Sixers drop second straight in Cleveland

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

“Technical” problems prevented me to watch the 91-88 loss in Cleveland.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a way to catch the game, at least not yet.

Like always in these cases, I’ll strictly stick to FACTS (boxscore, reports, highlights – that I saw – and mostly the play-by-play page) to come to some undisputable conclusions.

I will wait to eventually add more points after having watched the game.

Sixers at 37-37 (.500) are currently 7th and still in a good position in the playoffs race. Toronto and Washington lost, Hawks won.

I wouldn’t make a big deal of this loss, it seems that the team played pretty well for the whole game and simply came up short in the last possessions, failing to score in the last 2 minutes, when they went 0/5.

Suns school of basketball

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

Lesson #1: how to close a game in the first quarter.

Teachers: Steve Nash, Amare Stoudamire, Raja Bell & the rest of the Phoenix Suns. 

Students: all Sixers.

Development: jump off to a quick start using a combination of drives, layups, threes, three point plays.

Let the students crash the rim with their first 13 shots, turn the ball over, get blocked by your big men. Conclude with a basket at the quarter buzzer.

Outcome: 19-38 Suns lead.

After that, extend the lead and/or control the game at will. As soon as the students come closer (-10, say), make sure to get a couple of plays to push them away again: three pointers or “and one” plays will be preferable.

Final outcome: 93-107 Suns win.

Let the students (37-36, .507) think about the lesson and do their homework.

In Sixersworld everyone is on a roll

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

The whole Sixers franchise is passing through a great moment.

The darkest days seem behind our back, a new era hopefully started.

It might be winning, it might be not, at least it’s providing us a much needed extra fun.

Fun is the key word.

It’s a joy to watch this team play hard, run fast, win games.

Last night’s 121-99 win over the Bulls is only the last example (37-35, .514).

Wanna the recap? It was a blowout. End of the recap.

It was +15 at the end of the first (34-19), with Chicago starting 1/12 and the only field goal coming on a goaltending, +20 in the second (59-39), ended at +16 only because Bulls made a couple of threes in the last 22 seconds.

Children and… dancers need Sixers fans’ help !!

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

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… 🙂

Blogger MVP/ROY ranking – Round 9

This time it was Ryan from Hornets 247 to collect and put together the votes from a panel of bloggers that included your resident guido.

So here is Round 9 of the rankings, make sure to check it also this time because Chris Paul finally made it to #1 !!!!

Here were my votes:

Sixers avoid sweep, stun Celtics

..but unfortunately thanks to effin’ Telecom Italia and my ADSL connection going down, I didn’t watch the 90-95 win at Boston yet…

Recap coming on S4G as soon as those mothaf’rs will decide to give me the connection back… in the meantime, Sixers at 36-35 (.507) look good…

‘Sixers4guidos, where missing the most exciting game of the season happens’.

UPDATE – I managed to watch the game finally… what follows is my 2 days late recap, enjoy (?).

Well, actually it would be stupid to analyze the whole game after so long, everything was said and written (unbelievable, amazing, exciting etc etc), let’s try to focus on some points:

IGUODALA – Looks like turning down those 57 millions for 5 years last summer wasn’t that stupid, uh? Payback time for Andre coming soon, but he’s earning his next, big contract… the baseline jumper over Pierce to close the game was… well, money !! Not to mention the ten consecutive points during our decisive 19-0 run in the fourth.

As for the free throws, I am totaly speechless, how can’t you stay constantly over 77-78% is beyond me…. 8/15 in a close game like that one is totally unacceptable.

Sixers, Sam, Lou bounce back immediately

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

You see how it’s nice to knock down those effin’ free throws.

A perfect 4/4 from the foul line by Andre Iguodala in the last 22 seconds of the game gave Sixers a key 91-87 win against New Jersey, lifting our record at .500 again (35-35).

It was one of the ugliest and most boring close games I’ve ever seen (LOL). All I wrote on my paper for the first two quarters was “airball”: Harris started, Carney followed, Nachbar continued. All of them on wide open jumpers.

You see, it wasn’t exactly an exciting show, but still Sixers held a seven point lead at halftime (49-42). The “best” part came in the first quarter, when a motivated Dalembert had eight points, and fellow serbian Nenad Krstic replied with three long jumpers, showing he has range.

The worst part for the Sixers was yet to come: at the beginning of the third quarter Iguodala had an exciting alley oop dunk that seemed to spark a possible Sixers run (51-42) but, instead, Nets went on their own, reaching a 58-66 lead with 4.5 left on a basket by Josh Boone that capped a 13-0 spurt.

Magically ripped

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

Sixers played ten minutes of embarassing basketball, had a nice reaction that lasted around four minutes, which was followed by thirtyfour, painful minutes of garbage time.

That’s the short story of the 113-95 loss at Orlando, that put us at 34-35 (.493). Call it “reality check”, “awakening”, “step back” etc etc, that’s it.

And don’t get fooled by the boxscore, the game was NOT that ‘close’ (LOL).

Sixers were completely outplayed basically from start to finish and in every possible way.

It started 4-0 with two dunks by Dwight Howard, both off Nelson’s assists, then 12-4 with Magic hitting all of their first five shots, then 20-6, then 25-8 when Evans (it was Maurice, don’t worry…) knocked down the fifth three pointer out of five attempts for the Magic, in your typical “pick your poison” situation.

Either Howard was getting a dunk or an easy basket (see the picture) or one of Orlando perimeter players was draining an open jumper.

Iverson gets the ovation, Sixers the W

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

The number of signs that this could be a special year for the Sixers is rising.

The last one was the 115-113 win over the Nuggets (34-34, .500) in the long awaited first comeback of Stephen Hunter Allen Iverson to Philly.

It ended up in the best way it could: a great, warm, long standing ovation for Iverson, an amazing game by The Answer, a close, much needed Sixers win.

All in front of a 20.674 sellout crowd. I mean, can you ask for more?

Philly fans showed brotherly love for Iverson, celebrating him like he deserved (even if the franchise should have thought about something more for AI last night, like David Aldridge says in what is BY FAR the best article on this topic, in my opinion).

I am writing this post one day late (wifey…), no need to recap the game. Just few thoughts:

* I guess Andre Miller had something to prove last night… impressive performance

* Green and Dalembert were solid as well, the first one having one of his best shooting games of the season. Again, the fact that Nuggets play no perimeter defense it helped. 

Allen Iverson is no Santa Claus

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

Dear Sixers fans,

tomorrow Allen Iverson will come to the Wachovia Center, to play in Philly for the first time with another jersey on.

He wore the Sixers uniform for years (one of the nicest ones is in the pic), and always honoured it.

His name will be linked to some of the best seasons of this franchise after the glorious 80’s.

Give Bubba Chuck the loud, long standing ovation he fully deserves.

Thank him for what he did for the Sixers organization through the years: hard play, amazing moments, hilarious rants.

Then root for the new, Iverson-less Sixers to beat his Nuggets.

That’s how it’s supposed to be.

I know Philly is the town where fans once booed Santa Claus (LOL @ that story, always one of my favorite…) but don’t be bad with one of the most exciting athletes to ever play this game. He’s no Santa Claus, and he’s no Webber either.