Weighing Sixers’ playoffs “experience”

Making this quick before leaving for the weekend (maybe I’ll be able to update the post later, with all the sums etc).

Ok, it’s a given that this is a pretty young team, with some veteran presence only in the back up department.

So I tried to check our players’ playoffs experience, making a small research through the years.

My source has mainly been Basketball reference and here is what I found.

In order:

SPEIGHTS, IVEY: 0 playoffs games played.

Barely a surprise: the first is a rookie, the second sucks (LOL) and has always played for bad teams (feel free to add the Sixers to this category).

YOUNG, WILLIAMS: 6 playoffs game played (2-4 record)

They were members of 2007/2008 Sixers, that were eliminated by Pistons, 2-4.

IGUODALA, DALEMBERT, GREEN: 11 playoffs games played (3-8 record).

They were members of two Sixers teams that made it to the postseason, in 2004/2005 with Jim O’Brien, and in 2007/2008 with Maurice Cheeks. Sixers lost to Pistons in both occasions, 1-4 in 2004 and 2-4 in 2008.

MILLER: 21 playoffs games played (5-16 record)

Here is the recap of his career in the postseason:

• 2004 (Denver Nuggets), lost 1-4 in the first round to Minnesota
• 2005 (Denver Nuggets), lost 1-4 in the first round to Spurs
• 2006 (Denver Nuggets), lost 1-4 in the first round to the LA Clippers (LOL)
• 2008 (Philadelphia Sixers), lost 2-4 in the first round to the Pistons

(uhm, I think I gave some strong arguments to his critics, LOL)

-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.

Nine Pacers were enough…

… to win a crazy basketball game, that Sixers SHOULD have not only won, but also blown out.

Instead, it was a 94-95 loss vs Indiana (12-15, .444), the first for Sixers’ interim coach guido Tony Di Leo.

So let’s see. Pacers were missing three of their four best scorers (Granger, Murphy, Daniels + Dunleavy jr.), had only nine players in uniform (!) and, like us, were playing in the second night of  a back-to-back. Add that the first of those nights was a double OT loss to the Clippers (!!!).

So after we jumped to that early fifteen point lead at the beginning of the second (31-16, 35-20), playing some good and even fun basketball, I admit I thought that it was going to be a pretty easy game.

But we didn’t close it the way we could, and should have done. In fact, an extended draught immediately followed, and Indiana cut the deficit to four at halftime (48-44).

The game remained close until the end, thanks to our usual ineptitude from the perimeter (a less than pathetic 0/8 from three point land + another five/six long jumpers missed, some wide open) and to a discouraging amount of fumbles, bad passes, missed putbacks, shots getting blocked in the paint or, in many cases, just under the rim.

Josh Mc Roberts – horrible, by the way – set career highs in all categories I think, with his four rejections being a peak we should be ashamed of.

So the game came down to the last two possessions, and TJ Ford beated Iguodala off the dribble, creating enough space to knock down, guess what, a long jumper (in the pic), while Andre couldn’t convert a tough left handed drive as time expired. Good night Sixers.

Three wins and counting

Sixers simply took care of business last night and beat Oklahoma City 110-85, just the way they were supposed to (5-5, .500).

No offense, but the Thunder are just a bad basketball team right now, soft, unorganized, with too many weaknesses: playmaking, outside shooting, chemistry, lack of low post threats. When Swift, Collison and Petro are your frontcourt, you’ve gonna have many nights like this in the NBA, unfortunately.

Also, I wasn’t that impressed by Kevin Durant, who looked like a taller “Big Dog” Robinson last night, a shooter with a nice touch (even if the 6/18 would tell us the opposite) but with limited impact on his team. The new franchise will need at least two more very good players only in order to become decent.

That’s why you can’t get many serious indications from last night’s win. The good things were:

In Indy from -26 to a turning point

You had already given up after that 38-13 FIRST QUARTER. Just admit it.

That’s how you probably missed the final 92-94 W in Indiana (4-5, 0.444), a game that could be a small turning point in Sixers’ so far troubled season.

Well, I can’t entirely blame you this time, because the first period of last night was one of the sadest display of basketball I’ve ever experienced. 

The pitiful “show” included: a wide open three allowed to Granger just after the tip off, 0/7 from the floor to start the game and contribute building a 22-2 Pacers lead (!), three turnovers by your starting PG, that once “forgot” to take a dribble after getting the ball….

More: your center that can’t inbound the ball after a basket by Indiana and steps onto the court (I almost threw up), less-than-pathetic defense with Pacers happily scoring on layups and open jumpers. The end of the period was memorable as well: an idiotic offensive foul just before the buzzer sounded.

By the numbers: on Sixers’ side 5/21 from the field, 3/7 from the line and 7 turnovers. On the other, 17/29, 4/8 from behind the arc, 12 assists. A lot of Sixers fans went to bed or switched channel, I guess.

The comeback was built in the SECOND QUARTER mainly by three guys: Royal Ivey (yes, sir), Reggie Evans, THADDEUS YOUNG. Yes, the second year forward will (deservely) get more credit because he almost singlehandedly carried the team on offense (12 points in the period, including a spectacular two handed jam off an offensive rebound), but Ivey and Evans made some hustle plays on both ends of the floor (Evans had a putback DUNK as well, go figure…) and provided that psychological spark that the team was needing. That’s how it was still an open game at the break (57-49).

Last second loss heads us to Detroit

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

I’m finally back after a 11 day absence due to a business trip. And I finally managed to see a whole Sixers game again: the last one before I left, was the win vs Nets.

Right now you’d already wacthed and read everything about the 90-91 home loss to the Cavs (40-41, .494) and the way it come.

In case you didn’t, David Aldridge has the best recap, as usual. Point is, we lost the game, will finish at the seventh place and meet Detroit in the first round.

I’ll just add my two cents. Unlike many Sixers fans, I think the call on Dalembert was correct. He fouled Devin Brown – in the pic, sealing the victory – and before the buzzer. So no “robbery”, no “steal”, no “scandal”, in my opinion. It was a foul, coming after a great play, the block on LeBron James. (EDIT: after reviewing it for the 157th time I finally realized Ilgauskas pushed Sam towards Brown… that foul should have been called as well).

No big deal though. Sixers played a heck of a game, a playoffs game and I really enjoyed it. If it could end 0.2 seconds before, it would have been nicer. Whatever.

I’ll try to remind the good things:

Fans’ whines

We all know that it’s very easy for a fan to say: “my team’s management sucks”.

Complaining about poor management is a must for the average sport fan. It’s actually so easy, that we want to repeat it loudly: “Sixers management REALLY sucks”.

We consider Billy King, Sixers’ general manager, the main responsible for the (bad) situation we are in. Bad trades, even worse free agent signings, insane deals given to players that were already in our roster, weak decisions about coach(es), poor international scouting (assuming we have it, which we are starting to doubt): that’s only a short summary of all the mistakes we consider King to blame for.

As a result, we missed the playoffs in two of the last three seasons, in the same stretch we had four coaches, we are currently capped out for the next two years, with a payroll that is ranked as the 3^rd highest in the league, just under the Knicks’ and Dallas’.