Crappy game in Charlotte. Even worse uniforms

Good picture, though.

Barely a consolation, after the disappointing 93-84 loss vs the Bobcats, that only yesterday’s Sixers (7-7, .500) made look like a half-decent team.

Instead, they were, are, and will remain, one of the weakest teams in the NBA, I’m sorry for their fans.

Bobcats entered the game with a 3-9 record and a 86.8 ppg average (worst in the League), numbers that speak volumes about their limits. Still, they managed to pull a rabbit out of their asses, and Sixers helped them in the best way.

I don’t feel like recapping the whole game, I would like to focus on some points that I think are keeping this team on the ground, instead of letting it fly like it’s supposed to do.

1) uniforms. Back to the sucking black ones, with the ugly logo = sucking, ugly loss.

2) perimeter defense. Pathetic. We allowed Charlotte to shoot 57% from downtown (8/14), something I’m sure they didn’t even dream of before the game. Slow rotations, lazy “help and recover” moves: we let them shoot wide open most of the times. Some use of Ivey would have helped last night vs Charlotte quick guards.

3) perimeter offense. Pathetic, again. In Sixers’ half court offense, the ball simply DOES NOT MOVE. If Lou Williams is on the floor (btw, this is happening too often lately: 27 minutes last night, when he was cold again), our typical offensive possession is: dribble-dribble-dribble-attempt of drive-step back-pump fake-forced shot with the defender sticked-miss. The other four players on the court usually watch, and hope that he knocks down the shot. Unacceptable.

Sometimes we start with Iggy having the ball, and the sequence is more like: nearly palming violation dribble-stubborn drive in the middle of a perfectly set defense-double team-jump-dish-turnover-fastbreak on the other end.

4) Offense, in general. Stagnant and predictable.

We occasionally, somehow, almost unexplicably, make the ball circulate and build a good outside shot: last night it even happened a couple of times (LOL). In this case, it’s usually a ‘simple’ miss. Lou was 1/7 from downtown, and on many he had from good to excellent looks. Iguodala misfired on two wide open threes in the 4th, same for Thad earlier in the game.

In Sixers’ offense few players touch the ball. Our centers, of course, are never involved. No one is asking to run plays for Sam or Speights, but anyway a cut or an alley oop every now and then would be appreciated.

But the ball doesn’t circulate well around the perimeter either. Miller and Lou Williams dribble too much for my taste, while Iguodala’s (bad) habits have just been covered.

Team mates look for Brand a lot, to be honest, especially Iguodala: the problem is that even the mascots of our opponents know that, and make adjustments (double teams, rotations etc), so that he can never play one-on-one like he would like to do. He’s still taking too many mid range jumpers, but I sound like a broken record underlining this again and again.

I already said also that our shooters (and I mean mainly Rush, but maybe even Marshall could get spot minutes in some situations) for mysterious reasons sit on the bench much. Rush, brought in to open defenses and improve our (horrible) three point shooting, was a DNP CD last night. From there it’s pretty tough to contribute.

So Bobcats (not Phoenix, or Raptors, B-o-b-c-a-t-s ! A team coached by Larry Brown !!!!) scored 24 points on threes, while we scored 9 (3/14). It’s a -15 deficit. We lost by 9. Do your maths.

I just hope that the upcoming, tough games (Orlando and Boston) will “stimulate” our guys enough, because this is becoming annoying, even for a ‘half full’ type of fan like me.

Mo has to shake things up, bench LW more, give Rush some serious playing time, strengthen our defense, draw and make them run some plays. A “visit” by Stefanski wouldn’t hurt either, or a couple of his “suggestions” to the coach.

Time to man up in Sixerland, before it’s too late. We lost to Minnesota and Charlotte, a bell should ring.

SIXERS4GUIDOS BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS: Ajinca cracked me up with a sequence of: unbelievable traveling violation + ball-in-the-stands pass + turnaround airball. He finally made a jumper, and the crowd erupted – Thank God we didn’t sign Okafor this summer. This guy still doesn’t have a reliable move in the low post, and makes Dalembert look like Olajuwon. Six turnovers, also – I was happy to see Morrison back, I like the guy. If only he picked another game to show he’s ok… – Thaddeus Young had his first night off. No problem.