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.

Heat pounded the ball inside to Jermaine O’Neal, quite effective today, and relied on Wade until he had enough gas in his tank (he played 52 minutes yesterday !!!). They collapsed as a team in the final period, as expected after that unbelievably long game vs Jazz.

Sixers didn’t play well, they could and should have closed the game earlier, because I think our roster is overall better than Miami’s (that is really a one-and-a-half-man team) , but I’ll gladly take the late W without complaining much.

Yes, because there is a 5-game road trip coming (Lakers, Suns, Warriors, Kings, Blazers in only seven days !!!) and we needed to build some confidence: hopefully this little streak will do it. 

SIXERS4GUIDOS’ BONUS STATS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS – Sixers shot 13/20 in the first period, Miami 9/16 – Miller had six dimes in the first, while Young scored ten points – Heat had an eight point lead in the third, 54-62, 2.25 to play – At halftime, O’Neal, Wade and Chalmers all had 8 points – Another good game by Sam Dalembert, with some key offensive rebounds down the stretch: he also closed the game with an alley oop (84-76 with 2.25 to play) – Royal Ivey stinks. 31% from the field for the SEASON ??? He added a nice o/3 today… – He actually shoots better the three (currently 35%), unbelievable.