Full Rockets game coverage

(RETIRE MOSES MALONE’S #2 SIXERS JERSEY ! S4G PETITION – SIGN HERE)

Ok, this comes few hours late, but it will be worth the wait.

For the 93-95 W over Houston, “the most important win of the season”, as Kate Fagan said, (22-22, .500) you will basically get FOUR ARTICLES IN ONE POST, so that at the end of this text you will (hopefully) party, just like our players in the pic.

The four stage-sequence will be:

1) the Q&A session I did before the game with the guys over at The Dream Shake, one of the finest NBA blogs you can find. I couldn’t post it in time, but it’s a nice reading, you’ll see.

2) Sixerdave’s recap of the win

3) links to The Dream Shake’s recap and my answers to their Sixers related questions

4) some of my thoughts  after the game (that I will watch now, replaying, knowing already the score, but anyway…)

Let’s start, stage #1, Q& A SESSION WITH “THE DREAM SHAKE”.

Exclusive interview with Federico Buffa

(RETIRE MOSES MALONE’S SIXERS #2 JERSEY ! S4G PETITION – SIGN HERE)

I can hear you from an Ocean away.. “Who the hell is Federico Buffa?”. Long story short: the best italian journalist covering the NBA. Currently for Sky Television.

He has been doing that forever, basically, and here he’s a living legend for every bball fan in Italy, despite still being in his 40’s (http://www.federicobuffa.com/).

Since you cliché-lovers old american asses always love comparisons, I think the definition of “italian Peter Vecsey” might fit.

Seriously, Federico probably knows the NBA better than many journalists living in the US, and is a real basketball junkie just as much as we all are. That’s why he enjoys talking to whoever shares his same passion, including your resident guido blogger.

He’s really a nice guy to deal with, that likes to crack jokes and talk hoops. I met him Friday 23 in Milan, and HERE IS OUR DIALOGUE:

S4G: So how many times did you watch the Sixers this year?

FB: Ten times ! I checked it before coming here (laughs). The last two Sixers games I watched were vs Mavs and vs Spurs, that I commented for Sky.

In that occasion you told a nice DiLeo story…

Yes, when he played in Germany he beat the Milan Xerox team I was rooting for and scored 36 points, in a Korac Cup game. It was 1974/75 if I am not mistaken and the game was played in Palalido, in front of… uhm, around 600 fans.

Another rain of threes

(RETIRE MOSES MALONE’S  SIXERS #2 JERSEY ! S4G PETITION – SIGN HERE)

…this time resulting in a loss, 101-86 vs the Hornets, that pushes us below .500 again (21-22, .488).

I couldn’t watch the game last night and I will troubles also catching the upcoming one at Houston.

They both are blackouted on Int’l League Pass and the site that used to put online NBA replaying games was apparently shut down few days ago (…). That really sucks. 

Anyway I think/hope Sixerdave will cover the Houston game for us and I’ll have an interesting Q&A session with a cool Rockets blog before it, so stay tuned on S4G.

Sorry for the lack of coverage of the Hornets loss but from Mon to Fri it’s really tough for me to watch the games live and then go to work the day after, especially when Sixers play on the road vs Westen conference teams.

That would mean going to bed at around 4 AM, sleep less than four hours and then work from 9 to 7… not exactly the kind of rythm you can keep for a long time, especially if you would like to do both things (blogging & working, I mean) pretty well. 

As usual when I couldn’t catch the game, I watched highlights, scrutinezed the play-by-play page, I read a lot of (relieble) reports around so that I’ll stick to some actual facts that can be analyzed.

Quicky:

1) we allowed the second consecutive barrage from three point land. After Knicks went 15/32, Hornets followed with their own 14/31. Make it 29/63 (46%) in the last two games.

Pedja Stojakovic had a streak of FIVE threes knocked down in the fourth (!), scoring all of New Orleans’s initial fifteen points, and the game looked pretty much over (81-66). To our credit, we had a great effort after that, and were able to cut the lead to only seven in the final (89-82) but Paul with a jumper and Posey with another three closed the game

Apparently Brand’s comeback is not hurting Sixers…

(RETIRE MOSES MALONE’S #2 SIXERS JERSEY ! S4G PETITION – SIGN HERE)

Ok, first off thank everybody for lifting Sixers4guidos’ to its best day ever, with more than 3.000 accesses on Saturday, following our scoop about the return to classic jerseys and logo (and thank again to reader Josh G for letting us know).

That was a great achievement and of course it will push me to do a better job trying to cover our beloved team even from sunny (?) Italy.

Back to work now. Sixers wore THEIR, REAL (I’m not going to call them “old” or “classic”) uniforms last night and celebrated with a 116-110 win over the Knicks (21-21, .500) after a weird game, tougher than expected – and than it looked like after the FIRST QUARTER.

Yes, because we basically jumped over the Knicks from tip off, and quickly built a 15-point lead (29-14), scoring on fourteen of our first twentyone shots, with Iguodala carrying the team (12 in the period). Everybody, including myself of course, expected a blowout then.

New York simply couldn’t get a defensive stop but slowly got back into the game thank to an impressive barrage from behind the arc (7/11 at the end of the quarter !! Duhon was 4/6) and closed it down only six, 36-30. A bargain for them considering how it started.

The SECOND QUARTER was a close one, with Knicks’ reserves  having a great impact, escpecially Nate Robinson (17 at the half) and Tim Thomas. Sixers couldn’t take advantage of the bulk and height edge over the Knicks, and the possible mismatches weren’t exposed.

At the half it was 63-66 (!!), with Knicks connecting on 10/20 from downtown, while Sixers closed with 25/44 from the field.

Sixers back to old logo and uniforms !!!!!!

And SIXERS4GUIDOS HAS THE SCOOP !!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the (breaking, really) news:

Lara Price, Sixers’ Vice President of Business Operations, told yesterday to a group of season ticket holders in a fan forum that the franchise will be switching back to the old logo and the old 1982-83 uniforms (white/home, red/away) starting from next season.

Guido sources A reader emailed me that, I’m trying to learn more details but as for now that is more than enough I think, if you remember how much this site and all of you who signed my “Bring the old Sixers’ uniforms back !” petition (around 130 fans/readers) care about this topic.

It means we will look full time like this:

Few thoughts:

1) About time. Enough of the crap we were wearing over the last years.

2) FANS’ opinion counts and is taken in high consideration by the franchise. Which should be logical, and not even worth underlining, but you never know…

3) Blogs, bloggers and online lobbying count. Another important evidence. We won !!

More details later, if I can, but… well, that made my day, really. And remember, you read it here first.

Thank you Kate Price, thank you Ed Stefanski (I know he’s a fan of the classical Sixers unis, and I reported it on S4G), thank you Sixers for this.

And please, never, ever, change our logo and uniforms again, we had enough of….:

…and of….:

SIXERS4GUIDOS: WHERE SUCCESSFUL LOBBYING HAPPENS.

UPDATE: I received more details, and thank to reader Josh G. here they are (excerpts from his mail):

Yea it was a little dinner/ Q&A for the season ticket holders put on by the Sixers…. There were probably about 250-300 people there and Ed Stefanski, Tony Di Leo, Peter Lukko, and Laura Price all made their rounds for Q&A’s. …

…Laura said the reasoning behind the decision was basically that it was what the fans wanted, everyone walks around in the retro gear ect…
…It was great stuff and the Q&A’s with Stefanski and Di Leo were particuarly interesting because they have solid view points on the roster that I think most fans would agree with…. 
…It was a really cool experience to be able to get a direct pulse of what they are thinking. Plus it wrapped up with a tour of the locker room.
and I told Lukko and Price that they should do a Reggie Evans beard night and they seemed to like that idea. Shit would be hilarious.

Brian/Depressed fan will have a footage up soon, check his blog also for complete coverage.

Thanks everyone  !!!

Retire Moses Malone’s #2 Sixers jersey !!! (S4G petition)

When my friend Pablo, fellow blogger that runs the spanish site Los Sixers de Philadelphia, told me that, I could not believe it.

Then he gave me the evidences, I checked it and I realized he was right.

So we decided to do something together, since we cooperated well during my “Bring the old Sixers uniforms back” petition, that he was kind enough to support, and that brought some concrete results.

Guys, Moses Malone’s Sixers #2 jersey HASN’T BEEN RETIRED YET !!!

Pretty unbelievable, but 100% true !! How come that is possible ?

Check the list of Sixers’ retired numbers: it includes #6 (Julius Erving), #10 (Maurice Cheeks – the player, not the coach, LOL), #13 (Wilt Chamberlain), #15 (Hal Greer), #24 (Bobby Jones), #32 (Billy Cunningham), #34 (Charles Barkley).

NO MOSES !!

Now check Malone’s career through the numbers and his Hall of Fame page.

If this man is not deserving to see his number retired from the Sixers organization, there is something wrong.

So now, what do we have to do?

MLK day is not Sixers day

It started with a buzzer beater, it ended with another buzzer beater (in the pic).

Sixers’ winning streak stopped at seven games (20-21, .488) as Dirk No-Shit-zki (I’m stealing this from poster BillyRayBate of the Sixers board of philly.com, too funny) hit a tough fallaway shot over Reggie Evans as time expired to give Dallas a heartbreaking 93-95 win.

That trademark jumper ruined a fantastic, unlikely run that allowed Sixers to tie the game at 93 with 8 seconds to go after being down twelve with 2.16 left (81-93, on a three by Terry). That 12-0 break unfortunately will be rememebered only because it set the stage for Dirk’s winning shot.

With that, Mavs swept the season series vs us.

(This recap comes WAY too late because yesterday I didn’t realize it was MLK day and so didn’t even try to catch the game live, I watched it today, replayed. No need to go on details about it, since everything has been already said, but still there is room for some thoughts)

1) I am ok with Reggie Evans taking the assignment to guard Dirk on the last play. Who says he’s undersized, didn’t contest the shot well bla bla bla forgets that Reggie stripped him the ball and forced Dirk to a charge few possessions before that final play, just in the midst of our run.

By the way, I think Dirk can knock down that kind of fallaway jumper guarded by Yao Ming carrying Manute Bol over his shoulders. You can’t block it, all you have to do is just make it tougher, and Evans did it well.

NY Guidos can’t stop Sixers

New York, the city where thousands, millions, of fellow guidos came, settled and live, was a no match for us last night, resulting in a 97-107 Sixers win at the Madison Square Garden.

The seventh consecutive win lifts us at .500 (20-20), and the last time we were at that mark was…uh, I can’t remember it… no, wait, actually it was 7-7 on Nov 24, after that crappy loss in Charlotte.

Few thoughts after the game.

Slow start, allowing Knicks to connect on nine of their first eleven shots (19-12) but good reaction to close the FIRST QUARTER up one, 25-26.

Another good reaction after NY had its biggest lead in the SECOND QUARTER (43-35 on a three by Q Rich, for his fourteenth point).

We smartly took advantage of some mismatches created by Knicks’ lack of bigs and small guards, and worked our way in the low post several times, to took the lead on a jump hook by Dalembert (48-49), who had a nice stretch also defensively.

Iguodala scored on an amazing “catch and shoot” three pointer while he was up in the air just before the buzzer sounded to put us up by two at the half, 50-52. Andre had 20 points at the break, on 7/10.

Red hot Philly peppers

Your Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers (19-20, .487) are the hottest team in the League.

No kidding.

If you don’t believe it, just ask the Spurs, buried under a 22 point-deep grave (109-87) after being schooled all night long.

Make it six consecutive Ws, and counting.

Remember how they toyed with us in the first quarter of that unbelievable game played on the 3rd of December?

Spurs shot 8/11 from downtown in the first period, and finished with 15/28. Remember our impressive comeback (from -21 to +1) and the hurting end, with Parker’s high arcing buzzer beater? It seems like two months ago now, not thirteen days. Payback time.

To complete the picture of our 180° turnaround, read this excerpt, taken from S4G recap of that game in San Antonio:

in the last seven games Sixers have been outscored 48-189 (- 141 !!) on three pointers. As for the percentages, it’s Sixers 21% (16/75), opponents 43.4% (63/145).

There is more, unfortunately.

The New Jersey Nets, currently the worst team in NBA as for opponents’ 3 pt percentage, allow other teams to shoot 41.2% vs them. It means that over the last seven games we are doing worse than the worst team in the League !!!

Forget that all.

Looking like a team. A hot team.

The last time we met the Blazers at home, it ended like this. One of the most exciting and incredible comebacks I ever saw.

Last night, it was a larger, encouraging win, 100-79, our fifth consecutive (18-20, .474), a season high – just like the ELEVEN THREES SCORED. And the 21 point margin marks the worst loss of the season for Portland.

Those are all good signs.

Evidences of a team that has (hopefully) turned a corner in its season, that is starting to play with confidence, as a unit, having added some new weapons and having re-discovered other, older, ones, that looked lost just some weeks ago.

Since Di Leo gave his players “the green light” to take more threes – an apparently idiotic move for the franchise that has been dead last in the NBA for months in this category, at 30% and even below that mark – shots suddenly started to fall.

The guido Sixers’ coach stated he would have liked to score five threes a game, and his players knocked down EIGHT on seventeen in the first half alone vs Portland. The score said 55-33 by then. That’s + 22, baby. 

But that fantastic, and even shocking, half time lead wasn’t built only on threes. It was the defense, the deflections, the steals, the ability to run whenever there was the chance, the usual lift provided by the guys off the bench (Williams, Evans, Speights…), the intensity, the unselfishness by everyone.