Few Sixers show up in loss to Bobcats

I’m out on a four day business trip and I completely missed the 96-88 W over the T’Wolves (37-33). Two things I noticed about that game.

First, Minnesota started Kevin Ollie (!!), Bobby Brown, Brian Cardinal, Rodney Carney and Craig Smith: that has to be the worst starting lineup in the history of the League.

Second, former Sixer bum player Carney went 7/8 from behind the arc, but Sixers, led by Thaddeus Young (29) and with only two other plyers in double figure, won the game, playing basically just one quarter (the third) and holding off Minnesota down the stretch.

I did watch the 95-100 home loss to the Bobcats, though (37-34, .521).

Not an enjoyable show, to be honest. Talking about a 33-50 half time score, that included Sixers’ 36% FG pctg (13/36) vs Charlotte’s 51% (19/37), with a -15 difference in rebounding (12-27). The first two quarters included multiple three seconds violations, tons of second chance opportunities allowed, limited circulation of the ball, no movement offensively.

You think that after such a poor effort, Sixers would have come pretty spirited after the break.

Instead, on their first offensive possession, Bobcats found Okafor under the rim for an easy dunk, extending the lead to nineteen (33-52), their largest. Sixers gave few sign of life, and Charlotte remained always in control, thanks to great circulation (they played even too unselfish bball, passing up on many open shots) closing the period at 60-73.

Sixers finally woke up in the fourth, sparked by Thaddeus Young and mainly Lou Williams, who scored 12 of his 14 points in the quarter, but the best they could do was cutting the lead to two (92-94 with 1.20 left). Nevermind, Okafor from the high post found Diaw for an easy layup (92-94), Miller missed a shot and Bell secured the game from the line (92-96).

Clippers wish us a happy new year

First off happy 2009 to all Sixers fans and loyal Sixers4guidos readers worldwide !!

Despite our beloved team’s recent struggles, the first italian Sixers blog is having a good success and saw a significant traffic increase in 2008, to the point that I’m thinking about upgrading it.

It will take a while (months rather than weeks) but it’s something I will definitely do in this new year, together with “technical” partners that I will have to find. So stay tuned and you’ll hopefully get better services and features in the upcoming future. 

Back to the Sixers, I couldn’t catch the 92-100 victory over the LA Clippers because it wasn’t broadcasted in Italy on League Pass. So, like always in these cases, let’s rely on sure facts, such as the standings (13-18, .419), the boxscore, the play-by-play page and the highlights I watched.

It was a close game for 48 minutes (highest lead for both teams was eight points), but the good thing is that Sixers finished it strong, outscoring the Clippers 14-6 in the final 3.30 minutes, after Thornton tied it at 86 with a couple of foul shots.

The decisive basket was a fantastic alley oop dunk by Thaddeus Young off a pass from behind midcourt by Andre Miller: it was 86-92 and Clippers didn’t recover after that. Ratliff (very good contribution off the bench) blocked a shot by Thornton that could have pulled LA within three, the Clipper forward got a tech and Iguodala finally put the game on ice.

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.

Donyell Marshall at Amundson’s spot

Yeah, that’s right: the end of the bench.

Phil Jasner is informing us that the 35 y/o forward will join the Sixers for the veteran minimum of 1.2 million.

Marshall should be known to every Sixers fan because of a memorable game of March 2005 in which he dropped TWELVE THREES on our team, then coached by Jim O’ Brien, to tie a NBA record and lead the Raptors to a 128-110 win. Enjoy our tough defense that night (click here if the video below doesn’t work):

Of course the current Donyell Marshall is far from being that effective (not to mention he won’t find similar horrid defenses…) but I think this is a good move. We didn’t have any real SF to back up Thaddeus Young (a solution there would have been switching Iguodala at the three, with Rush, Green or Williams at the two): Marshall can smoke weed hit a three, has playoffs experience and after all will barely play.

In such a young team some good veterans will have to play a role of teaching the game to their team mates, being a presence in the locker room and in practice, and being ready when there will be need.

Right now Sixer’s roster is set like this:

PG: Andre Miller/Louis Williams/Royal Ivey

SG: Andre Iguodala/Kareem Rush/Willie Green

SF: Thaddeus Young/Donyell Marshall

PF: Elton Brand/Reggie Evans, Marreese Speights

C: Sam Dalembert/Theo Ratliff + Jason Smith

That is a total of 14 players under contract: Jason Smith is out indefinitely so it’s more like 13 guys. Only twelve can dress up for a game, and this could mean that Cheeks will have to keep one of the aforementioned out. I think at the beginning of the season it could be Ivey or Speights to wear a suit instead of the Sixers uniform.

I am not worried at all for this, and if you think that last year we had Kevin Ollie, Calvin “His uglyness”  Booth and Louis Amundson in the spots now covered by Ivey, Theo and Marshall, you should realize how big of an improvement Sixers made also at the end of the bench.

Welcome Donyell, let’s see how many threes you can hit playing FOR the Sixers !

Sixers wind blowing (Pistons 1, Sixers 2)

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

I don’t know if there are Reggie Evans groupies yet. If not, time to create a group of them.

Evans, a reborn Dalembert and Andre Miller were – in this order, to me – our key players in the 95-75 unexpected thrashing of the Pistons in game 3.

This means few things:

1) my 4-1 Pistons prediction is already off the mark (and I love it, of course…)

2) young Sixers are psychologically more solid and mature than we all thought, bouncing back from the blow out of game 2 and answering it with another blow out. This against a veteran team that was supposed to regain the lead of the series, also mentally I mean, after the “distraction” of game 1. It didn’t happen, I see.

3) Pistons might still win the series, of course, but after these three games they are actually closer to a memorable collapse than to a “routine” advancement to the second round. Some signs (looks, faces, body language etc) should worry a lil bit their hot fans.

Bitter end for a fantastic Sixers season

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

REGULAR season, I mean.

It ended with the 115-109 loss in Charlotte, the fourth straight, that kept us under .500 (40-42, .488).

Big deal? No, it was a fantastic run, and this young, exciting, athletic Sixers team probably overachieved, thanks mainly to the wonderful job done by Maurice Cheeks, a guy I bashed on these pages many times. Time to apologize again.

Some of you would perhaps remember I predicted 31 wins, but hundreds of “colleagues” (in the category I put journalists, experts, bloggers, fans) were more around the 24-28 W range, with Sixers finishing from last to second last in the Eastern Conference.

So I won’t complain about these final four games, even if I would have preferred to take at least this last one, in order to avoid finishing with a losing record and to build some momentum before the playoffs (starting on Sunday at Detroit).

Cheeks rested most of his starters last night, with only Iguodala logging his usual minutes. Sixers were down 23 in the third (76-53, after a three pointer by Jason Richardson) but rallied back and closed the quarter 87-80 thanks to a 12-2 run with five consecutive points by an active Thaddeus Young and an alley oop dunk by Willie Green (season high 27 – in the picture, getting a rare S4G front page honour ) right at the buzzer.

Suns school of basketball

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

Lesson #1: how to close a game in the first quarter.

Teachers: Steve Nash, Amare Stoudamire, Raja Bell & the rest of the Phoenix Suns. 

Students: all Sixers.

Development: jump off to a quick start using a combination of drives, layups, threes, three point plays.

Let the students crash the rim with their first 13 shots, turn the ball over, get blocked by your big men. Conclude with a basket at the quarter buzzer.

Outcome: 19-38 Suns lead.

After that, extend the lead and/or control the game at will. As soon as the students come closer (-10, say), make sure to get a couple of plays to push them away again: three pointers or “and one” plays will be preferable.

Final outcome: 93-107 Suns win.

Let the students (37-36, .507) think about the lesson and do their homework.

Magically ripped

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

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.

Showed balls, beat Bulls

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

When Reggie Evans shoots 6/6 from the line, everything is possible.

Heart, balls, an unbelievable streak of free throws (+ a serious help from our opponent) gave Sixers an exciting 106-110 comeback win in Chicago (32-34, .484).

Down eighteen at the beginning of the fourth (88-70) the game seemed over.

This also because Bulls led it with pretty safe double digit margin for more than 36 minutes: it was + 17 in the second (54-37, capping a 11-0 run), + 18 in the third (70-52).

Deng and Sefolosha were killing us with jumpers and drives, while Sixers looked really bad: poor circulation, no defense, no fastbreak/transition points, and – of course – no outside shooting.