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.

Good game, bad loss in Minnesota

I enjoyed it, replayed, until the horn sounded.

Then I realized that we just lost (102-96, .455) to a less than mediocre team, that not coincidentially had dropped eight straight games before matching up with us.

“They wanted it more than us” explained Willie Green at the end. “It was obvious”, he added. Well, not so obvious, since we were coming from three consecutive wins, just reached .500 and needed this win MORE than the T’Wolves, that will not make any use of it.

But yes, Minnesota wanted it more. At the end of the day the small things made the difference down the stretch, and shifted a close game in the opposite direction.

Al Jefferson scoring back-to-back almost identical layups against Dalembert in the low post (92-89, 94-91), Mike Miller knocking down a long three (98-94) off a double team on the same Jefferson, Andre Iguodala missing two, the first when he was open (Brand had a good off rebound and a putback for the 98-96), the second contested, with the score at 100-96: clank, game over.

The play when their Miller knocked down the trey is the same play that we should automatically run on clutch possessions, and sums the kind of offense we brought Brand in Philly for. Ball in the low post to a good scorer —> double team —> ball on the perimeter again —> jump shot by (insert name of a decent shooter here), or —> ball down low again —> 1-vs-1 play for the big man.

Minnesota won the game with that play. Good execution, even better conclusion. We lost: good execution, conclusion failed.

Last year in similar situations we could have had Evans in the paint, and, in the best case, Green on the perimeter. Not exactly an encouraging scenario, I know. 

But this year we could have Brand and Iguodala/Williams/Rush/Green. It should be the prototypical “pick your poison” situation for defenses, but Iguodala is shooting 23% from behind the arc and 38% overall, Williams 26% and 35%, Rush is buried under the bench, Green is playing well but usually sits in the final quarter. Comments?

Plus we often take HORRIBLE decisions down the stretch, resulting in forced shots, turnovers, bricks: static offense, no circulation, I said it many times before. We almost never run plays. When we do, and take a good shot, like yesterday night (Iguodala’s aforementioned first three was an excellent shot, nicely built), we miss it. So if you want at least to see an improvment in this, you could do it.

What else could we rank as “positive” from an unexpected loss that brings us back under .500?

Shocking: old Sixers bums are still around

Guys, I’m finally (?) back at FBP (full blogging potential).

After a long summer in which I changed job, moved to another town (Milan), got a new house, after a couple of months that saw me leaving for some long business trips, this week I finally got my brand new super-cool fast Internet connection at home, that finally allows me to update this blog just as frequently as it used to be.

So what’s the first post after this break about? Preseason games recaps? Predictions? World Series (Phillies up 1-0, but I don’t follow baseball, I’m sorry…)? No. In pure Sixers4guidos’ style, we’ll talk about something that other sites don’t consider: former Sixers stiffs. I mean, they are still stiffs, but at least they are no more Sixers. Ok, you got it. 

TRIVIA QUESTION for Sixers fans: name a team that this year has THREE former Sixers that LAST year were playing in Philly. 

Ok, even the most knowledgeable fan would say: “Wait, this can’t be right, it could be Minnesota but they have only two, they got Carney and Booth this summer…”.

WRONG !!!!!

Not only that, but the Timberwolves signed K-E-V-I-N frikkin’ O-L-L-I-E !!!! He retired was a free agent, and they picked him up (see him in the pic, sporting one of the cool, old Sixers uniforms I’ve been pushing for) !!!

Admit it, you had my same thought when reading this page: there must be a mistake or something, Kevin Ollie hung them up last summer, he must be with his family, still counting all the money he stole from NBA franchises in his (too) long career !

So I decided to email College Wolf, the finest blogger covering Minnesota, and here is our exchange of thoughts about Ollie and the other two bums players.

Shockingly true: Elton Brand will be a Sixer !!!!!

It’s nice to break my long silence (not my fault, though) and take all of my lunch break at the new job to create the new “Elton Brand” category in this blog.

This morning I was simply extatic in reading that Ed Stefanski brought us Elton Brand, showing what a real GM should do. Now before I wrote my take about this move, let me remind you the major steps Stefanski took before closing this deal:

1) last season, traded Korver to Utah to clear cap space for this summer: around 4 mill off the books. Remember many fans complained then, but they should have known that the move should have been judged only some months later… 

BTW readers of this blog know I was, am and will always be a great Korver fan, but this time I was with our management, waiting/hoping for the eventual big move. I looked at the big picture, for once !!

2) seriously courted Josh Smith, involving even Philly’s mayor (!) and creating a smokescreen that probably helped him reaching the real goal  

3) traded Carney and Booth to Minnesota in order to be able to increase the offer(s) 

4) finally, signed Brand when everybody thought he was going to end up elsewhere (Golden State, Clippers etc)

I call this a great job by a GM who knows his stuff. (Ouh, and by the way move 1) was decisive in making Thaddeus Young getting some minutes… how did that turn out? Not surprisingly, he’s laughing, you see)

Now about Brand as a Sixer:

Magically ripped

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Sixers played ten minutes of embarassing basketball, had a nice reaction that lasted around four minutes, which was followed by thirtyfour, painful minutes of garbage time.

That’s the short story of the 113-95 loss at Orlando, that put us at 34-35 (.493). Call it “reality check”, “awakening”, “step back” etc etc, that’s it.

And don’t get fooled by the boxscore, the game was NOT that ‘close’ (LOL).

Sixers were completely outplayed basically from start to finish and in every possible way.

It started 4-0 with two dunks by Dwight Howard, both off Nelson’s assists, then 12-4 with Magic hitting all of their first five shots, then 20-6, then 25-8 when Evans (it was Maurice, don’t worry…) knocked down the fifth three pointer out of five attempts for the Magic, in your typical “pick your poison” situation.

Either Howard was getting a dunk or an easy basket (see the picture) or one of Orlando perimeter players was draining an open jumper.

When Sixers can run, they are magic

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(UNIFORMS UPDATE: guys, I’ve been in contact with the Sixers organization about this topic over the last days. I received a first, encouraging feedback and I’m waiting for a further follow up. Stay tuned on the first italian Sixers blog, as I could have interesting news soon. In the meantime, sign on the link above !!)

I’ll keep the recap of the 101-89 win vs Orlando (26-32, .448) very short, as it comes late due to “technical” reasons.

Sixers played one of the best halves of the season, the first one, to build a 19 point lead (61-42) that Magic could never overcome.

Andre Miller had a terrific 22 points (on 9/10 from the field !!), 6 assists and 3 rebounds stat line at the break, and abused Jameer Nelson and Carlos Arroyo all night with a complete set of low post moves, mid range jumpers, drives (like in the picture).

Willie Green, a player I really love(d) to bash, had a fantastic all around performance: not only his 26 points are a season high, but he also dished assists (5), played defense and even had two blocks, one on JJ Redick, one on Jameer Nelson, that sparked nice fastbreaks on both occasions. 

Sixers got shot in Orlando

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I wrote many times and in many places that Sixers are perhaps the only team in the NBA that lacks BOTH low post scoring AND outside shooting: basically, we can score easily only on fastbreaks and in transition, which we do very well.

Well, how about meeting a team that has BOTH (great) low post scoring AND (terrific) outside shooting? The outcome is often close to the 115-99 loss in Orlando (24-32, .428), a game that saw Sixers trailing wire-to-wire.

It started with an alley oop for Howard on the first play (an emphatic dunk for the 2-0 Orlando initial lead) and it ended with Jameer Nelson’s three that marked the last points for the home team (115-96) and Magic fifteenth triple (!!).

I think it wasn’t just a coincidence, because between these two field goals, Ron Jeremy’s Stan Van Gundy’s team used a balanced mix of inside and outside offense that was too much to handle for the Sixers.

Howard simply dominated Dalembert, the comparison between the two stat lines is merciless but it also tells exactly the truth of how the matchup went. There was a play in the first quarter when Howard, guarded by Sam in the low post, took a couple of dribbles to get into the paint and shoot a little lefthanded hook: he missed it but pushed Sam aside so strong that he could go up again easily and slam home his own miss.

More Mo ball

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If Sixers players wanted to show they were happy that Mo Cheeks got a one year extention, they did it pretty well. And if this is how they will play until the end of this season and for the whole next one, Stefanski’s move was good.

Ok, we all know it’s not gonna be always like yesterday, but still the 124-84 thrashing of the Knicks (24-31, .436) was nice to watch for many reasons.

The NBA is fun, and its schedule puts teams in weird situations. This game was the second of the back-to-back for both Philadelphia and New York: Sixers were coming from the AWFUL loss vs the Timberwolves, one of the worst teams in the League, Knicks from an amazing win at Washington, where they set a franchise record for points scored in overtime (23).

Guess what, Sixers TOYED (I’m stealing this from Walt Frazier) with the Knicks for 48 minutes and the game was over after one quarter (37-17). I have really troubles trying to describe what happened last night. Basically Sixers outplayed the Knicks in every possible way, scoring a ton of points in transition and even knocking down threes. On the other side New York was throwing a sort of “turnover party”, getting killed under the glasses and on every hustle play.

Smart loss at MSG

Well done guys (in the pic, Lou Williams and Andre Iguodala congratulating each other*).

Play hard, fight until the end and then lose the game. Whether it’s for missed free throws, lack of outside shooting (like it was last night) or whatever else, I don’t care. We need more of those ping pong balls in the lottery.

Let the Knicks and other franchises rise to useless 33-35 wins, we need to stay below that number and get a top pick. In the meantime, it’s ok if you play like this, and with Mo at the helm, there is still more hope. He didn’t make any particular mistake last night, to be honest, but he can always f’k a game up with his decisions.

Some fellow tanker on the Sixers board of Philly.com described the matchup vs New York as a “must lose game”. Another poster followed him saying this is a “must lose weekend” (tonight we play the Bobcats). I second that. And that’s why the 81-89 loss (16-28, .364) has a sweet taste. Three losses in a row, 2-11 in 2008? Fine with me. Just let the young plays play, develop them, make them improve.

Versus the emerging (?) Knicks we saw one more time what is good and what is bad with this team. Among the good things:

When Calvin Booth outplays Shaq…

…and we are talking basketball, not ugliness, it means it’s a good sign for the Sixers.

Philadelphia whipped Miami basically for two quarters, saw an early 21 point lead (47-26, 3.57 left in the second) reduced to 3 in the fourth (84-81, 5.10 to go) and finished on a strong 12-4 run to win 96-85 (12-16, .429) in front of the second largest crowd of the year at the Wachovia Center, 18.430 fans (was it the Shaq effect or the “New Sixers” effect? We’ll see…).

One thing to be clear: I didn’t watch the game. At least not yet. It was broadcasted on NBA TV and I have League Pass, that didn’t include it: the game was nowhere to be found on the net. But I followed it live on Yahoo.com (by the way, they refresh the boxscore quicker than on Nba.com and the play-by-play update is very precise), that at least gives you an idea of how it went.

So I’m writing this recap basing on that + having seen the highlights: that’s why I will stick only to undisputed facts right now, waiting for an eventual update of the post with comments later. I really hope I will not break my streak of 25 consecutive Sixers games watched.

Facts are: Iguodala and Miller dominated the first quarter (25-17) in which Sixers shot 12/19, Heat 8/26. Iguodala scored 10 on 5/7 from the field, Miller 12 on 6/8: our point guard wouldn’t score anymore, choosing to set up his team mates for the rest of the game. He finished two rebounds short of a triple double in another excellent performance.