Kings pound Sixers down low

A little step back.

I know you, average Sixers fan: you were pumped up for the four games winning streak, you saw a Kings team coming to town with a 0-9 record on the road and you were expecting a blow out: ADMIT IT !

Now after the 99-109 loss  (9-14, .391) you feel like Sixers are a D-League team, Iguodala is overrated, Dalembert is a bum, Korver sucks etc… you perhaps might even think that it was a bad mistake to let dear old John “Summer league” Salmons go, because you saw him scoring 19 points on his former team. 

Yeah, that’s because you are a typical philadelphian ass, with a perennial negative attitude and a tendence to cry, regret and complain. To sum it up, you are a bitching fan that simply follows his flows instead of fairly judging your team and your players. 

Hear a guido, the reality is just this: the 2007/2008 Sixers team was a 31 W team before the streak, and it still is. It’s not that we became a 8th seed team because of the winning streak (I read this somewhere…), it’s not that we are that terrible now. Sixers are what they were a week ago, we simply faced a team that exposed our weaknesses in the worst way, and we deservely lost to them, period.

It’s not big news that Sixers struggle to score in the low post, since we have no one capable to create a shot with some back-to-the-basket move. Well, it happened also last night, when we had the opportunity to see how it’s nice to have TWO scoring big men: Mikki Moore tied a career high with 24 points, Brad Miller had a season high 25.

The frontcourt comparison is pitiless and pretty much explains WHERE we lost the game:

Brad Miller + Moore: 49 points, 19/23 FG (!!), 10/10 FT, 15 rebounds, 7 assists.

Dalembert + Evans: 8 points, 4/7 FG, 0/6 FT (…), 12 rebounds, 0 assists.

Need more?

So forget frigging John Salmons, he was nowhere to be found in the third quarter, when Kings built a decisive 16 point lead (67-83, 2.40 to go). It was Brad Miller (in the picture, not coincidentially driving past one of our bigs) totally dominating the game: fine for my fantasy team, bad for Sixers.

Miller was staying at the top of the key, either knocking down his long range shot or dishing the ball for his guards and Moore for a set of dunks, layups and three point plays in the paint. Sam, pulled out of his usual position close to the rim, couldn’t stop him, and nobody could stop Miller’s team mates. I think that Moore didn’t take a shot farer than 7 feet from the basket.

Kings’ ball circulation in the third was wonderful, they were 13/19 with 9 assists at a point. Add the fact that Udrih scored 11 in the period (he had 0 in the first half) and you have the complete picture. Uhm, no, a piece is still missing. Andre Iguodala. He was CANCELED from the game by Ron Artest.

I think this was more mental than technical. Andre airballed his first shot of the game, with Ron guarding him, and never recovered. He had 8 points on 2/7 at the half and ended with 4/12 and 5 turnovers. Consider that two of his four free throws came from technical fouls, and that one of those four field goals was scored in garbage time.

Iguodala had some unusual mistakes also when Artest wasn’t around: he couldn’t convert open/easy shots, turned the ball over, was called for a couple of charges. It’s probably Artest getting under his opponent’s skin, and putting pressure on him, getting on his nerves. Whatever. Give him credit, he wasn’t using dirty tricks, he was simply playing strong defense. Andre will learn the lesson.

That’s how Andre Miller’s phenomenal first half (18 points, 7/8 FG, 4/4 FT, 3 assists) became useless, and how Sixers’ final 51% FG was wasted.

We could file Lou Williams’ game under the “Things to save” directory – welcome back, boy – same for Willie Green after all: he knocked down two threes to keep us in the game, and for the second consicutive game recorded 4 assists. Wow !

Korver’s stats may seem ok if you read the boxscore, but he missed a key, open three that could have put us at -6, when the score was 100-91 with less than 2 minutes to go. On the following possession Moore closed the game with a three point play, while being fouled by…Kyle. So instead of getting to a possible 100-94, it was 103-91, and all “made in Korver” (LOL).

Reggie Evans’ 6/21 from the line over the last six games is not ok for sure…. jeez…. 

At the end of the day, I will not make a big deal out of this game, just beacuse I knew Sixers’ value before it and I’m not changing my opnion now. I still think this is NOT a playoffs team, so we will have more losses like that. 

(Ouh, and Salmons still suck, for your information…)