So it’s #12. Let’s have fun, then

I really enjoyed following the lottery live yesterday night, chatting with my friend Sixerguy on Yahoo messenger. It was pretty fun, first the long awaiting, between endless commercials and stupid interviews, then the quick conclusion.

At the end of the day we will pick at 12th, not exactly surprising, since we had like the 93% of possibilities to end up there…

So what are my feelings? First one is the “I knew it” phase, the typical italian-smart-ass-attitude, well backed up by mathematical possibilities this time.

Second came the “Holy shit” phase, since I realized that Seattle got the #2 overall pick (= Kevin Durant) after losing only 4 games more than Sixers.

Here I went back to the “I knew it” phase, because I wrote several times that with a SMART – not dirty – tanking we could have had more ping pong balls, and this without losing our dignity *** COUGH *** unlike Boston… ** COUGH ***.

I mean, it wasn’t that difficult to lose another 4-5 games at the end of the regular season, but Mo Cheeks & co thought the opposite, so we’re stuck at #12. Whatever.

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.

It’s over at 35-47 (.427)

Yeah I know it’s too late for writing a post about the end of the eason, when it came like 8 days ago. But sometimes I also have to work, and unfortunately that moment came at the wrong time… so here we are with a recap of this crazy 2006-2007  (the first italian Sixers blog started on November 1st, day of the opener, remember?)….

First it would be fair to admit that that my 43 wins prediction was way off.  I could say that the prediction was made for the team with Iverson and Webber, but I would sound even dumber than I am since our final record after the Iverson trade is 30-29, and after Webber’s buyout is even better, 26-21. Yeah, we were 5-18 when we traded our franchise player (the embarassing 121-94 loss @ Bulls on December 7th was his last game as a Sixer) and 9-26 before getting rid of the Detroit native. Uh !

Dumber & dumber & dumber & dumber…

This is getting ridiculous… even my boy Kyle Korver, the smartest player on the team, did his best but it wasn’t enough… what else can you say when the best free throw shooter in the League, a 92% shooter, goes 0-2 from the line with 2.3 seconds to play, up two? Well, it wasn’t enough… TO LOSE THE GAME, I mean

So instead of smartly tanking, we are setting a new world record: most useless wins in a season. The last one was a 92-90 game @ NY, that lifts us at a 30-44 record (.405). We are 25-26 after the Iverson trade, and we will rise more before the end of the season: just checked the schedule and it looks pretty easy. Or ugly, depending from your standpoint. Eight games to play, five at home, with one of the three on the road being at Boston.

We won’t make the playoffs, we won’t have a top pick either. Can it get any worse that this? You know we hate the “Negadelphia attitude”, but in this case pessimistic guys are right.

I expect the Sixers to pass another two-three teams in these last games (Sacramento, Minnesota, New York, maybe even Indiana) and end with the 9th-10th worst record, instead of the 4th-5th like it could, and should, have been. F’k.

Two nice streaks…

The first of course is the Sixers streak: six wins in a row, capping a perfect homestand. Sacramento, Phoenix, Memphis, New Jersey, Seattle and yesterday night’s 108-92 win against the L.A. Lakers, that made us rise at a 24-38 record (.387) and 19-20 overall after the Iverson trade.

The second one is in the “Who cares” category for you but very important for me, because it’s the first time I have the opportunity to watch so many consecutive Sixers games. Six in a row, right. Either with the fantastic p2p programs (TVU player, Sopcast, PPmate etc) that broadcast NBA games live or through the URLs of the games that my friend Matteo (aka marco.materazzi.23) kindly posts in a guidos basketball forum every single day. So thanks to his tips I became a sort of an addict, going to sleep at 4 am to watch our boys live or wasting sunny italian sundays to stay home and watch the taped games…

Yesterday night I really enjoyed (live, of course) the Lakers butts kicking, it’s like I was in the middle of that first sellout crowd of the year. It was a pleasure to watch the next All Star Andre Iguodala completely destroying the Fakers, connecting from downtown while being fouled by Kobe Bryant (yesssssss !!!), or seeing Andre Miller taking to school the entire, sad golden-and-purple backcourt to end with 23 points + 8 assists. Damn I like this guy more and more, I knew he’s a keeper !!

If I wasn’t a proud Korver groupie I would forget to mention that he and Sam Dalembert were very effective too. But other strange things happened in this streak, in random order I would like to remind:

Great, we still suck !!

Yes, be sure of that.

I wanted to write a new post after the win vs NY, that I watched live (=for guidos this means going to to bed at 4 A.M.), but instead I decided to wait some days. Well, it worked because that good game was immediately followed by two terrific (?) losses on the road to some of the worst teams in the League, meaning Charlotte and Milwaukee. Now our 18-38 record (.321) is still the third worst in the NBA, behind only Memphis (15-42, .263) and of course the Boston Tankers (13-42, .236). 

For whoever thought that we were becoming a good team, we have some breaking, good, sweet news: we still suck, guys. Sixers lost five of the last six and are 13-20 after the Iverson trade, in the worst conference of all times…

So don’t worry, we will have tons of ping pong balls at the lottery for sure, and Maurice Cheeks is still our coach. Or, if you prefer, Maurice Cheeks is still our coach, SO we will have tons of ping pong balls at the lottery.

“With the Sixers’ luck…”

We won four of the last six games, including yesterday’s 89-78 win at Oklahoma City vs Hornets, for a 15-32 (.319) record, “only” third worst overall, and we keep hearing this BS on the Sixers board.

Negadelphians always complain, and the current reasoning more or less is this: “if we win too many games, we’ll have less chances to get Oden , Durant, Noah” etc at the lottery. It’s mathematics, I know.

But it’s the comment I put on the title that irks me the most. People say that Sixers had no luck in the lottery, so next one will be the same, we’ll get the #15 pick etc etc.

Well, I made a little research, take a look at this: