning 9 AM in Philly, I had the privilege to take part to a blogger conference call with Eddie Jordan set up by Sixers’ PR department (thanks again for the opportunity).

Colleagues/friends that joined were Brian from Depressed fan, Derek from Real GM and Philly Arena, Dannie from Recliner GM, Chris & Anthony from Heard in the cheap seats, Jeff from Philadunkia (all links to their cool sites n the blogroll on the right).

Not sure why Jordan (the blogger…) from Liberty Ballers, Enrico from The 700 Level and other excellent Sixer bloggers did not take part, surely they will next time.

Your fav guido blogger is the last to have a post up, because Depressed Fan wrote this, Recliner GM has this, Philly Arena has this and fellow guidos the Iafolla bros have their own post up as well.

To my credit – like somebody cares… - I started a thread on the Sixers board of philly.com immediately after the end of the conference, to share some observations made in the call with posters there.

There is no podcast unfortunately this time (this will save you from hearing my terrible english) but Jeff was patient enough to transcript the whole conference so here is what we said in those 30 minutes. My comments following some of the coach’s answers are in …italics

(Brian – Depressed Fan) When it comes right down to it, who gets the playing time: a weak defender who fits the offensive system or a strong defender who does not? What is the priority?

Eddie Jordan: “There has to be a balance. If you have skill to score the basketball, you’re going to play. I mean, you can’t win 0-0. If you have a weaker defender, you play team defense to cover for him. At the same time, if you have four strong offensive players, then you can carry one defender, sometimes two. I think championship teams start with a solid, veteran front line”.

(Ricky – Sixers4guidos) - with strong guido accent – Do you see Lou Williams in the combo guard role he’s played in the past, coming off the bench, or could he slide in as a starting point?

Eddie Jordan: “In this offense, you really play two combo guards at all times. In training camp, we’ll see how Lou handles it. But yes, I see Lou as a combo guard”.

(Uhm. After last year, I don’t think Lou can play the point, which was something I actually thought possible before. To me he doesn’t possess true PG skills and also lacks the correct attitude. He is turning more into a gunner combo guard, ala Jamaal Crawford, which I don’t like much. We’ll see)

(Derek – RealGM) – Can Iguodala play the two?

Eddie Jordan: “Yes. I think he can flow from the two to the three. I like to think he’s a three-man first. It depends on the roster, if Smith or Speights can earn time, then he’s at the two. I played Jared Jeffries at the two on a team that went to the second round of the playoffs. I will use him at the two if one of those big men can earn the time”.

(No Jared Jeffries on the Sixers, thank you… and no Reggie Evans at the two either, LOL)

(Dannie - ReclinerGM) How will Samuel Dalembert fit into the offense next year?

Eddie Jordan: “Just like everyone else Samuel has to buy into being an unselfish player that cares about his teammates. That has been a knock on him, he has to get past the selfish up and down mentality of playing in the NBA.

I’d like to see him care about his teammates, the offense can run through him or around him, and he can still be a valuable part of the offense. He has to have an approach that he can be highly competitive and being unselfish teammate and that’s what we’re looking for first”.

(love this reply. Hidden message: Sam, move your ass and don’t complain or you’ll get single digit minutes soon)

(Ricky – Sixers4guidos) The Sixers couldn’t sell out the arena last year, even during the playoffs. Is this because the Sixers just have to win more basketball games, or play a fun style of basketball or both?

Eddie Jordan: ”I don’t know. I really don’t. I haven’t been here long enough to understand why they haven’t filled the arena for playoff games. I think if you have an exciting team and they win than people will come out to see them.

That’s been proven throughout the NBA in the history of the NBA. If you win and you’re exciting, and if you have a chance to play for either the Conference championship or NBA championship, than they will come and fill the arena. So outside of that I don’t have a problem”.

(coach is right, I should have put this question to the GM and not to him. Anyway, in Philly even winning games doesn’t guarantee you filling the seats, as we saw during the 2008 and 2009 playoffs, when we couldn’t sell the arena out despite the team being up 2-1 in both series…)

(Brian – Depressed Fan) During your time in Washington it seemed as if once you had your full arsenal of players with Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler, and Antawn Jamison you were one of the fastest teams in the NBA and had close to the most possessions per game. Than when you were hit by injuries in 2007-08 that pace slowed considerably and that was how you competed with a depleted roster. What do you foresee for the Sixers this year, do you see them as a top 10 team in possessions per game?

Eddie Jordan: “I think we’re going to be a high possession team. Two reasons: number one we have terrific athletes. I think Andre Iguodala can run, I think Thaddeus Young is a runner, Samuel at the center position can be a runner if he puts his mind to it, Willie Green can get up the floor, Jason Smith was very athletic before he got hurt and that’s number one.

Number two, this team has shown they can generate points on the defensive end. They can create turnovers and they get out and run. We should continue to defend well, rebound well, turn people over, get out and get earlier baskets and if not than get into the offense.

I think part of this team matches Washington. Gilbert Arenas was a really quick shooter off the break and in the offense, Antawn Jamison at the forward position was a catch and shoot guy in the early offense, so I don’t see those type of players here and when we were hit by injuries especially Gilbert we had to slow it down because our backup guards weren’t fast enough (DeShawn Stevenson and Antonio Daniels) so we slowed the game up a little bit. I really envision our 76ers being a high possession team”.

(not surprising but still good to hear. After all that’s what Sixers hired him for, I guess)

(Chris – Heard in the cheap seats) One of the primary weaknesses of this team last year was defending the perimeter and I’m curious what is your philosophy is on the defensive end of the floor particularly around defending the three point shot?

Eddie Jordan: “Well you emphasize containing the defense, you emphasize containing the dribble. One of the first things you work on, and work on very often throughout the season is one-on-one containment. If you can defend the first dribble, then you’ve done 80 percent of your job on the perimeter. If you get deep on the first dribble than it’s hard for help to come.

If you can stay in front of your man on the first dribble than that’s how you can stop the draw and kicks and you don’t have to help so much. When you help you leave somebody to help and there’s a shooter left open or the next guy passes to the next guy.

So that’s number one, you have to defend the first dribble and defend the dribble on the perimeter. How do you do that? First of all you’d like to have guys who are defenders first, you have to have athletes. You have to be able to move your feet, stay in front of the dribble, change direction, and sometimes get up on somebody to make it hard for them to even put the ball on the floor.

That’s how you can number one stop the three, two if there is help you have to keep coming in the rotation and that’s a term we use throughout the season. Don’t stop your defensive rotation, if they draw and kick and one guy flies at him another guy must come and another guy must come so keep coming and you have to run people off the three.

You have to rebound the ball and not give a guy a second chance because you see a lot of games where there’s an offensive rebound and a kick out for a three. Those are daggers as we like to call them. So again stay in front of the dribble, keep coming in your rotation if there’s a breakdown, and you have to rebound the ball so there won’t be a kick out for a three”.

(Ricky – Sixers4guidos) In terms of veterans inside the locker room, Andre Miller might not be back, same for Theo Ratliff and Donyell Marshall. Do you think the team will need a couple of veterans to keep the locker room united and also to play on the floor or are you fine with 25 year olds running the show?

Eddie Jordan: “I think that’s a good question, that’s a good point. You always like to have solid veterans in the locker room to keep everything professional, to keep a work ethic, to keep a focus, to keep a serious mindset of going to practice everyday, and that’s very important.

Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler were great leaders in our locker room in Washington. You like to have responsible veterans to be there and keep our young guys focused. It is a relatively young team, but I do think our young guys are very serious and they have great work ethic. I’m talking about Thaddeus Young and even Andre Iguodala is still very young and has great work ethic and a serious mindset. That is a big part in the NBA”.

(yes coach, I always raise good points…LOL. Let’s expect another couple of seasoned players to be signed to replace Theo and Marshall. And you are right about Thad and Andre)

(Dannie – ReclinerGM) How would you address the roster the way it is in terms of strengths and weaknesses?

Eddie Jordan: “I haven’t had much time to talk about personnel with our front office. I just got the job on Friday and we’re looking at the draft and working guys out tomorrow. We’ve already addressed some issues with the team: three point shooting, point guard if Andre doesn’t come back, and probably another big man that can defend in the paint.

Right now I think the playoff experience that this young core group has had is very important they’ve got to the first round two years in a row. Number two this team competes. They’re undersized but they compete. I think that’s partly due to one of the best players being defensive minded: Andre Iguodala.

If one of your best players defends than everyone else follows. It’s a young team it’s a team that’s got some talent and some young players that haven’t played a whole lot like Jason Smith.

Plus Elton was out all year and he’s been a continuous all-star. So I like the fact that they compete and they’ve got two guys coming back from injury that didn’t compete last year”.

(Great point about Iguodala, but unfortunately the playoffs experience of 2008 didn’t help much in 2009, as the run ended exactly in the same way…)

(Brian – Depressed Fan) Will there be a full-time shooting coach on staff?

Eddie Jordan: ”Yes it is something we’re looking into. We hope there will be”.

(definitely good news. How about hiring also a FREE THROW SHOOTING COACH, full time ??)

(Brian – Depressed Fan) Coaching against the Sixers you were 7-11 against them and I was wondering as an opposing coach what is the look on the Sixers. What are you trying to shut-down what are you trying to exploit? As the Sixers coach what are you going to do to try to improve those areas?

Eddie Jordan: “Number one when you’re going against the Sixers you want to prepare to not turn the ball over. They’re a very fast team and if you turn the ball over against the Sixers than they can get out on the fast break on you and score on the open floor.

So number one, limit your turnovers. Number two you can’t allow them to get offensive rebounds. Samuel Dalembert and Andre Iguodala can both hit the glass and they both pose problems on the offensive glass.

I also think that the bench with Lou Williams coming off and Willie Green was coming off the bench at one time, I think the bench had a lot of risk takers but they turned you over. You’d have to keep the energy off their bench.

Now as far as us as a team when I’m coaching them I think you have to be a lot more organized and a lot more often in the offense. I think that’s a big key for us this year”.

(great question by Brian, who knows the game well. Jordan’s reply is good in theory, too bad the record shows his plans didn’t work, LOL. Ok, chill out, I’m just being evil…)

(Jeff – Philadunkia) The shooting guard position has kind of been a pressing issue during the off-season so far. I saw that you have Toney Douglas of Florida State, Stefon Jackson from UTEP, Jodie Meeks from Kentucky, and Terrance Williams from Louisville coming in tomorrow to workout who are all shooting guards. Is this definitely a need position that you’re looking into in the off-season?

Eddie Jordan: “Yes it is a very big issue that we’re addressing that we need better three point shooting whether it’s from our forward or from our guard spots. Both positions have to improve and the coach and the coaching staff has looked at improving through development.

Now that’s not always going to be the end all, we need to acquire better shooters. Our job is to continue to work with our players and see if Willie Green can be a better three point shooter, if Andre Iguodala can be a better three point shooter, if Lou Williams can be a better three point shooter.

I had DeShawn Stevenson the last two years and he improved to be a 40 percent shooter last year from the three point line. So its how much work can our current players put in and how much work our players are willing to put in with our coaches to improve and get better.

Than its up to our front office to see if we can make transactions where we can acquire, without losing our core guys, some shooters”.

(I’d pay to see Green turning into a Stevenson type of three point shooter… If coach Jordan manages to reach this goal, he will be officially proclaimed the new Red Auerbach)

(Anthony – Heard in the cheap seats) The coaches last season tried to fit Elton Brand into a certain system and than he obviously got hurt. So how do you see Elton Brand fitting into what you want to do, especially offensively? Also do you believe as a coach it’s better to fit a player into your system or kind of tweak the system to better utilize the skill-sets that certain players have?

Eddie Jordan: “Number one Elton will be moved around in the offense, he’ll be facing the basket from the logo area, he’ll be facing the basket from the elbow, he’ll be posting up on the box.

He’ll even look at the basket from the top of the key or between the top of the key the free throw area, he’ll play a lot of two man games off the elbow like Kobe and Lamar Odom would do or Kobe and Gasol would do, hopefully he can get out and run, than we’ll do some pick and rolls with forwards and guards and Elton likes to pick and than pop so all those options are available for Elton in this offense.

Number two, I think that Elton is a guy who has to defend the post, but again a lot of these things will work out in training camp. Good coaches develop players and fit a system with their players. Whether it’s the triangle, whether it’s the UCLA offense that Jerry Sloan has been using for 20 some odd years, we fit the offense to our best players and that’s what good coaches do.

Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, and Caron Butler were the highest scoring trio in the NBA in the system and before that Gilbert Arenas, Larry Hughes, and Antawn Jamison were the highest scoring trio in the NBA and that’s because we tilted the system to fit our best players”.

(Ricky – Sixers4guidos) Is there any chance that Thaddeus Young could evolve into an Antawn Jamison type of power forward?

Eddie Jordan: ”That’s a very good comparison. I think he could because Antawn was an interior player to start and even when I talked to coach Dean Smith he said that he saw Antawn had been taking a lot of threes and he never thought that he would evolve into that type of player but it’s effective and I said yes coach he’s worked on it and he’s been an unorthodox player since he’s started with scoring in the paint and he moved out to the three.

I think Thaddeus being left handed could pose some problems of first being an interior player and we’re going to see if he can move out and improve his mid-range jump shot and see if he can make a high percentage of his three point shots”.

(again, I knew I rock, LOL… actually I hate comparisons, but I know you americans like them so I threw one out there. I like both Thaddeus Young and Jamison so I would be happy to see this “transformation” happening)

Thank everybody, it was nice to have the chance to do this and all bloggers did a great job, each on his part. Sixers said this kind of interaction could be repeated soon, maybe with the GM or some of the players, so stay tuned.

Ok, first let’s take the hat off to the Orlando Magic.

They played a great t-e-a-m game despite all the absences, won 89-114, and deservedly advanced to the second round, 4-2. End of the story.

Now let’s talk about the Sixers’ game. Horrible. Awful. Atrocious. Embarassing. I don’t know what to say.

We simply weren’t ready to play, we didn’t come out to play. Not “play hard”, play. We didn’t show up.

I won’t waste time recapping the game, analyzing this and that, breaking down individual performances. Sixers were outplayed, outrebounded, outhustled, outfucked by the Orlando Magic’s reserves in a 48 minute-butt whipping.

Forget the stats, while Bulls and Celtics were making history (third overtime just started as I’m typing this), Sixers pulled out a memorable choking act, losing all of the four periods, giving up 62 points and 57% from the field (23/40, including 6/9 from three) in the first half and trailing constantly in double digit until the final buzzer, with margins from eleven to the final twentyfive. 

I could mention at least four embarassing plays for each Sixer that was put on the floor: turnovers, airballs, dunks on, shots blocked etc. I won’t go on details as it could be very painful.

Gortat = a polish David Robinson. JJ Redick = Ray Allen part II. Rafer Alston = the new Dennis Johnson. It was that kind of night.

The truth is Sixers are far from being a good playoffs team, and many things have to be re-evaluated this summer, taking this crappy game into consideration.

The sad end of course doesn’t take anything from the good things that were done before, including the two wins versus Orlando, a team that was supposed to blow us, but it’s a clear sign that something is still lacking, especially in the players’ minds.

2008/2009 Sixers improved of only one game from the previous regular season (from 40 to 41 wins) and repeated the exact sequence of last year’s playoffs series, winning the first game on the road and going up 2-1, only to see the season end with three straight losses.

The season perhaps didn’t, but the final game surely deserved all the boos that the crowd rained on the team. A shameful finish indeed.

Let’s leave the main stage to the grown folks, we still have a lot of homework to do.

Today is my 38th birthday. Wow. 

(Other celebrities that were born on the 30th of April: the mighty Isiah Thomas (…),  hottie actress Kirsten Dunst (in the pic) director Lars Von Trier, but mostly, porn actor T.T. Boy – LMAO)

I would like a nice present from my beloved Sixers, and extending the series to seven would be perfect.

There are the conditions, I guess. At home, no Howard, no Lee (+ no Nelson). I will be there, watching online and I’m expecting ALL of these:

KEYS FOR A GAME 6 WIN

1) attack the rim like crazy. Superman will be wearing a suit and I want Iguodala, Thad, Lou Williams etc to take it to the rack until exhaustion.

I’d expect some points in the paint even from Dalembert and Speights (he MUST play tonight !!): Gortat is big but not particularly athletic, the alley oops would be there.

Also, he and “El basto” Battie will basically be the only big men available, so putting what’s left of their frontcourt in foul trouble would give us an even bigger advantage.

2) dominate the boards, of course. Orlando outrebounded us in Game 5, that CANNOT HAPPEN again, particularly tonight. I expect a double digit edge in rebouding. Also we can’t allow to.. allow them more than 4-5 offensive boards. The paint should be Sixers territory.

3) strong defense on the perimeter. STICK TO YOUR MAN !!! Overall we are doing a great job in these games, tonight we will have one more reason NOT to double team in the low post. We can’t give Lewis, Turkoglu, Alston and mainly JJ Redick & Pietrus (that will share Lee’s minutes) open looks.

4) smart rotations. No need to keep Miller and Iguodala on the court for another 44-46 minutes, use 10-11 men and rotate them. Magic’s bench has never been good, now it has been shortened by injuries. Our is deeper and can give us many options, offensively and defensively, to keep the starters fresh for the final quarter: use it.

5) don’t underrate the Magic. The biggest mistake we can make is thinking that this is gonna be an easy win. WRONG !

They will be pumped up after the injuries, DiLeo’s statements about officiating after Game 5, the Howard episode etc etc, so expect Lewis & co to step up in their team mates’ absence, trying to show they are the better team (check this article, for example). Some bum back up will have a great game for sure, that always happens in such situations. They will work their butts off for 48 minutes, that’s granted.

If we will do the same, we will go back to Orlando for the final game. If not, golf courts are waiting for us. And I hate golf.

Game 5 went exactly how everybody thought Game 1, 2, 3 and 4 would have gone.

Needless to say, the Magic won, 91-78, gaining the 3-2 lead in the series and some momentum.

Sixers fought well, showed their nice pride one more time, and should be praised for the effort, but fell short in the fourth, for the reasons that I’ll try to explain.

1) our leaders worn out.

DiLeo again played Iguodala & Miller WAY too much, 46 and 44 minutes respectively.

This is short-sighted, if not plain stupid, as I already pointed out after Game 4, when they both got 45 min. Imagine how fresh their legs & their minds were at the end of Game 5… bad decision definitely.

Consider that Dwight Howard,that is 23 y/o and is a beast, logged in “just” 37 minutes, with no particular foul troubles.

And Magic depend on him just as much as we do on the Andres, if not more (you might want to check his stat line…).

2) ZERO contribution from the bench.

Of course the initial assumption should be that ‘in order to contribute you first have to play’, which is correct, but anyway this time Lou & co. didn’t do a damn thing worth mentioning.

In fact Marcin effin’ Gortat alone scored as many points as our whole bench, which should tell you everything you need to know. The second unit combined for a miserable six points, eight rebounds and five assists – all by Williams.

It’s the first time that our bench is outscored – and outplayed – by Orlando’s, and this is pretty worrying. Also because Magic backups are nothing special, and I’m being kind.

3) we were dominated under the boards.

The final 45-33 margin in Magic’s favor, even if huge, doesn’t give you the idea of how tough life was under the boards for us. Howard collected 20 rebounds at the end of the THIRD quarter (!), of which 9 offensive. Orlando finished with 15 offensive rebounds, something that really killed us, because basically all of them resulted into putback dunks or easy tip ins. 

Howard’s big game leads me to another point that has to be addressed.

4) Sam Dalembert  should [profanity avoided] go play soccer.

But not at the end of the season, immediately !!

Every Sixers fan is unfortunately used to his MORONIC fouls, a complete set that he has been showing us for (too many) years. Tonight he managed to surprise us, though. This time he took it to another level.

Two of his first three fouls were committed on OFFENSE, one dumber than the other. His fourth came after 15 F’N SECONDS of the second half (!), on a less-than-useless double team on the baseline. Sam, evidently not satisfied with this, thought he would add two of his trademark goaltendings in the fourth quarter. He’s the complete package (LOL).

5) few minutes for Sam = few defensive rebounds = few fastbreak points.

We were able to run only for a stretch in the fourth, when we cut the 80-68 Magic lead to six, 82-76. This made things complicated as our jumpers were not falling tonight, even the good, open ones.

Lewis had a great game for Orlando, posting up smaller opponents: a couple of times he was guarded by Miller ! More bad news, his outside shot is apparently back, 3/5 from behind the arc.

We couldn’t take advantage of Lee’s injury: the rookie went down early in the game with a shoulder injury and didn’t return (hope everything is well, I’m sorry for the guy).

His back ups, Pietrus and Redick, actually didn’t do much, especially considering the lot of minutes they got (they had 10 points in 60 minutes, on 2/9 !!), but the combination of Howard (terrific, again), an effective Alston and Lewis was enough for the tired Sixers I saw.

SIXERS4GUIDOS’ BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS – When Willie Green is your best player, you are going to be in trouble.. still much props to him for the good game - Funny how both teams shot 16/37 and had 20 rebounds at the break (45-39), the difference was that Orlando had five threes, Sixers two, and bench points were 15-4 - We turned the ball over badly on three consecutive possessions in the third, helping Orlando take a ten point lead, 52-42 – Marreese Speights collected his third consecutive DNP CD. Another nonsense, to me – Howard did everything he wanted to do tonight. Including elbowing Dalembert in the first, that was a cheap shot. Will he get suspended? Mmmhh…. (UPDATE: Enrico at ‘The 700 level’ has the video, pretty clear, uh?)

Well, perfect way to end a shitty bad day. A last second loss.

Hedo Turkoglu hit a tough three with one second left (in the Getty Images pic) to give Orlando a 81-84 W at the Wachovia center, and tie the series at 2-2.

We saw Turkoglu countless times on You Tube in these days, reviewing the game winner that Iguodala scored on him in Game 1 over and over. Now the Magic forward will be on the right side of some footage soon. Payback time.

Hedo hit a lot of game winners in his career, building himself a reputation of being a clutch player: maybe this is the most important shot, as it avoided an overtime that could have easily put his team into a 1-3 hole. Not to mention he was having a crappy series so far (11 PPG on 23% from the floor !!) so this play was huge, unfortunately.

Sixers came only close to another memorable comeback: trailing by ten with 4.32 to go in the fourth (69-79), and honestly looking in a slump, they went on a  stunning 12-2 run and tied the game at 81 on a dunk by Dalembert, off a nice feed by Iguodala when there were 14 seconds to play.

But Orlando had the last possession and Turkoglu made sure it was the decisive one, knocking down a contested three over Thaddeus Young. You can only tip your hat off to him, we couldn’t play better defense. Iguodala’s desperation shot at the buzzer hit only the side of the rim. Series even.

There are few points I want to address before going to bed.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

1) shooting. Despite a nice 8/19 from behind the arc, we shot poorly, staying at 35% at the end of the third (22/62), that not coincidentially saw us down nine, 55-64. You are not going to win many games like this, obviously. 

2) poor rotations. I could say “no rotations” because DiLeo tonight decided not to use the bench. Three of our five starters logged more than 43 minutes (!!) which is something I really don’t understand, and disagree with.

First because it’s known we have a HUGE edge over Orlando as for bench contribution (even tonight, with few substitions made, we outscored them 15-4…), second because two of our starters were in an off night. And I’m clearly talking about the Andres.

3) not only they should have got some (deserved) rest, because they carried us to this point, but Miller and Iguodala weren’t playing well tonight, so others should have checked in, and perhaps picked up the slack. Marreese Speights had his second DNP CD (and I disagree with this also), Marshall and Ivey played a meaningless seven minutes combined. Not a smart idea, really, especially considering it’s gonna be a long series and we need fresh legs down the stretch.

I won’t blame the Andres for their subpar performance (many will do that, I know, but I don’t care), in a series it can happen to have a bad game. I’m blaming the coach for not taking them out.

Of course there are other things that keep our hopes pretty much intact, despite the hurting loss.

Here is WHAT WORKED:

1) rebounding. We outrebounded Orlando again, and allowed their first of a ridicuolous three offensive rebounds with 8 minutes left in the fourth (!).

2) three point shooting, of course. This should give us confidence for the next games. We can hit them from outside.

3) “limiting” Howard. I know it sounds stupid after he had 18 + 18, but he was less of a factor than in the other games. His 6/12 from the line is encouraging also, the reggiemiller-esque performance of Game 3 was accidental, I assume. Unlike the other games, this time he was double teamed on many plays.

4) related to 3), Sam Dalembert had another good game, working well on defense and boxing out their big men (ok, man…) to secure the rebounds. He contributed also offensively, which is always a plus.

5) perimeter defense was ok. We denied Orlando the open looks in the first half (1/8 from three point land). Magic shooters got hot only in the third, when they knocked down three threys in the mid of a 13-2 run that put them up by ten (41-51). But the final 6/20 from behind the arc is acceptable.

Too bad the sixth trey was the decisive one (at least we didn’t pull a Chicago, that tonight left Ray Allen wide open on the last shot for the second time in a series….).

Back to Orlando, but also back to Philadelphia, because there will surely be a Game 6. The series is getting even more interesting, with all these last second shots piling up, game after game…. I’m proud of my team, even after the loss.

SIXERS4GUIDOS BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS – Magic started the third draining all of their first seven shots… – Willie Green was excellent in the first quarter, with eight points – Sixers shot only two free throws in the first half, not a good sign – Orlando had nine turnovers at the break, but two for the rest of the game – After the (pathetic) 16.492 attendance of friday, the arena was NOT sold out, again: 16.464 tonight, LESS than in Game 3…. I am speechless.

And I’m glad that my 4-1 Magic prediction can already be filed under the “BS” category.

Sixers lead the series 2-1 after the 96-94 W in Game 3 that I just finished watching.

It was a typical playoffs game, intense, overall well played, that gave me a lot of mixed feelings through the quarters, from joy & pleasure to angryness & fear. Real stars shined, role players stepped up, (supposed) stars choked. We saw everything this night.

Basically it was a 48 minutes rollercoaster run, with the happy end that is making everything sweet now, at 5 AM, while I’m typing this recap.

Let’s start from the finish: Thaddeus Young scored the decisive basket with 2 seconds to go on a lefhaded layup (in the pic), after Sixers inbounded the ball with 7 seconds left.

I honestly think he traveled before the spin move that preceded the release of his shot, but maybe he didn’t have complete possession because a defender tipped the ball out of his hands before, I have to review it more times before having a clearer idea.

Anyway I think Sixers’ victory is completely deserved as we led for the whole night and showed we are a feisty team, with a fighting attitute, that never gives up and can give anybody troubles. So yes, we are still the underdog, but Orlando realized (assuming that was necessary) they have to play their butt off if they want to advance to the second round.

WHY WE WON THE GAME?

1) total team effort. DiLeo used ten players, EVERYBODY gave a significant contribution: not coincidentially all Sixers scored. Evans & Ivey, the guys that got less minutes, had several good, hustle plays, especially on defense, being instrumental in building our early lead.

2) the two Andres taking it to another level. Miller’s and Iguodala’s stat lines speak for themselves. They carried us for 48 minutes.

Iguodala missed two big free throws that could have actually closed the game with 42 seconds to go and Sixers up three (94-91) , but that was the only thing I can blame him for.

It’s a pretty scaring sign, because this is a deja vu from Game 1 (minus the game winner…), I know, and the fact that he was 9/11 from the line before bricking those two won’t help his confidence much. But I won’t complain after such a happy night, I’ll take Iggy’s 29-7-4, the 9/15 from the field and live with it. Andre, take Thad to dinner, he saved your ass (LOL).

Miller came close to a triple double and there is NOTHING he did bad that I can remember.

3) bench edge. Again, our second unit outpalyed Magic’s reserves. We outscored them 21-10. Orlando used basically only eight players. Anthony Johnson went back being the old bum he is, Pietrus had a couple of threes in the third, but that’s pretty much everything THEY (not he) did.

4) signs of life from players previously MIA. Green finally had a decent game, with hot start (3/3 in the 1st) and a huge basket down the stretch (94-91 lead). Dalembert managed to keep his fouls in control and stayed on the court for a good 30 minutes, rebounded the ball well and patrolled the paint (3 blocks). Well done, we need both of them if we want to keep the dream alive.

Howard – that can not be considered human, I think - had a career high 36 points and was an unstoppable freak, but believe me, Sam couldn’t do much better.

Sixers’ FIRST HALF half was fantastic, we scored 60 points (vs Orlando’s 49) on 57% shooting (23/48), outrebounded Orlando 18-13, shot 12/13 from the line, kept them to 45% (15/33) with only 3/7 from three point, had a 17-4 edge in bench points, 9-2 in fastbreak points. Howard (15 pts) was the only effective weapon they had.

In the THIRD QUARTER we extended the lead to seventeen (72-55, 74-57 on a tough fade away shot by Iguodala with 6.17 left) before Orlando went on a 17-2 run that included three treys and silenced the crowd. We run too isolation plays (I wrote that down on my notes, and was happy to hear DiLeo saying the same thing to the ESPN at the end of the period, LOL), turned the ball over (four in six possessions) and when the horn sounded it was a three point game, 80-77.

The FOURTH QUARTER started with an ‘interesting’ Sixers lineup of basically 2 and 1/2 playmakers (Ivey, Miller, Williams) + Young and Ratliff. Howard continued torching us, with an incredible series of dunks, and Lewis, lost by Williams on a pick and roll, tied the game on a three pointer with 6 minutes to go, 86-86.

We went on our own little run, 6-0, with great team defense and some easy points in transition, but Lewis connected on another, this time contested, three: 92-91 (1.45) and I was fearing an awful finish.

Despite Green’s nice runner (94-91), that feeling became even worse when Iguodala missed the two aforementioned foul shots and mostly when Howard – a 59% FT shooter this season – went 3/4 from the line in the next two possessions and tied it with 7 seconds left (94-94). Then came Thad, to fix everything, and I could lie on the sofa, completely exausted, without any strenght left – even to party.

While Howard (12/14 at the line) suddenly turned into “the black Mark Price”, Sixers missed FIVE freebies in the fourth (Lou 0/3, Iguodala 2/4), and that is something that always drives me nuts.

Turkoglu continues to suck (2/12, 5 fouls, 5 turnovers), Lewis was held in check again, rookie wonder Courtney Lee had a ‘normal’ night: Magic trail 1-2 and surely are in troubles.

Good night morning from Italy, home of the happiest Sixers fan. The sun is rising. In every sense.

After watching live Game 2 and recapping it, I slept three hours, went to work, had a meeting.

Now I am here in office at lunch break thinking again about a WINNABLE game that we let slip away, and that we eventually might regret not having won.

I already said in my recap what basically didn’t work (read the post below this), I’ll add some more points to conclude the analysis.

I agree with Iguodala that Magic were better in “the small things”:

“We feel like we had some opportunities,” Iguodala said. “They did all the little things. They hit a big 3. They got all the little loose balls. They made the shots. They got all the rebounds. They did a great job of sealing the game this time.”

True that.

Like failing to get the defensive rebound off a missed free throw by Orlando, giving them an extra possession, that resulted into a three pointer (70-61 Magic, end of the third).

Or miss four shots from the line in the crucial third quarter (5/9).

Or, mostly, let them score on four of the first five possessions after Howard fouled out (3.11 left to play, 84-76), making the crowd go wild.

All of the above contributed.

Few more points to mull over.

1) we are keeping two of their three “bigs” in check. Through the first two games Lewis is shooting 9/25 for 36%, Turkoglu is even worse, at 5/18 for 27%. A bargain, right? Well, since I think this won’t last long, please take advantage of it as much as we can.

2) for the 356th time, we have to make those damn free throws. The current 23/38 (60%) is ridiculous, even for Sixers’ standards I mean. Please fix it…yesterday.

3) trade Green for Lee. Uh, you think Magic won’t do it? Ok, well, at least not now, right? 21 PPG on 53% vs 2 PPG on 18% (LOL)… the SG matchup isn’t exactly turning well. We all know Green is garbage not an all star, but we need him AT LEAST at his reg season productivity.

Small tip: Willie, the goal of this game is to put the ball INTO the basket !! Hitting the rim is a good start, but you have to take a step forward. At least try, thank you !!

4) trade Dalembert for Howard. This would be a great move also, even if Sam (80% FG) is shooting better than Dwight (a modest 78%), so maybe I’ll have to re-think about it, LOL.

5) Alston would like to thank Miller for the PG classes he took last night. Andre is playing fantastic basketball, I’ve heard some fans criticizing him for playing too “selfishly” in Game 2, they probably didn’t realize he was the only offensive weapon we had… 21 points in the first half on 9/13, when none of his team mates, withthe exception of Young, showed up.

I’ll try to have a post about Game 3 up tomorrow. Back to work, damn.

(This is Third Quarter Collapse’ recap, nice post again from Ben & his crew, check the Magic fans’ standpoint)

I don’t know why but after the buzzer sounded, to announce the final 96-87 Loss at Orlando I had the feeling we missed a pretty unique opportunity for a 2-0 lead. Instead, now we are tied, 1-1.

We were in the conditions to steal also Game 2: Magic played another subpar game, Howard was limited, also by foul troubles, and picked up his sixth with 3.11 to play with the score at 84-76… Lewis & Turkoglu played like crap and shot poorly again… so how could we lose this game?

I’ll go with some bullets, and write a more complete post tomorrow.

1) we basically give away two starters to the Magic. Every game I mean.

Green and Dalembert were not ony useless but even detrimental. Green missed at least three wide open shots and got killed on D by Lee (in the pic, the MVP of the game), while all Dalembert did was piling up fouls: the first two after six minutes, as usual, later he added the third + a tech, then the fourth, before being eventually benched until the end.

2)  we turned the ball over like crazy (16), and picked the worst time for the turns. We had eleven in the first half, three in the decisive minutes of the fourth. They were often unforced.

3) we gave up too many offensive rebounds (14). And not to Howard, that would be acceptable, but to Gortat, Pietrus, even Anthony Johnson etc.

4) our offense was sloppy and predictable. Few circulation, no movement with and without the ball, too many isolation plays, ZERO low post scoring.

Only two Sixers scored in the first quarter, Miller with 13 and Young with 8. At the half those two had respectively 21 (!) and 10, while all the other players combined for a mighty SEVEN points (Speights chipped in five, Lou Williams two, just before the horn). Yes, Iguodala had ZERO points in the first half, on 0/3, same for Green, Dalembert, Evans, Ratliff !! 

Iggy did recover later, exploding for 13 in the third and not giving up until the end. Overall, a good game.

As a team, we didn’t score a three until the fourth, when Young cut Orlando’s lead to 72-65. Surprisingly, we ended up knocking down five treys in the final period again, exactly like in Game 1, but this time it wasn’t enough.

5) we dug ourselves another 18 point hole in the third (64-46) before going on a 15-2 run that put us back in the game (66-61). This second comeback was nice, but we went 5/9 from the line in the period…

6) in Howard’s absence, also before he fouled out, instead of making a strong run, we let them to extend the lead, carried by Lee (again) and Johnson (…). This due to a combination of poor defensive rotations, leading to open shots allowed, bad turnovers, no second chance points.

7) our bench didn’t give a great lift this time, if you take out an encouraging flash of Speights in the second: the rookie scored his first playoffs points. Lou and Marshall were in an off night, Theo was ok defensively, Ivey useless on both ends as usual.

To Magic’s credit, they played solid defense all night and showed pride and a variety of offensive options we actually lacked.

At the end of the day (well, here is actually starting, it’s 4 AM…) a deserved loss, with a really bitter taste of “unfinished business”. 

Of course I would have signed to split the series after two games, but now I think that it won’t happen that often to have such favorevable conditions, and not take advantage of them.

For more, “live”, feelings and thoughts, check Liberty Ballers’ Game Thread, I posted there during the game, it was fun chatting with the guys.

Good night, see you tomorrow.

Ok, Game 1 is over and after shocking half the League with our fantastic comeback we are heading into tomorrow with an unexpected 1-0 lead.

With this post I’ll try to prove how Game 2 is a golden opportunity for the Sixers to put the Magic into a (too ?) big hole and I’ll provide few, unrequested tips to win it.

And before you remind it, yes, I said Magic in five, but I’ll gladly miss also this prediction… I won’t be ashamed, one more time.

So here is the situation.

The pressure is now on both teams, I think.

Orlando, that still is the better team, of course can’t afford to lose both games at home. Sixers can’t afford a blowout in Game 2 as well, because it would mean that what happened Sunday was accidental (which I don’t believe).

The (shifted) home court advantage is not a factor in Sixers’ favor yet, that’s my point. It would be so with a 3-2 advantage, not now. Sixers should remember that the Magic already won TWICE in regular season in Philly, therefore thinking that we could advance to the secodn round by ’simply’ winning the three games at home would be stupid.

Psychologically the conditions are completely different, though, and here we could have an edge.

Not only the loss per se, but the way it came (the 18 point lead squandered, the last second shot etc) clearly could a negative effect on Orlando players’ minds just as big as the positive effect it had on ours. But they had three days to regroup, analyze the mistakes, and move on.

Now Magic’s mental toughness will be put to a test. If they are a great team, they will bounce back immediately and react, trying to bury us quickly in Game 2 and show the world who’s the best team. If they really lost (some?) confidence, then it would be smart to work on that and gain even more momentum. 

I don’t know the exact stat about teams winning also Game 2 on the road after stealing Game 1, but the number should be very, very low. And all Game 2-s played in these playoffs so far seems to confirm it. To repeat is very tough. Wait, I just found this article, that should give us some hope. Excerpt:

To be exact, 78.8 percent of NBA teams that won Game 1 of a best-of-7 series have advanced

I think that if we manage to stay in the game for the first three quarters, starting the fourth with a single digit margin, say, Magic could feel some pressure and perhaps repeat the collapse. They are not much used to these situations: unlike the Celtics, that just won Game 2 with a last second shot, to make an example.

So how we can stay in the game TECHNICALLY?

It’s pretty safe to say that:

• Sixers won’t shoot 7/12 from downtown again, nor will make five treys in the fourth
• Orlando won’t shoot 5/18 again. Not only I expect them to have a better percentage but I think they will take a lot more of those threes, around 25 or something
• Turkoglu will play better than in Game 1 (even if he apparently is thinking about opting out this summer, which could have an effect, on himself and his team)
• same for Rashard Lewis, who had a subpar game

But also:

• Howard won’t make 9 of 12 from the line that often
• Lee will be hopefully guarded better 
• Anthony Johnson won’t dunk on our centers anymore (LOL)

To conclude, here is SIXERS4GUIDOS’ GAME PLAN:

1) try to put newly named DPOY Howard in foul troubles soon. Tough task, I know. Few touches in the low post could help.

Yeah, Sam Dalembert is not exactly a scoring threat and his set of offensive moves is just as wide as Jim McIlvaine’s, so how about making Thaddeus Young work in the low post more? How about our guards strongly taking it to the rack and trying to get themselves some free throws? Iguodala shot his first foul shots with 1 minute to play in Game 1, that’s not good.

Speights should play more in the paint also, reguardless of the minutes he’ll get. Enough of his 17 footers, time to earn his salary in the lane. He will get blocked? Fine.

2) continue to defend strong on the perimeter. Quick rotations should deny their shooters open looks. Stay with your man and contest the shot.

3) (related to #2) do NOT double team Howard. I don’t care if he goes 11/13 again, we already won that way. For us, it’s worse if Magic score 12-14 threes. Ratliff and Dalembert combined for “only” seven fouls in Game 1, Evans had one. Foul Howard and send him to the line for another dozen of shots, I’d bet he won’t connect for 75% again.

4) dare Alston to shoot from outside. A career 38% shooter, 5/15 in Game 1. I’m fine with him taking a smilar amount of shots.

It could work.

(Uhm. Actually I’m glad I’m NOT the coach. LOL)

Or, in other – and more polite- words, F’N UNBELIEVABLE.

This game winner by Andre Iguodala with 2.2 seconds left capped a memorable comeback and gave Sixers a 98-100 win at Orlando (Magic 0 – Sixers 1).

Enjoy it in high definition:

With that tough 22-foot fadeway jumper over Turkoglu, that by the way eventually missed the last second three that would have given Orlando the win, Iguodala (more than) made up for a couple of big free throws he bricked missed before, with Sixers down one (96-95) and 1.07 minutes to play.

(Wanna have some good laughs? Log on to the Sixers board of philly.com – scroll down to “Discuss Sixers” – and read the threads started by some posters BEFORE the end of the game…I’ll give you some titles: “Iggy, the essence of mediocrity”, “Max contract Iggy”, “Nice FTs Iggy”… gotta love positive, optimistic, patient Philly fans, LOL).

But it was a team effort and a lot of guys should get the praise.

And Orlando should get part of the blame, of course, because there is no way you can let a 18-point lead evaporate late in a playoffs game: it was 79-61 Magic with 1.12 left in the third !

How did we come to that? Let’s take a step back.

The bad news for the Sixers is that Superman exists. The good news is that his team is beatable.

As much anticipated, Dwight Howard completely dominated in the paint, shooting 84% and even making his free throws: how about 24 points on 9/11 + 14 rebounds and 6/8 from the line at the end of the third? We saw a lot of this:

He didn’t get much help, though, if you take out surprising rookie Courtney Lee (18 through the first three periods) and just two flashes by Lewis and Alston, who contributed seven in the third, the quarter that seemed to have closed the game.

Sixers shot 7/18 and had five, costly turnovers in that stretch, while Orlando connected on ten-of-eighteen and played solid basketball with its effective combination of inside/outside game.

At the start of the fourth, at 79-65, the game seemed pretty much in control for the Magic, that had only to manage the lead.

But Sixers had some cards left to play. Tony DiLeo put Marshall in since the beginning and the veteran delivered, as usual. In his own words: 

“You’ve got to understand, when I come into the game we’re usually down 15 points,” Marshall joked. “So my job is just to come in and shoot.”

Donyell knocked down three of Sixers’ five three pointers in the fourth (with Williams and Ivey drilling the other two) and Sixers tied the game at 91 on a layup by Andre Miller with four minutes to play.

There were a lot of wonderful plays during the run (it came to 20-5, then I stopped taking notes..), including an alley oop dunk by Lou Williams, two big throwdowns by Theo and a banked floater by the same Marshall. Sixers were like possessed, Magic stunned, and I was screaming and jumping all over the place – trying not to wake up wifey…

The end made all even sweeter, especially considering we (ALL) had thought that we blew our chance after Andre couldn’t convert those two from the line. Nevermind.

After the missed freebies, Howard had a thunderous dunk to put Magic up three (98-95), Marshall tied it at 98 with his last trey with 35 seconds to play, and Lewis missed an open jumper, setting the stage for Iguodala’s heroics.

20, 8 and 8 + the game winner. I’m glad I waited for the end of the game before starting my own thread on the Sixers board: when I did it, the title was “Easier 22 ft fadeaways than FTs”, LOL.

Few bullets to end.

• We outscored the Magic from three point land, 7/12 vs 5/18. This is the most shocking stat in my opinion. Other than the final score, I mean.
• not only that, we even outrebounded Orlando !! 37-35.
• Lou Williams had a great game off the bench, really. Not to brag, but I told you so (see the comment)
• subpar performances by Lewis and Turkoglu were another key to the victory. They combined for 3 points on 1/6 at the half.
• can you believe Dalembert had a decent game? You wouldn’t say so looking at Howard’s stat line, but Sam did everything possible to contain him… the only boneheaded play was his fourth foul, at half court…
• the bench, the bench, the bench. I knew we had an edge there, and it showed. Well done, second unit !!!

SIXERS4GUIDOS’ BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS – Magic were 1/7 from behind the arc at the half – Anthony Johnson had a dunk on Ratliff to end the first period, I couldn’t believe my eyes… – Andre Miller had 8 points (4/5), 5 rebounds and 2 dimes in the first quarter -  This is Third Quarter Collapse’s recap, and I’ll save them all jokes about changing the title of the blog, because that is a great site – Willie Green sucks – Willie Green is useless – Willie Green is a waste of an NBA guard – JJ Redick is “the white Willie Green” – Sixers used eleven players, with (a lost) Speights getting 6 minutes – I managed to catch the game, blackouted in Italy, on an unlikely streaming of NBC, with a turkish comment over it… their reaction after brother Hedo’s last miss wasn’t enthusiatic, LOL.