Two piles rising

One is that of the losses (the 96-109 at Toronto is the fifth straight, a season high that made us drop at 14-22, .389), the other is that of the bricks: after the Korver trade Sixers’ are 20/76 on 3 pointers (26%). 

On the contrary, Raptors showed us again how it’s nice to have perimeter shooters, rolling to another win thanks to the third three point barrage of the season: after the 9/16 of October 31st and the 9/18 of November 9th, they went 9/21 this time. That is a combined 3-0 record and 27/55 from behind the arc (49%) in the series.

Nice to meet the Sixers, uh ? And they will come to the Wachovia center again in ten days… you think that we could make some adjustment by that time? Or do we have to wait for the next coach?

I know this recap comes one day late but I was on a business trip, so cut me some slack. I just finished watching the Toronto game archived without knowing the score (League Pass is nice), so I will just write down some flashes while getting ready for the next loss game: Sixers face the Bulls in few hours.

1) first off, it’s nice to go back hating Willie Green. He was by far the worst Sixer, even being the top scorer. He took 19 shots in 33 minutes, had zero assists, and got blocked four times, always in the worst moments, to give them more boost. 

Add a couple of idiotic decisions on fastbreak (a missed layup because he didn’t want to pass on a 3-vs-1 + charge) and the fact that of his 3 free throws one came because refs reversed a call (the initial charge – that was completely correct by the way – was turned into an “and one” play) the other two with the game over, with one minute left. 

2) I won’t start any campaign, but Lou Williams needs to calm down and improve his shot selection. He shot over 50% in only two of his last 10 games, and he’s 35% in this strech (39/111), including 3/14, 1/7, 5/16 performances…

3) Dalembert got schooled by Bosh in the second half and mainly in the third, decisive quarter, when the Raptor had 10. It’s known that Sam struggles (understatement) with technical, skilled big men, Bynum is another example.

Well, the true is that actuatlly that pretty much everyone struggles vs Bosh: he can hit a long jumper, beat you off the dribble while facing the rim or take you in the low post and use his nice back-to-the-basket moves. He’s an all star after all.

So last night was another bright example of how Sam needs to improve on these aspects, he gave up two three point plays falling for the same (effective, I repeat) pump fake. The most important one came in the 4th when the Sixers cut the deficit to 5 (85-90) and Bosh immediately pushed us back to -8.

4) speaking of identical plays, we left Parker wide open in the same corner spot on consecutive possessions in the third: those were two threes knocked down and Raptors took their first significant lead (54-62) with Parker being 7/7 from the field….. Calderon (terrific as usual) did the rest, extending it to 62-73 in the third and 72-84 in the fourth with another couple from downtown.

So it’s barely a surprise reading that Iguodala (in the picture) is frustrated and it’s nice to see that Cheeks is apparently thinking about a line up change, inserting Thaddeus Young in. About time.

The rookie’s excellent game (16 points, season high tied, and a lot of energy and hustle on both ends of the court) is the best thing that happened in Toronto. 

Check out Blog-a-Bull for the latest info about Chicago. Now, that is a blog 🙂