Sixers 18 – Opponents 108

That -90 (!!) is  the updated stat of the points scored on three pointers in the last four games, after the traditional butt whipping in Utah, this time 112-95, (12-18, .400).

If you want more details, Sixers are 6/40 from behind the arc in those games (that counts for 15% !!), while allowed opponents to shoot 36/79, which means a whopping 45.5%.

Indiana shot 6/16 vs us, Boston 7/14, Denver 15/31, Utah 8/18, while we went respectively 0/8, 0/11, 5/12 and finally 1/9 last night, when the only three pointer was knocked down by Young in garbage time, just two minutes before the end.

One would say: “Nothing new here, sorry”. Partially true. While we all know that we are an awful three point shooting team (still dead last in NBA with our 29.5%), the trend on the defensive end is becoming worrying.

Actually we are in the mid of the pack as for three point % allowed (16th with 35.5%), but at this rate we will fastly climb the rankings: currently New Jersey leads this not-too-glorious list with 41.5%, followed by Sacramento (41.3%) and Golden State (40.1%). We have to stop the bleeding asap.

So, getting back to the Utah game, did we lose it because of three pointers? Well, not because of that, or not only because of that. We lost because Utah is a better team, even without forwards Millsap and Boozer (Okur was back, and hurt us a lot with his inside/outside offensive skills).

Few things about tonight’s Jazz

Sixers meet the Jazz tonight (btw check SLC dunk), and apparently Utah will be again without Okur, Boozer AND Millsap, meaning the three top scorers.

Nothing to be happy for, anyway, because yesterday I’ve watched their 120-115 double OT loss to the Houston Rockets and they are the same tough team that traditionally loves to destroy us, and that won 17 of the last 19 matchups at Salt Lake City.

Few observations after that exciting game, that I enjoyed from tip off to the final horn.

The Jazz are still a very deep team, that will use nine men to keep the intensity high and play hard nosed basketball for 48 minutes – and even more if necessary.

Just as you would expect from a team coached by Jerry Sloan, they never give up, reguardless of what the scoreboard tells. Rockets had a 16 point lead and were up basically the whole game, but had Brewer made both free throws with 8 seconds left in the first OT, they would have probably lost the game.

If you laughed this summer hearing the names Kosta Koufos and Kyrylo Fesenko as part of their roster, you better stop it immediately, because these two guys can ball.

Apart from Fesenko’s terribly ukrainian looking-face, and his awful shooting form (a couple of memorable bricks from the line), he’s more than a big body to throw out there. He’s athletic, can run, jump, dunk, block shots, BOARD. He played some stretches of outstanding defense vs Yao Ming who, as you might know, is NOT Sam Dalembert.

The wrong Bell rang

Not the Liberty Bell, but Charlie.

Bucks guard had 21 points with 4 triples and a nice game off the bench to lead Milwaukee to a 87-83 win last night in your empty-as-usual Wachovia Center (14-21, .400).

It was an ugly show and a display of overall poor basketball between two sorry ass teams that at the end become Sixers fourth straight loss, and Bucks third consecutive win on the road. I honestly can’t blame who decided to stay home this time.

Philly fans realized it was going to be another long night two seconds after the tip off (…), when Reggie Evans blew a layup. A 2-12 break followed, with Sixers shooting 1/6 and Bucks 5/6. So much for the “get off to a quick start” theory. Sam Dalembert with three low post moves (!!!) helped us getting back in the game and Sixers tied it at 16, but then came three empty possessions to take a possible lead.

Sixers missed their last 7 shots of the quarter (8/25 at the end, 32%…) and Milwaukee had a 8-0 run to close it with your usual buzzer beater, this time by Bell: 17-26 with Mo Williams pacing the scorers with 9 points on 4/4. Sixers 5 turnovers gave them a lot of help, no doubt.

Swept & ripped

It was more or less like the picture shows, and for 48 minutes.

I guess it would have been better to get drunk with friends or something rather that going to bed at 7 AM to watch live the embarassing 124-93 loss to the Lakers that puts us at a 14-19 record (.424).

The Odom and Radmanovic-less Lakers completed a season sweep of the Sixers basically with no fatigue, while we looked tired and lost, and I’m being nice. The good thing is that I will put the same (few) effort in recapping the game, since it was a “no contest” after few minutes from the tip off.

As usual, I won’t repeat the things that you can get by yourself checking the boxscore or the play-by-play report, but focus on other aspects that you will likely not find elsewhere and that I noticed. Here is a short list: 

1) Kobe didn’t score a single point in the second period, when Lakers won the game, and didn’t even take a shot, despite playing 6 minutes. Terrific defense by the Sixers? No, the fact is L.A. didn’t need him to score, because his team mates were already destroying us. Crittenton had 8 in the quarter and netted a career high 19.

Old buddy serves Sixers a loss in Utah

Well, to be precise he actually sealed it, but anyway… we lost.

Sixers4guidos favorite Kyle Korver hit 5 of his 6 free throws in the final 27 seconds of the game to secure a 110-107 Utah win (14-18, .438, 2-2 on our 6 games road trip).

Before that, it was Deron Williams & Carlos Boozer combining for key plays down the stretch to prevent what could have been a spectacular comeback by the Sixers. Trailing by ten points with 4 minutes left (91-101, Deron Williams 1-vs-0 fastbreak lay up after a bad turnover by Andre Miller), Andre Iguodala led the Sixers to a 8-0 run that trimmed the gap to two with 1.31 remaining: 99-101, 2/2 by Miller from the line. 

But Deron Williams run consecutive pick & rolls for two long jumpers by Boozer that basically made the game out of reach for Philly. Between those two shots, Lou Williams scored on a drive, and after the second basket by the Jazz forward Dalembert had a putback, every time to put the Sixers within two, but it was useless. Korver did the rest from the line.

That’s how the game ended and how Utah won despite

A hectic end of 2007

You can’t take some days off for a little vacation around New year’s day, because that’s what happens… In chronological order: 

1) taking advantage of Ricky’s absence, Sixers traded Kyle Korver (in the picture) for Gordan Giricek and a first round pick

2) Sixers lost at Portland 72-97 (13-17, .433) “thanks” to a memorable fourth quarter collapse

3) Sixers won at Seattle 98-90 (14-17, .452) after a far-from-memorable game

After having spent the whole New Year’s evening reading all the news and watching the two games, I have to say the level of interest of those three facts is just reverse:

3) The Seattle game was simply bad. To me it showed few things, that I want to  mention very quickly.

* we have to work on our killer instict. We let a Sonics team without Durant, Wilcox and Ridnour (!!! and they weren’t good even with them…) stay in the game too long. Seattle cut the deficit to three twice in the fourth, (86-83 and 89-86) both on jumpers by Delonte West, and the same West misfired on an open three that could have made it a two point game with 2.16 to play… we should have closed it earlier and with a larger margin… to sum it up, there were all the conditions for a blow out, basically. 

Trip West starts well

Yeah, I know the Kings were Bibby/Martin/Artest-less.

Still coming out of the Arco Arena with a 92-80 win (13-16, .448) is a nice accomplishment for our beloved Sixers on their first matchup of a 6 games trip West. And it was definitely worth staying up until 6.30 AM to watch them live again.

I am out for vacation and I don’t have a fast connection so I’ll keep this pretty short.

It was an ugly game with few flashes: in the first Udrih shot 6/6 on a variety of layups, threes and drives: Sixers were not protecting ther paint but stayed closed mainly thanks to Dalembert who had 10 on 4/5: Iguodala with a shot at the buzzer gave us our first lead at 25-26.

In the second our bench made the difference for us: Korver, Smith and Young all started with 2/2 from the field and played finally some tough defense, with many steals, deflections, forced turonovers and hustle plays. It paid off immediately and we could build a 10 point lead (31-41) that later become larger (36-47). But Brad Miller scored 5 points in a 10-3 Kings run that made Sacramento close the half down four, 46-50.

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.

Christmas comes at the buzzer

Andre Iguodala did his best Santa Klaus impersonation and sank the Grizzlies with a tough fallaway shot at the buzzer over Mike Miller, giving Sixers a 99-97 win in Memphis and all fans a happy Christmas (11-16, .407).

Iguodala’s last second 18 footer (in the picture !) capped a fantastic fourth quarter, in which he shot 7/9 from the field and scored 17 points, after going 2/12 with 6 points in the previous three.

That’s exactly what a franchise player is supposed to do. I wrote this several times and I am happy to see him playing like this. The point is he can do it almost on a daily basis, but he rarely does (did?). Let’s hope that the first buzzer beater of his NBA career becomes a turning point of his, and Sixers’, season.

The sweet end of the game – and the red uniforms – could make us forget all the things that happened before, good and bad ones, but I think it’s fair to remind them all.

Kobe apparently well “supported”

At least judging from last night’s 106-101 Lakers win at the Wachovia center (10-16, .385).

Sixers lost the first game to the Lakers since 2000, breaking a 7 home games winning streak, and despite keeping Bryant to a very quiet 19 points with 30% FG, including 0/5 in the fourth.

It was the so called “supporting cast” (Bynum, Odom, Fisher) to carry Los Angeles to its 16 win of the year in the second night of a back-to-back. That made me optimistic about the end of this game: I was thinking that Lakers could be a little bit tired, also because their loss at Cleveland of the day before was a tough, close one.

I was thinking that the good recent aforementioned tradition, the atmopshere of a finally crowded arena, the fact that usually Iguodala steps up against Kobe could give us a win.

I was even mopre optimistic when I found out that we were wearing retro uniforms again (yeah !! in the picture, Andre Miller, my MVP) and that Doctor J was attending the game: he even gave a speech before the tip off, stating that “Twenty five years is much too long, let’s get it done !” after receiving an ovation from the fans. Well, it was all useless. Anyway. Here is my recap.