Guys, I need some help here. I had a championship basketball game last night at 8 p.m. in my winter bball league. Meaning I missed the entire first half and 3 minutes into the third quarter.
What the hell happened?
When I finally got in front of a TV, the score was 58-38 with about 9 minutes and some change left in the 3rd. Luckily we won our championship game so I wasn’t as pissed as I would have been looking at the final score of 105-88. I can’t exactly do a real game recap and analysis without watching the entire game, but looking at the boxscore, highlights and going through the play-by-play here are some thoughts:
The Sixers needed to win some key battles that they clearly didn’t last night.
- Rebounding - Overall they were out rebounded by 8. They did a great job on the offensive boards (19), but judging by the score and number of field goals (32) that didn’t equate to significant second chance points. My next thought is they grabbed all these tough offensive boards inside then got fouled. But they only shot 65.7% (23-35) from the line, so even if that were the case, they didn’t convert at a high rate. This could kill the Sixers. They got to the line 20 more times than the Pistons, yet they continue to leave free points on the table.
- Fast break points - 10-7 in my book is not an advantage especially when this area is more important for the Sixers than it is for the Pistons. 10 total fast break points for a team predicated on running simply won’t get it done against a motivated Detroit team playing tough half-court defense.
- Defensive intensity - How do you go from giving up 86 points in game one to 105 in game two? Holding Detroit to 39% from the field to 55% in game two? Sure, the Pistons probably executed better, but a 19-point difference and 16% increase in field goal defense screams a lack of effort on the Sixers part at that end of the floor. Only one guy who played 25+ minutes on Detroit shot less than 50% from the field. That is simply disgraceful.
Could someone please let Andre Iguodala know the playoffs have started? PLEASE. My god, man, 1-9 from the field, 4 points, 1 rebound and 4 assists in game two. Did he do anything in this game? 5-24 in the first two games combined. Way to pick the perfect time to hit a slump. Rather, remind everyone why you aren’t a number 1, or even half a max-deal player. I could go on and on about this dude. But I will wait until after the season when it’s really time to evaluate the team in the summer. But he said something on PTI yesterday that bothered me. They asked him if a part of him was surprised they beat Detroit in the first game. Iguodala’s first response was “Going into the game I believed we can win.” But then he wavered with a few comments about Detroit and said “It had a little bit of a surprised feeling.” I am probably overreacting, but that is a punk ass statement I would never want to hear from a player on a team I support. Let alone the so-called best player on the team. Here is the clip if you missed it:
Did Mo and the Sixers make any offensive adjustments for game two? Didn’t look like it to me. Same ol’ thing: give Andre Iguodala the ball and expect him to score one-on-one against Tayshaun Prince. That is not going to work. He isn’t good enough to win that battle consistently. Every shot I saw him take was contested by Prince’s long arms. The fact that the Sixers only had 10 turnovers but scored so poorly says the current offensive strategy isn’t working very well. And if it wasn’t for all the offensive boards we would have been beat by at least 30. I’d rather not rely on offensive rebounding and fast breaking alone in the playoffs. I’d like to feel more confident that guys can get good shots, and in my opinion, that will need to come through better strategy execution. Not one-on-one play.
Game 3 Adjustments
Mo must find a way for Iguodala to get matched up on Richard Hamilton more often. How? Set more guard-to-guard screens where the Pistons are more likely to just switch that screen rather than Prince fighting through it. Do that block-to-block so Iggy can get down in the post and get easier shot attempts over a smaller defender. Change the line-up. Put Iggy at the two and Thaddeus Young at the three. I wasn’t big on this at the beginning of the series, but now I think we have a better reason to do it. Now you force Flip to decide which guy Hamilton has to guard. I think Young can score on Rip in the post and may even draw a double team. Or Saunders would play the traditional defense of SG vs. SG and just match up Rip on Iggy - that is the match up we need.
What was the feel that you guys got from players? Did they look like they were just content with getting the split in Detroit and had already started thinking about getting back to Philly? That is something I definitely thought about and could see from an inexperienced team who has yet to develop a killer instinct in the playoffs.
The good thing: We still stole one in Detroit and now have the homecourt advantage. It will be up to Cheeks and our poor man’s #1 option to make sure we maintain that advantage. That worries me.
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14 comments ↓
Too much 1 on 1 play by the Sixers leading to forced shots that were out of the comfort range of the player shooting it. Thats what I saw.
They need to move the ball more, drive and kick, set screens for back door alley oops, etc. Lou was the only player attacking the basket effectively. Mo stuck with Green when it was clear he was having one of can’t-hit-a-shot games. And Igoudala is simply mismatched against Prince - that’s been a trend against them all year. All the more reason to put Igoudala at SG to draw Hamilton.
As for rebounds, they allowed way too many offensive rebounds to Detroit. Those are not just 2nd chances, but missed chances to run.
Morty, great point on missed chances to run by not controlling the defensive backboard. The Sixers have no chance in this series if they get outworked on the glass.
true, and also we can’t give them the advantage of two starters MIA…
Sam & Iggy are unbelievably uneffective, and even detrimental, they have to step up big time
I would like to see a more extended rotation, with Carney & Smith in earlier, and Iggy taking a seat sitting after the 5th brick, not the 8th…
anyway I want to stay with a positive attitude, being 1-1 after the two games in Det is a great success !!
Another thing that killed us in a pretty major way was Detroit’s screening. We absolutely SUCKED at fighting through screens tonight…and it’s a tribute to Detroit’s veteran savvy team that they moved so well without the ball. We have 0% chance of taking games against the Pistons if they keep getting wide open 15 footers in their midrange game, as those are basically layups for Sheed, McDysse and Rip.
I also think the general demeanor of our team was complete bullsh*t. I don’t mean to downplay the game one victory, that was an amazing win…but you can’t work that hard to take game 1 and then come out the next night with no energy, drive, and looking like scared little wuss puppies.
And as others have said…we should not be settling for outside jumpers. NO team should…but at least a G-State, Phoenix, Toronto or Washington can get away with hitting some of their threes. Our shooting in general sucks…yet we have some of the best slashers in the league. Why we settle for these contested jumpers instead of driving and kicking, or pick and roll drive situations, is beyond my comprehension.
Game 3 is real important for us. We can’t let Detroit ride this momentum and let them blow us out again. We need to scrap and fight them tooth and nail, none of this hesitant stagnant pussyfooting offense and scattered team defense.
I can’t see why Moe just don’t have Iggy come of the bench. It is obvious that he can’t handle Prince lets put him on a bench player. This is the playoff, big players, make big shots! why penalized the team because of Iggy poor play
kevin, I was thinking that too, Ginobilli does it, why can’t Iggy? I was thinking maybe Iggy’s just nervous for these playoff games early on, and that he needs some time to calm his nerves a bit. Using him off the bench is one way. The other way is to make scoring NOT one of his responsibilities in the first half, and have him contribute in other ways (cutter, spot-up shooter, primary ballhandler). I’d wait ’til the 2nd half to try and get him going - his poor starts were the main reason we fell behind so early in both games, and turning on him early is something I wouldn’t put past a Philly crowd. Let WG and Miller attempt most of the shots in the first quarter, especially Miller, who I’m pretty sure the Philly fans will NOT boo.
Kevin and Sixerzguy - you make very interesting proposals. Would never, ever happen with Mo as the coach, but I think it’s a pretty good idea especially at home since I do believe the crowd will turn on Iguodala after he starts the game 0-5. We already get fed up pretty quickly and this poor play is only making us think more about why he turned down $57M like he was a superstar. I don’t blame him for the lose but in the first two games he has been the worst player on the team. That just can’t happen anymore.
His time for poor play is up. He is home, in front of the most hostile crowd he will every play in front of. So if he was nervous in Detroit, he is probably crying in a corner right now thinking about what is to come tonight.
“probably crying in a corner right now thinking about what is to come tonight” lol… Is he listening to his ipod at the same time?
He’s listening to Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight.”
Dannie, I’d be happy to comment over here, but we’d have to get all the regulars over as well. The format at Deep Sixer is really off-putting.
For tonight’s game, improved play from Sammy and Igoudala is the key. Sammy has to be the monster on the boards he can be, and Igoudala has to be smarter and not force shots. The team as a whole needs to move the ball better than last game, there was way too much one on one play, and except for a couple players, we are a bad one on one team.
Dannie, I was just thinking - as a blogger, aren’t you allowed access to the players pre- and post-game, like one of the newspaper reporters? I remember reading something on TrueHoop about this, this could take your blog to a whole ‘nother level. I know you have a job and a life and everything, but I was wondering if you ever pursued this. I’ll try to find some info for you.
Dannie, here’s a link about how a Pacer blogger was given media credentials:
http://www.indycornrows.com/story/2008/3/18/214827/091
Morty, I have been trying to plug the blog and pull more of the regulars over at Deep Sixer over here. I don’t think they are ready yet. Still waiting to see if Marc and Philly.com will work out the kinks on the new site. I guess it depends on if they change anything or leave it as is.
Sixerzguy, Thanks for the link I will check it out. I have read a few things about bloggers getting media credentials and getting in the locker room. Some have done a good job while others have made a complete fool of themselves ruining it for the rest of us. I’d definitely like to interview some players and will work on that going forward.
Main focus with the blog now is writing good content and attracting more regular readers.
Now back to the Sixers - I am fired up about tonight’s game since I missed the first half on Wednesday. I really hope they come out and use the raucous crowds energy to jump all over the Pistons earlier on. We can’t continue with this trend of getting behind and coming back all the time, not a long-term winning formula. I hate the term “comeback kids” all it means is we play like crap early in a lot of games and then turn it on late. It’s the playoffs the Sixers need to make tonight the first time in this series they play a complete game.
sixerzguy - I contacted the Sixers about media passes for bloggers. See what comes of it.
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