Last second loss heads us to Detroit

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

I’m finally back after a 11 day absence due to a business trip. And I finally managed to see a whole Sixers game again: the last one before I left, was the win vs Nets.

Right now you’d already wacthed and read everything about the 90-91 home loss to the Cavs (40-41, .494) and the way it come.

In case you didn’t, David Aldridge has the best recap, as usual. Point is, we lost the game, will finish at the seventh place and meet Detroit in the first round.

I’ll just add my two cents. Unlike many Sixers fans, I think the call on Dalembert was correct. He fouled Devin Brown – in the pic, sealing the victory – and before the buzzer. So no “robbery”, no “steal”, no “scandal”, in my opinion. It was a foul, coming after a great play, the block on LeBron James. (EDIT: after reviewing it for the 157th time I finally realized Ilgauskas pushed Sam towards Brown… that foul should have been called as well).

No big deal though. Sixers played a heck of a game, a playoffs game and I really enjoyed it. If it could end 0.2 seconds before, it would have been nicer. Whatever.

I’ll try to remind the good things:

1) the stunning fourth quarter played by Lou Williams, and his tough, fallaway, long jumper that gave us the lead shot with 5.1 seconds left, together with the floater he made few plays before this. Wow.

2) the great contribution by Thaddeus Young, his offensive rebounds and his huge baskets down the stretch. Before that, he had a fantastic steal + dunk and drew a change, both plays on LeBron James

3) Sam Dalembert’s solid game despite an injured hand.

4) overall, the team attitude, how we fought back down 12 in the fourth (61-73 with 10 left), the spirit and the electricity in the air that I could feel even from here

Yes, it sucks to lose like this, in the Fan appreciation night after even the confetti came down and some players were probably already taking the shower… but it’s not a step back, I mean.

What I would like to change in the playoffs is:

1) cut Iguodala’s minutes a little bit… keep him around 37-38. He struggled with his shot last night and he’s playing half-injured, why keep him on the court 40+ minutes? Don’t risk him.

2) give some of his minutes to Carney, who should stay in for around 16-18 minutes

3) leave Jason Smith on the floor more, I think he could be useful vs Rasheed and/or Mc Dyess

4) knock down the fucking free thows…

Enjoy the playoffs, guys, it’s gonna be fun, pack the arena please, also for me.

I say Pistons in five but with no blowouts this time. And take the win that we didn’t take last night in Charlotte, for God’s sake, I don’t want to make the post season with a losing record !

Sixers4guidos will hopefully be back with its “normal” full Sixers coverage until the end of the season. 🙂 

SIXERS4GUIDOS MISSED GAMES, MISSING ON THIS BLOG

The exciting 104-109 win at Atlanta, that made us officially reach the post season (39-37).

The 85-92 home loss to Atlanta (39-38), when Sixers were probably distracted by their achievement and lost some focus.

The 101-84 win over the Pistons, or at least the Pistons reserves (starters pretty much got some rest), that made us even the series with Detroit and raise our record to 40-38.

The 76-85 home loss to Indiana, in my opinion the only bad loss of this last part of the season (40-39), caused mainly by HORRID shooting percentage by our guards: Green, Carney and Williams combined for 5/37…  With that, O’Brien swept the season series vs his former team !

The 109-93 loss at Washington, a game that saw Arenas exloding in the fourth quarter with pretty unbelievable shots and Sixers collapsing in the period (31-9) to drop to .500 again at 40-40.