-10, are Sixers ready to run?

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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.

Tough schedule coming at the right time

That’s my thought after the 84-95 home loss to the New Jersey Nets (9-12, .429).

The game will be briefly recapped down, and only to keep track of it since I am three days late on that. What I want to focus on now is the upcoming future.

Let’s take a look at Sixers’ schedule until the end of December. I’d split it in three parts:

1) a home-and-home series vs the red hot Cavs (on an eight game winning streak): Wednesday and Friday

2) a four-game stretch facing teams currently below .500 (Washington twice, Indiana, Milwaukee), of which three games are at home (Wizards once, Bucks, Pacers)

3) our usual New year’s Eve six-game road trip West – that actually starts in the East (@ Boston) and ends in January, LOL – that includes stops at Denver, Utah, LA Clippers, Dallas and San Antonio. 

Sixers are NOT the Golden State Warriors

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They are the Golden State Warriors, we are the Phiadelphia Seventy-Sixers. And it showed.

Sixers (26-33, .441) tried to run with Nelson’s team but the 119-97 final score is there to prove that they didn’t manage.

Golden State led wire to wire and the game lasted basically 26 minutes, until Webber scored the first four points after the break (71-52).

I mean, when an immobile Chris effin’ Webber drives past Dalembert to score on a layup (…) and then hits a long jumper, the same shot he frontrimmed for nearly two years as a Sixer, you know you are done.  

“Be like Mike !!”. You remember the old Gatorade commercial? Hey, I tried hard, and I drank a lot of Gatorade, but still I couldn’t jump a newspaper.

“Be like the Warriors !!”. Sixers tried as well, but they were missing some key ingredients last night: three point & outside shooting, circulation, hustle.

Webber gets some deserved (eternal?) rest

(Dedicated to my friends paul_mokeski and ROLEN76 from the philly.com Sixers forum)

He played way better than I thought, I admit, but still went fishing at the end.

Chris Webber’s and Pistons season came to end last night when they lost to Cavs in game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The series is over, Pistons season too, Webber’s season too, his career – perhaps – too.

11.6 pt, 6 reb with 51% fg in six games is a very good stat in my opinion, also considering he played center, like he did all year. Not enough for a possessed Lebron and his fierce Cavs, though. 

But Webber surprised me. He did contribute to the very good season Pistons had, and also in the playoffs he recovered from a very bad series vs Chicago to play more than decently vs Cavs. Webber was opposed mainly to 7’3 Zydrunas Ilgauskas, in a matchup among the League’s most immobile players that is already a classic in my book (see the picture, one of the most dynamic ones I found). He even scored a clutch basket in game5 (ouh, “and one” !), getting an unbelievable continuation from the refs. Useless, at the end.

S4G rates for the season (IV): front court

Time to finish my rates with our big men

I am writing these BS.. pardon, lines, while waiting for the lottery draft, let’s hope the first italian Sixers blog brings some good luck, and that we can land another quality big man, God knows how much we need him. So:

SAM DALEMBERT

As soon as I was about to quit on our starting center (here pictured in a funny mismatch), he started playing really good.

So much for my basketball knowledge…

He really had a nice season, and finally showed some real improvements. Impressive the one from the free throw line, where he ended with an excellent 74% . Better than, say, Willie Green’s 66%…

Sam finished with 11 + 9 + 2, with 54% FG. Also reduced his fouls (!). Started being consistent, built a nice jumper from middle range. Put a strong, rebounding PF beside him and we’re ok for the next 2-3 years.

Our awards: “Guidoest (?) player of the year”

Time to elect the winners of the 2006-2007 awards. Sixers4guidos jury worked hard to chose the first players who deserve to be put in our special book.

The “Guidoest player of the year” goes, as you all know, to the Sixer that better embodies the characteristics of the italian man. It’s the “macho” player that has the complete package, basically: he’s a stud (…), he’s athletic, he’s handsome, he’s nice, he’s successful with chicks and he makes a lot of money. Kinda like Italy’s finest product, Rocco Siffredi (in the picture, seconds before going to action).

Well, the Guidoest player of the year is Andre Iguodala. No, we didn’t watch him naked (at least not yet) but we somehow guess that the comparison with Rocco is fair enough. As for the other features, we are confident our prize goes to the best candidate. Congratulations Andre.

The Billy King award – brought to you by Scott Layden, and dedicated to the Sixers GM that screws the team the most – pretty surprisingly this year went to… Billy King !!

For a LB coming, there’s a CW leaving

Overall, not bad.

As much as we dislike our new (?) “executive vicepresident” (?????? WTF an executive vice president does, exactly? only in the US…) Larry Brown, seems that we are moving in the right direction.

Last move? Buying Chris Webber out.  He is apparently giving back 5 millions out of the 43 that Sixers would owe him until june 2008 to become immediately a free agent. This, on the other side, allow Sixers to get some cap space, and luxury tax relief.

Honestly, as fans, we don’t give a damn about the waste of money, because it’s not ours. But what does this (good) move tell us? That Snider and Billy King are on the same page about totally being in a rebuilding process now. That we don’t care about trying to win games this year (assuming that THIS Webber would have helped us in winning more games). That we realized that clearing cap space and give this team to the young players is the only way to resurrect.

Now what’s left to do? Our opinion:

Keep Webber. And play him

Yes, you read it well. Sixers should keep Chris Webber. And play him.

We are aware that this post could destroy all the credibility of this young blog. But we are not afraid of our thoughts. But, before clicking to another, smarter site, follow us for a while.

We are writing this post after the defeat in Toronto (104-102), and our record dropped to 3-2 now. That’s the typical situation when Sixers fans usually overreact, going from “We’re gonna win the ring !!” (after the first 3 wins) to “We suck, let’s rebuild !!!!” (after these last 2 losses).

Webber is playing bad. Really bad. Maybe the worst basketball of his glorious career. Few minutes, very poor shooting percentages, no defense. Wanna know a funny stat? He shot six free throws in five games. That sucks, right? Yes, no doubt.