-10, are Sixers ready to run?

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

Ten games are left after the 101-97 loss at Detroit, Sixers stand at the 6th place in the Eastern conference with their 37-35 (.514) record, and their schedule doesn’t look easy.

Tonight Sixers meet the 43-31 Hawks, that already secured a playoffs spot and hold a comfortable four game-lead over 5th seed Miami (39-35). Atlanta seems in a great position to keep home court advantage in the first round.

The game is the first of a three game homestand. Here is Sixers’ remaining schedule, with my predictions:

• Atlanta
• Milwaukee
• Detroit
• @ New Jersey
• @ Charlotte (L)
• @ Chicago (L)
• Cleveland (L)
• @ Toronto
• Boston
• @ Cleveland (L)

In my opinion tonight’s game could spark us to a small winning streak: I am afraid we will lose again to the Bobcats, good and rising, while for the last two games we could perhaps take advantage of the fact that Cavs and Boston will probably already be sure of their 1st and 2nd/3rd spot and maybe rest some starters.

But I am predicting a L at Cleveland, just not to be too optimistic: if Sixers really go 6-4 in this last stretch, they will finish the season 43-39.

That would mean a +3 improvement in wins versus last year (= still mediocre), and matching the record of 2004/2005, which by the way was Sixers’ last winning season (…).

If you remember, it was Jim O’Brien’s year, with Iverson & Webber. Sixers lost 4-1 to the Pistons in the first round. That costed Obie the job, and it costed all Sixers fans six more years of Dalembert (LOL), because after that – good – series by Sammy, King rewarded him with that infamous notorious deal.

I think 2008/2009 Sixers are ready to finish the season strong and make some noise in the playoffs.

More than likely they will NOT pass the first round, because we match up pretty bad with Orlando AND Boston, but I think a series with the same Hawks could be very interesting, and give us a good chance for the upset.

Few Sixers show up in loss to Bobcats

I’m out on a four day business trip and I completely missed the 96-88 W over the T’Wolves (37-33). Two things I noticed about that game.

First, Minnesota started Kevin Ollie (!!), Bobby Brown, Brian Cardinal, Rodney Carney and Craig Smith: that has to be the worst starting lineup in the history of the League.

Second, former Sixer bum player Carney went 7/8 from behind the arc, but Sixers, led by Thaddeus Young (29) and with only two other plyers in double figure, won the game, playing basically just one quarter (the third) and holding off Minnesota down the stretch.

I did watch the 95-100 home loss to the Bobcats, though (37-34, .521).

Not an enjoyable show, to be honest. Talking about a 33-50 half time score, that included Sixers’ 36% FG pctg (13/36) vs Charlotte’s 51% (19/37), with a -15 difference in rebounding (12-27). The first two quarters included multiple three seconds violations, tons of second chance opportunities allowed, limited circulation of the ball, no movement offensively.

You think that after such a poor effort, Sixers would have come pretty spirited after the break.

Instead, on their first offensive possession, Bobcats found Okafor under the rim for an easy dunk, extending the lead to nineteen (33-52), their largest. Sixers gave few sign of life, and Charlotte remained always in control, thanks to great circulation (they played even too unselfish bball, passing up on many open shots) closing the period at 60-73.

Sixers finally woke up in the fourth, sparked by Thaddeus Young and mainly Lou Williams, who scored 12 of his 14 points in the quarter, but the best they could do was cutting the lead to two (92-94 with 1.20 left). Nevermind, Okafor from the high post found Diaw for an easy layup (92-94), Miller missed a shot and Bell secured the game from the line (92-96).

Sixers finish West trip in winning fashion

And sweep the Blazers !

Pretty amazing way to end a tough five game road trip: a 108-114 OT W over Portland to lift us up to a 36-33 record (.522).

So here was the situation for the Sixers at tip off: fifth game in seven nights (!). Second night of a back-to-back. A raucous, sellout crowd. An opponent with a 28-6 home record, coming from its own 3-2 road trip.

Not exactly the best scenario, right?

But Sixers pulled out a heck of a game, a total team effort on both ends of the floor, coming out of Portland with one of the biggest wins of the season, in a key moment of the year.

I just managed to finish watching the game replayed – this time without any idiot friend telling me the final score… – and I am still pumped. Crazy game, it would took too many words to recap.

To give you an idea of how weird of a night it was, let’s start saying that Sixers had only a five point lead after the FIRST QUARTER (26-31), in which they shot 13/16 (81%) !!!!

In the SECOND QUARTER, despite Blazers’ big men literally partying under our rim, we progressively extended the lead: thirteen on a jumper by Thaddeus Young (36-49), sixteen (the biggest) on a three point play by Williams: 40-56 with 1.20 left.

Lou had nine points in the period, but what shocked the Blazers (and not only them perhaps, LOL) was the mighty Reggie Evans adding ten: Portland shooting 1/14 from behind the arc obviously was also a big factor to explain the 44-58 halftime score.

Once they were Kings

Today, they are just a bad team, unfortunately.

And I say this as a former Kings fan: I used to root for the team with “deda” Divac, Bibby, Peja, Turkoglu, Christie, Webber etc when they were battling for the supremacy in the Western Conference with the fucking Lakers… now it’s just a nice memory.

Sixers (35-33, .515) made a quick work of Sacramento, on coast to a 100-112 W that wasn’t as close as the final score might tell.

We led by as many as 29 points, and let the Kings get closer only in the final period (92-103 with 5.40 to play), quickly putting them to sleep again after that “threat”.

The game was basically over after one quarter – which saves me a lot of typing, LOL. Sixers jumped to a 20 point lead (13-33) and closed the period at a comfortable 17-35. 

Iguodala simply DESTROYED Sacramento from the start, scoring 17 points in the first (!), on 6/6 shooting, including two treys and a couple of dunks. In the same period, Kings turned the ball over eight times (!!), many of them unforced.

Sacramento is a bad team, badly coached, and with horrible playmaking. Garcia did his best to keep them into the game (he was 4/5 from behind the arc at a point in the second) but he was pretty much left alone by his team mates.

Sixers add the Warriors game to list of regrets

I think that at the end of this season the 119-111 loss to Golden State will go down as one of the (many) games Sixers could, and should, have won.

And then, looking back at their year, players and coach will hopefully understand why we were always floating around .500 (34-33 now, .509) instead of making a run to 48-50 W, a record that seemed more-than-reachable before the start of the season, and that remained so through the months, despite all that happened in between (coach change, injuries, unbelievable losses etc).

This Sixers team has a lot of potential and is often fun to watch, but remains in mediocrity-territory because lacks consistency, and can’t put together full 48-min efforts, especially vs weaker opponents.

This time it was against Golden State, that btw was playing without Biedrins (injured) and Crawford (who had an argument with Nelson and asked to stay out of the game !!!).

How can you possibly win at LA with Bryant’s Lakers, and then get nearly blown out at Golden State, allowing Brandan Wright a career high (25 points on 10/13…), the whole Warriors team a season high in assists (35), some former D-league ‘stars’ (Morrow, Azubuike etc) repeteadly kill you etc. is pretty difficult to explain.

Ricky = Sergio Olmos ???

Is it me or Temple Owl center Sergio Olmos looks very, very similar to my ugly guido ass face ????

 

I saw his picture for the first time a couple of hours ago (I don’t follow college bball), immediately emailed it to a group of friends, and immediately received warm (LOL) feedbacks, so I’m curious to have more opinions from people who don’t have a damn thing to do accidental readers.

Wifey agrees with me, just FYI, and had some good laughs looking at the two pics, so I decided to post them. For sure me and Sergio go to the same barber.

Btw that reminds me a lot of the notorious Ron Jeremy-Stan Van Gundy similarity I first came up with (in this case, I would be Ron Jeremy of course).

Old Suns still shining enough

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

Sixers’ 126-116 L at Phoenix was blackouted in Italy, I couldn’t watch it.

As usual when this happens, I watched the highlights, I read the boxscore, the play-by-play page and many reports so I’ll try to focus on some sure facts and try to make some points.

Sixers now stand at 34-32 (.515), 6th in the eastern conference rankings, 1 1/2 games behind the 5th seed Miami (36-31).

The western conference trip has three stops left, Golden State (tomorrow), Sacramento, Portland. I think we have good chances to win the next two games, vs weaker opponents, while the final matchup vs TrailBlazers will be a tough one.

Ending the trip at 3-2 would be very good.

Speaking of yesterday’s game, here is what the crew at Bright side of the Sun thinks of us:

The 76ers are a good team with a lot of nice pieces. They run the floor really well and move the ball in the half court. Unfortunately for them, against the Suns they were outmatched inside giving up an 80 to 50 “edge” in points in the paint  and 26  to 8 second chance points.The 76ers are 2nd on the league in offensive rebounds so that’s quite a feat.

In its recap the Suns’ blog is underlining how Suns now have some good “chemistry” and “balance”, that were all lacking before. 

Iguodala goes Hollywood, sinks Lakers at the buzzer

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

The title of this post could have been “More timely three point shooting“, following the one below this. Or “Finally a buzzer beater that goes the right way”. Whatever.

All I can say now is I am one of the happiest bball fans on earth. I could have been the happiest overall. Becasue of this (I love how the video is 100% Lakers until the 2.10 mark…LOL): 

(PREMISE: as you might easily guess, from Monday to Friday it’s extremely difficult for me to watch Sixers games live. When they play in Philly, or anywhere in the East, games start at 00.30-1 AM. It means going to bed at around 3.30-4, and get up at 8, to go to work my butt off for 10 + hrs in office…. when Sixers play West, that’s completely impossible, because games start at around 3.30-4 AM GT – Guido Time)

So I had this plan for today: resist and DO NOT check the score of the Lakers game all day (that’s always a pretty tough task for a die hard fan, believe me), RUN home from office, watch the game replaying, but… “live”: without knowing the score, I mean !!

Had this plan be completed, I would be the happiest fan on earth now. Really.

INSTEAD…

Fellow guido and f’n idiot Raffaele, co-founder of Sixers4guidos, that I hadn’t heard from in like 3-4 weeks (not missing anything, btw…), decided to drop me an email that consisted in these few words: “Biggest win of the season. Why no post up yet?”.

The response was like: 1) (tons of profanities) I was trying to avoid knowing the score, you idiot. Your useless ass completely ruined me the surprise… And 2) the post will be up as soon as I’ll watch the game, you retard. 

So here I am now, trying to recap (yes), the biggest win of the season, (too) many hours late, I know. What can I do?

Let’s start from the finish. Andre Iguodala, whose clutchness has been questioned many times – also on this site of course – hit a fantastic three pointer over Trevor Ariza at the buzzer to give Sixers a 93-94 W over the Lakers at the Staples Center:

Sixers have won four straight games now, and their record is 34-31, .523.

That shot couldn’t have been more timely, for many reasons.

Timely three point shooting

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

There is a funny stat about the 85-77 W over Miami, Sixers’ third straight victory (33-31, .516).

Heat started shooting 5/7 from three point land, and then went 0/12 for the rest of the night.

Sixers were 1/10 at a point, and then went 4/7 to finish the game, with D-O-N-Y-E-L-L M-A-R-S-H-A-L-L scoring three of those four, and all of them in the fourth quarter.

So it was another unlikely hero to give the Sixers a much needed win, the seldome used veteran forward, whose hands are still pretty hot, thank God.

In the fourth quarter, Marshall (10 pts) outscored all by himself the whole Miami team (9), clearly tired after the triple OT win over Utah of the night before.

DiLeo’s decision of putting Marshall in helped Sixers solve a problem that was becoming extremely difficult: attacking Miami zone defense. Yes, because we shot 6/23 from the field in the third quarter, allowing Heat to close the period up seven, 61-68.

And this, without doing anything special, to tell you the truth. They simply took advantage of Sixers’ woes: like Green being horrible, or Williams playing another poor game. Nothing special.

Unusual, happy finish for the last game at The Spectrum

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

I think everyone, from DiLeo to Doctor J, from Iguodala to Mike Gminski Moses Malone, from the ghost of James Naismith to Harvey Pollack, sensed the fifth buzzer beater loss coming when Chicago inbounded the ball down one with 22 seconds to go.

A finish we got very familiar with through the season, unfortunately.

Instead, Sam Dalembert had perhaps the biggest play of his career and blocked a shot by Derrick Rose, securing Sixers’ 104-101 W over the Bulls, in the last game played at The Spectrum, to cap an emotional night for Sixers’ fans and a close, good, intense game. 

Sixers (32-31, .508) seriously risked a pretty unbelievable fourth quarter collapse, letting a 11-point lead (86-75, with the second of two consecutive fantastic dunks by Marreese Speights, 9.25 to play) turn into a 2-point deficit (94-96, 3.11 left).

That happened because Bulls went 5/5 from downtown to start the final quarter (!!), and tied the game with their sixth three, by Ben Gordon, with 36 seconds to play, 101-101.

That was pretty tough to swallow because Sixers played excellent defence on that play, forcing Salmons to shot a prayer that barely hit the rim at the 24th second. But Dalembert completely lost Brad Miller, who got the offensive rebound and dished the ball to a wide open Gordon at the top of the key. Tied at 101. Tough break indeed.

Then Iguodala demanded the ball in the low post (I liked to see that determination), guarded by Hinrich. Andre had easily driven past his smaller opponent few plays before, scoring on a nice lefthanded layup to put the Sixers up three (101-98, 1.06) and simply wanted to do it again.