Obie has sweet revenge

Apparently Jim O’Brien wasn’t looking back to his Sixers’ tenure and had mixed feelings about his former team. For sure last night, after the 102-85 win against the Sixers (10-15, .400) he went to bed with a giant smile.

Pacers beat the Sixers and he outcoached his colleague, Mo Cheeks, proving once more he’s a heck of a coach. Even without his starting PG, Jamaal Tinsley, out because of an injury.

What is a Sixers blog supposed to do? Give you some informations that you can’t get elsewhere and provide some original contents, right? Because you can read by yourself that we shot a season low 34% from the field, that our bench was outscored 35-16 shooting a combined 4/22, that Marquis Daniels was a big spark off the bench etc etc

So here is S4G’s perspective. We lost (also) because:

1) we couldn’t guard Pacers’ outside shooters: they were 8/16 from 3 pt land at a point, ended with 9/21 due to some misses when the game was closed

2) Jermaine O’Neal schooled Dalembert (15 points on 6/10 + 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks in the first half alone) and was a big presence in the paint in the fourth

3) despite Sam’s good stat line (in the picture while blocking Owens), he made a lot of bonehead plays in the fourth, and he “fixed” his boxscore in garbage time. He was’t bad overall but he played bad when it counted the most

4) Iguodala had another subpar game on both ends of the floor. It affected the whole team of course

but mainly

5) we went more than 9 minutes without a field goal (!!), from -3.32 in the third (jumper by Miller, 66-62) to -5.55 in the fourth (dunk by Dalembert, 85-74). In that stretch we scored only from the line (10/14, after hitting all of our first 16) and let the game slip away

Sixers started the fourth shooting 0/6, Pacers weren’t precise either (2/13) but the game was decided earlier, in the third, when Indiana built a 14 point lead that Sixers crappy offense coulnd’t eventually cut before it was too late.

Indiana showed it’s a well coached team, with great ball circulation, a balanced offense, a strong defense and that takes care of the ball (only 8 turnovers vs Sixers’ 18…). It must have been a real revolution passing from Carlisle to Obie, but it’s paying off, right?

Of course putting the ball in the basket helps (LOL) and that’s how Indiana won despite being severely outrebounded (55-39 Sixers’ edge !! That’s one good note for us, Pacers are one of the best rebounding teams in the League) and despite not getting to the line (33 Sixers attempts, 9 for them, another unexpected number).

Sixers’ offense was painful to watch in the fourth, an ugly sequence of missed (open & tough) shots, forced drives, charges, turnovers, offensive (and defensive) goaltendings – and guess who is to blame for those… all due to stagnant circulation + their defense, of course. For a nicely done Pacers’ point of view on the game, check IndyCornrows’ recap.

Our whole team seemed to be nervous and it showed approaching the end, when Mo AND Miller were called for technical fouls.

I have an hard time trying to pick Sixers’ MVP for last night, it could have been Evans in the first half: he scored 9 with 4/5, including a dunk (!!! Yes, he can dunk !) and a converted three point play (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) to go with 9 rebounds.

But then he drove me nuts when he couldn’t finish on a 1-vs-0 fastbreak (couldn’t grab the ball, let the opponent recover and got stripped, again…) so his season high in rebounds (16) and the usual hustle will be put in the “nice but useless” category. He extended his streak of consecutive FTs made to 3, though (LOL).

Andre Miller had more turnovers than assists: he extended his streak of consecutive FTs made to 22, though 🙂

While it’s absolutely easy to tell who was THE WORST SIXER: Kyle Korver hands down. What his (awful) stat line doesn’t tell you is that he airballed an easy two pointer, misfired on a couple of wide open threes and was DESTROYED by Dunleavy jr. and Daniels when he had to guard them. For once the +/- speaks the truth: -22 for Kyle. 

Speaking of second unit’s struggles (2/15 in the first half for Smith-Korver-Young-Williams, good spark guys…LOL), how about Jason Smith’s 3/18 in the last three games, with 6 grabbed rebounds in 44 minutes ??? Or Louis Williams’ 10/31 in the last four, after his comeback following the fall at the Madison Square Garden?

Not a knock on the two young guys, they played a good season so far and I like them both, just saying they have to fight back. But I think the leader of this team has to man up first. Hello Andre? Iguodala, yeah, that’s you.

Dear Jim O’Brien, Ricky of Sixers4guidos misses you, besides many other Philly fans. You were perhaps smiling even more than us when our “buddy” Billy King got the axe. He said you weren’t “talking enough” to him and to the players, you were only coaching a mediocre team to a winning season, taking it to the playoffs, unveiling a gem like Iguodala, making Korver blossom… shame on you….

Ok, enough of that, bring on the Lakers.