Worst streak at the worst moment

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The season high fifth straight loss, a 111-104 decision at Toronto, came in the worst moment for the Sixers (40-40, .500), now tied at the 6th spot with the surging Bulls.

Iguodala’s face is the picture of  Sixers’ feelings.

Chicago is 40-40 as well but coming off four consecutive wins and with a better schedule (@ Detroit, currently 8th at 39-41, and vs the same Raptors).

Almost Everything is going wrong in Sixerland as of late. The most worrying part, to me, is that it seems we can’t put together a total team effort.

Nearly any given night a couple of our key players look MIA, so that the good, even excellent performances of single guys are eventually wasted.

The game vs the (lousy) Raptors, that snapped a four game losing streak (…) was another good example of these struggles. 

We ended up with five players in double figure, which is apparently contradicting what I just wrote. Unfortunately what could be seen as  “balanced offense” is more a “lack of reliable options” in crunch time.

Raptors built a fourteen point lead at mid fourth quarter (102-88), Sixers fought back and cut it to four (104-100 with 2.50 to play) but Toronto (smartly and) repeatedly went to the line and secured the win by knocking down seven of eight free throws before the horn.

I think it wasn’t a coincidence that in the two most important possessions down the stretch, Sixers turned it over badly.

With the score at 104-100, Andre Miller had an unnecessary offensive foul on Calderon, while when we were trailing by five but with a chance to stay in the game (109-104, 40 seconds left), Iguodala forced a drive, Marion stole him the ball and was fouled.

It was Iguodala’s TENTH turnover of the game (!). He threw away the ball in many ways: a behind-the-back pass to…  the first row at the end of the first quarter was perhaps the worst (he immediately apologized, to be honest, realizing the mistake), but he had many bad ones.

Andre Miller grabbed an offensive rebound but missed the (uncontested) putback under the basket after two minutes. He basically never recovered, finishing with an awful 2/14. I think he took good shots, they simply weren’t falling. Layups, short jumpers, drives, even a three: no way.

As you might guess, with the two Andres having subpar performances, Sixers have troubles in facing any team. What made me nuts yesterday, is that the most damage was actually made by Patrick O’Bryant, Joey Graham, and Quincy Douby (!!), three stiffs that combined for 26 points on 11/15 off the bench.

Yes, Toronto went on that run in the fourth with Calderon, Bargnani AND Bosh on the bench !! CB4 checked back in with 7.36 to play, but Toronto was already up seven (93-86). Bosh did his part immediately, adding two nice field goals. 

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).

Sixers finally pull out a 48-min effort

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And the outcome was the final 115-106 W over the Raptors, a game that wasn’t close as the score might suggest (31-31. 500).

I am happy to keep this recap short: Sixers started to run away in the second quarter, progressively increasing their lead, that reached 20 points with 1.10 to play: 56-36.

Give credit to the Sixers because they continued to stay focused after the break, making five of their first six shots.

Toronto tried some (crappy) zone defence but Sixers never panicked, attacking it with patience and hitting basically all outside shots (finally !!), including a rare set up three by Andre Miller. Guido Andrea Bargnani had a three just before the buzzer to end the quarter 92-74.

Raptors cut the lead to nine points early in the fourth (99-90, 7.04) but Williams nicely fed Evans for a layup on the following play, Iguodala had a steal and knocked down a couple of free throws and Sixers completed the job, without scaring their fans. Good win.

Thaddeus Young will receive honours because he scored a career high 29 points, and he actually played great, scoring from everywhere, but I’m happy to praise two guys that IMO had an even bigger impact on the game, and that I ripped on this blog many times this season.

Sixers finally get a defensive stop, and it’s decisive.

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Boy, can we blow leads…

I seriously risked a heart attack looking at how Sixers progressively let a 22-point lead (27-49 in the 2nd) got cut to two (79-81 in the 4th, that became 97-99, then 99-101) without playing a lick of defence and allowing Knicks a barrage of three pointers and countless layups in the second half.

But when it came down to the decisive play, Thaddeus Young stepped up and blocked Duhon’s layup, securing Sixers’ 103-108 W over New York (29-28, .509), a game that completed the second season sweep in the last two games (Wizards 3-0, Knicks 4-0).

Few plays before that timely (in any sense) block, Young had airballed a wide open 17-footer with Sixers up four (99-103). But Harrington couldn’t knock down an open three in the following possession: that shot from the corner could have made it a one point game with exactly one minute to play.

So instead of the possible 102-103, two free throws by Andre Miller put us up by six with 41 seconds to play (99-105), setting the stage for Thad’s final swatting of Duhon. That’s how we made a pretty unbelievable comeback by the Knicks good only for some deserved praise, and not for a W.

Exclusive interview with Federico Buffa

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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.

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.

Fellow guido Di Leo starts with a W

It was only the Wizards, exactly.

Sixers’ new coach – and fellow guido – Tony Di Leo couldn’t have asked for a weaker opponent to (re)start his coaching career (?).

The 104-89 win vs Washington was the logic end of an emotional night (10-14, . 417).

The Wizards are simply a bad team right now, so you can’t seriously take any indication from the game.

Even great players like Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison were playing an uninspired basketball, just as if their season is already wasted (and it actually is).

Sixers simply did what they were supposed to do in such a situation, in the first night with a new coach: play hard, play as a team,  play spirited. More than enough to beat the current Wizards. Not sure it will be the same in the following games.

Getting ready for the Raps

I know the next game is vs Utah, but I did this interesting Q&A session with Dave from Raptors HQ and this is the result:

1) Toronto 4-2, Sixers 2-4. Which is the most surprising record? I admit I ranked the Sixers higher than Raptors in the offseason, and our slow start is pretty disappointing for me and all Sixers fans. Our first L, just with the Raps, was a sign of more troubles to come.

(Raptors HQ): I actually don’t think either record is surprising. The Sixers adding Brand changed everything about that team. It changed the pecking order, it changed the style of play and it changed expectations. For all the questions surrounding Toronto’s acquisition of JO I had more questions about the Brand signing. His injury was serious and that’s a ton of money to give a guy coming off season ending surgery.

It is going to take this team a while to develop its new identity. Anytime you have three solid players in Brand, Iggy and Miller yet the guy carrying the offense is a second year swingman you know things are not where they should be. It will take the Sixers some time.

For the Raps expectations are also high but the pecking order has not changed. Bosh is still the man, followed by Calderon and then O’Neal. The Raps have one glaring deficiency right now and that is perimeter defense. Their wings can’t stop anyone, it’s like the guys in front of Bosh and JO assume they will be bailed out on blow-byes. This is not the case and eiher the swingmen need to step up the D or Colangelo will be looking for some help. 4-2 is about right for this team as it has some elite level talent but also some glaring holes.

Florida 2, Sixers 0. Panic time already in Philly

Not here in Italy, though.

Yes, the trip to the Sun State was EXTREMELY disappointing, not much for the two losses but for how they came.

Still, there’s a long way to go before hitting the panic button. In Philly many fans already did it. Pretty predictable, anyway.

Here are my aggregate considerations after watching (replayed, again, and in both cases already knowing the final score) the 106-83 blowout vs Heat (2-3, .400) and the following 98-88 loss to Orlando (2-4, .333).

First off WE ALL NEED TO CALM OUR FIREY ASSES DOWN. Especially you, fans in Philly.

Yes, you are just as pissed off as I am but let’s try to be rational for a while.

This team is playing really bad. Main points:

1) the offense is a total mess. We are not running plays, not executing, not hitting open shots. Difficult to win games in these conditions.

We got a 20 PPG low post scorer this summer, after a desperate research for a big man who could put points on the board, and we are not using him properly. Brand is rarely fed when and where he likes to get the ball, and when he has it, he is double teamed. Shocking, uh?

Well, we got him just with that purpose, drawing attention from defenses ! True. Too bad he doesn’t have a shooter to give the ball back to to, and when he does it, the final outcome is often a brick from the perimeter.

Sixers don’t take care of business, basketball

I don’t know what pissed me off more, the 84-95 home loss vs Toronto (0-1, .000) in the opener or the fact that I watched the whole game with a bad connection, with low resolution and annoying buffering all the night.

In less than 5 hours I passed from being the happiest man on Earth, after realizing that for the first time in history the NBA allowed us poor europeans to buy League Pass (and for a ridiculous 67 euros, I would have EASILY paid up to 670 after such a long wait…), to almost throwing my computer out of the window.

And Sixers had few to do with that.

Ok, not that it was a good game to watch, but having League Pass signs a turnaround point in my life of Sixers/NBA junkie: enough of surfing chinese/taiwanese/pakistanian sites TRYING to catch the games on unlikely p2p streamings, I’ve got the official-unlimited-no blackout-suppacool package !!!

The speed of my Internet service provider is the fastest a man can have, but something needs to be fixed, evidently, to make things work in the best way. Just like for the Sixers, I mean.

Anyway, to put an end to this rant, here are my notes about the game.