OK, guys, I just got back from the Sixers game tonight, and I am still a little hot by the way they played in the second half. This game was the classic tale of two halves, and the 76ers picked the wrong one to show up for. Best way to describe this game is - missed opportunity. They had the Pistons by the balls, and tonight was the game they needed to squeeze the crap out of them. Instead they let a dangerous Detroit team right back into this series giving the home court advantage right back to the Pistons.
What’s so frustrating is how they can play a near-perfect half of basketball then never really come back out of the locker room after halftime. How did they take a 46-36 lead into the half? The defense was phenomenal. Everyone contested every single shot the Pistons took. They helped each other out when a teammate got beat, and the rotations were flawless. That defensive intensity held Detroit to only 36 first half points and 37.5% shooting. Unfortunately, the first half is all they decided to play.
Thoughts from the game
- I have never in my life heard and seen a crowd go as nuts as the Sixers fans did when Andre Iguodala hit his first jumper. That in of itself should tell you how bad he is playing right now.
- Reggie Evans came back to Earth and had his worst game of the series. In 19 minutes he had 2 points, 3 rebounds and 3 turnovers. What’s worst was his horrendous defense especially on the pick and pop. Evans looked like a chicken with his head cut off, literally running around in circles trying to find his man. He was completely lost, like he didn’t know his rotations, and that left Rasheed and McDyess wide open for easy jump shot after easy jump shot. And they nailed them. Sheed’s three’s were like daggers to the heart in the 3rd quarter.
- Jason Smith played great in limited action in the first half.
- The fans didn’t come back for the beginning of the second half which didn’t help the Sixers cause as the Pistons started out on fire.
- At first glance I thought the Sixers were horrible from the free throw line. But in actuality it was really just Andre Iguodala who sucked. Take his 4-9 out and the rest of the team shot 83% from the line. Take out Iguodala’s dismal 4-16 shooting the rest of the 76ers shot a whopping 53% from the field. Why his this dude still shooting? Why did he play 46 freakin’ minutes? Your guess is as good as mine.
- The Pistons came out in the second half and played their style of ball. Physical on defense and methodical on offense. Their traps on the pick and roll were suffocating and helped force 11 Sixers turnovers in the second half. On offense they went in to Sheed, ran Hamilton off 15 million screens (by the way, respect Rip Hamilton! He is easily the best off-the-ball offensive player in the NBA), and ran the pick and pop with Billups and Sheed to perfection.
- I have read a bunch of people ripping Samuel Dalembert. Why? He had 12 points, 12 boards shot 6-6 from the line and all on only 5 shot attempts! He didn’t get the open 15-footers because Detroit made the necessary adjustments. Like I said their traps were better and that allowed better rotation to the shooters. And it wasn’t Sammy that Sheed was scoring on; it was Evans. In the first half Sheed was only 2-6 with Dalembert on him much of that time. He was 0-2 in the fourth quarter with Sammy defending. It was the third quarter he went off, when Reggie was in the game.
- Key moment in the 4th quarter came when we were down 13 points and finally stopped Rip from scoring on great defense by Willie Green forcing an air ball. That started the break where Andre Iguodala bulled right into Hamilton, who actually got back after his air ball unlike Iggy did in the previous game. Took the charge and likely ended the Sixers comeback push.
- Finally, why the hell did Cheeks take Willie Green out of the game with 3:36 remaining after he had just broke down Rip for two straight layups? Answer: to put in a rookie (Rodney Carney) for a designed play to get a three. Bad coaching In my opinion. 1. Why go away from the guy that is semi-hot? 2. Why run a designed play for a rookie in a pressure sitation when Green could have served the same purpose? The result was Carney forcing up a horrible three-point attempt that nearly broke the backboard. That’s what happens when an inexperienced player is asked to to do too much. Instead of realizing he didn’t have the shot and deviate, he acted like a robot went through with it even though it clearly wasn’t there.
- After the aforementioned situation I saw Willie Green, who was visibly pissed he was taken out, cheering the team on in the huddle and patting guys on the head spurring them on to not give up. That was about all the leadership I could find in the game, and it came from the guy most Sixers fans despise.
Tracking Andre Iguodala
After the 76ers’ game 3 win I talked about Andre Iguodala’s offense. I don’t feel the need to repeat what I said already. Tonight he did nothing but further prove his inadequacies on offense.
Tayshaun Prince is 19-21 from the field in the last two games. Now as a basketball player the first thing I think when I see something like that is: “Who the hell is guarding that guy?” Answer: Andre Iguodala. So let’s talk about his defense real quick.
I will make another bold statement Sixers fans probably won’t like: Andre Iguodala is NOT one of the best defenders in the NBA. He is a decent defender at best, but nothing special by any means. And certainly not consistently good on the defensive end. I think people are still living in the past regarding his defense. When he first came in the league he was a very good defender with the potential to be great. Why? His role and his focus with the real AI on the team was to be a lock-down defender and help protect Iverson’s size disadvantage and gambling style of play. As his offensive responsibilities increased his defense has decreased in kind. He often takes plays off on defense (he definitely did tonight), and he doesn’t work very hard off the ball on defense at all. I think we can stop making excuses for Iguodala at this point. His man is having no problem scoring and playing shut-down defense on him at the same time. Simply put - Andre Iguodala is flat out getting exposed in all aspects of his game during this playoff series. And with that I bet he can see dollar signs quickly flying out of his next contract. As he should.
Unrelated to the team, let me just rant about the fans (if you can call them that) who sucked.
With the 76ers down 13 and just over 3 minutes remaining in the game half of the people (NOT FANS) began to leave the Wachovia Center. I was in complete shock when I saw this and since I was sitting in an end seat I started screaming at them “THERE ARE STILL 3 MINUTES LEFT” as they looked at me like I was the crazy one. Disgraceful. I was sitting in section 102 which is behind the Sixers’ bench, and I could see the players watching everyone filing out of the arena. As a player that is deflating and doesn’t make you look forward to coming home on Thursday when the home crowd blatantly gives up on you. We need to coin a new term for fans like that. Do you guys have any ideas?
I don’t know about you but I am already looking for tickets for game 6 on Thursday whether our team wins or loses on Tuesday in Detroit. I know what most people are doing. Waiting to see if they win in Detroit before they even consider buying tickets for game 6. Why? No faith, no belief and no confidence in the Sixers.
This is what happens when you only play 24 minutes of good basketball in the playoffs. I was amazed how fast our 10-point halftime lead disappeared in the blink of an eye. But let’s move on to the current situation. We are back to the beginning again. Now we have a 3-game series with Detroit holding the home court advantage. Steal one on the road again like they did in game one. (Note: I do not mean steal one from the almighty Detroit Pistons who are sooooo much better then our often called scrub Sixers.) Then come back Thursday and take care of business at home. The Sixers can beat them, but our guys need to put together full games and Cheeks has to make the necessary adjustments in order to do it.
Player of the Game: Thaddeus Young
18 comments ↓
Very disappointing effort in second half. How can Cheeks not be held accountable? Terrible rotations, and not using his players to best advantage.
For all your ranting about Iggy, why is he playing against a taller, longer player at the 3 spot? This is Cheeks again, Thad Young should be on Prince and vice-versa, and if the Pistons refuse to switch and guard Young with Hamilton, then you post him up every possession!
The lack of energy in the second half means that Cheeks did nothing at half-time to get them excited or focused enough to play. The start of the third quarter was the time to close Detroit out. The Sixers should have known that and been out for blood.
Now, we’re back to square one. We’re in a best of three and have to win one in Detroit. Nothing we haven’t done before.
Incidentally, win or lose, there is a game Six to be played in Phila. The question is, will the Sixers come back up 3-2 or down. If they come back up, then my prediction of a 6 game series win will come true.
Dannie, this is exactly why you need a media credential, I want SOMEONE asking hard questions about this game. Mo’s press conference was making me ill, how he’s still talking about our players “needing to learn.” The mistakes the Sixers made were correctable, and still are.
I wanna follow up on something from Deep Sixer - after getting torched by Tayshaun in Game 3, I was looking for a better defensive effort from Iggy, and I still am. What video was Iggy watching after Game 3? Did he even know Tayshaun toasted him? But I still have hope that Iggy can reach back and do something to help, and I think the easiest thing he could do to help is just reach down deep inside and pull out that rookie-year Iguodala and just lock down Tayshaun.
But that leads me to another worrisome issue: does Iggy still care about helping the team? Has he changed too much? Is his drive to be a max contract guy making him sacrifice team success for individual accolades? It sure seems that way.
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Dannie, one thing I disagree with - I didn’t mind that play for Rodney at all. He’s shown lately that he can hit the three in big spots. It was a high-risk/high-reward move, and if Carney hits that three it might have given us the momentum needed to turn the game around dramatically (but then Iggy would’ve done something boneheaded and squashed all that).
Rick - I agree with just about everything you said. Mo is not going a good job right now in the playoffs making adjustments. And putting guys in optimal situations to succeed.
The reason he is playing a taller, longer defender at the 3-spot is because Andre Iguodala’s skill set puts him as an undersized small forward. He isn’t a good enough ball handler or shooter to be a shooting guard. For all the hate on Willie Green he has played pretty well on offense in this series making some shots, picking up fouls on rip, not turning the ball over (1.5per). His only problem is at the line where he is 5-10. But I wouldn’t want to take him out of the starting line-up because we lose the only outside shooter we have pretty much.
Sixerzguy - Why do you think setting that play up for Carney is a better strategy then setting it up for Green who just scored two straight baskets?
If I am Detroit and I see Carney come in, a red light goes off that says “guys they are trying to get a three for him right now” because that is the only reason to bring him in the game at that point.
I don’t trust a rookie to make the right decision in that situation when the play doesn’t go as planned. Like it didn’t. And the likelihood of it not working out as planned was higher considering the way Detroit was defending at that time.
For those reasons I personally think it was a horrible decision.
Oh and I am completely with you regarding Mo. He hasn’t made playoff adjustments at all in this series. The games they won, were because the guys just played harder. The games they lost were because Detroit either matched our energy or the Sixers didn’t bring enough energy. In those losses he could have made some adjustments to counter that fact. He did not.
Oh and if Andre Iguodala showed up for this series it would be over by now.
That Rodney play didn’t lose the game, so won’t defend my stance too much, but Rodney doesn’t just shoot 3s, he’s also a good rebounder when he wants to be and Mo’s been using him against Rip. The real question is what was Detroit expecting? Green just made two straight buckets, was Detroit thinking Mo was gonna go to him again, or did they see Carney and think Mo was going for the three?
I agree that Carney should’ve realized it was a broken play and handed it off to whoever was our PG at the time. Still, that’s not what’s sticking in my craw, it was that darn 3rd quarter. I really wish I could watch it again to see exactly what the heck was going on, that was one of the fastest 20-point swings I’d ever seen, I don’t think even the Miami Heat would’ve let that happen.
3rd quarter - Sheed hit 3, three pointers and Billups and Prince hit one. 15 points in a heartbeat. All three were wide open. Pick and roll defense was as bad as it gets in that quarter. I couldn’t even figure out what the defensive strategy was. Normally you do 1 of 3 things against the pick and roll. You trap it, the big gives space and the guard goes under the screen or the big shows high until the guard gets over top of the screen. I couldn’t figure out what they were doing. All I saw was Sheed getting open for 3 after 3. And the rotation was nonexistent in the second half. Just a poor performance at a vital quarter in the game.
This is a very good article by John Smallwood on Andre Iguodala and the differences between how the real AI would handle poor playoff performances vs. our current AI is responding.
Ahh very disappointing game last night. I happened to be in attendance and the place was rockin’ in the first half. Then all of a sudden, a 20 point swing and before ya know it we are down 10 and the game had appeared to be out of reach. Nobody came out of the halftime locker room with a sense of urgency, which you absolutely need against a veteran team like Detroit.
We had our chance, and sorry to say, Detroit knows they have us right where they want too and I dont see much of a chance with it headed back to Motown.
The problem with Green in the 2nd half was that he was like catnip to Hmailton. Willie got a couple back on the other end, but came out far behind overall. Not to mention how many times Detroit gets Prince onto Green and Miller because of bad switching.
Morty - I agree the defense on Rip was not great by Willie lets remember Rip did shoot 7-22, nothing spectacular by any means. But being at the game at least Willie visibly was trying to fight through screens but credit Detroit who when they are on top of their game are the best screening team in the NBA IMO. When you combine that with Rip who I think is the best off the ball scorer in the NBA you have a perfect combination. It didn’t matter who was on Rip in the second half he was just hot, he hit some tough ones with a hand in his face along with the open ones. At least we got some back on the offensive end with Green who played well. Carney put up one great brick when they made that sub.
Just sucks that they lost that game in one freakin’ quarter. 34-16 after holding Detroit to 36 total in the first half. I was going crazy because they couldn’t stop the bleeding even after countless timeouts by Cheeks.
We’ve already agreed that not exploiting Hamilton on Yong was a big mistake. But, at the end of the day, they didn’t rebound and defend well enough to win. End of story.
Agreed. Wish I could have been a bug on the wall in the locker room for last night at halftime. I just wonder when you play so well what does the coach say to ensure his guys come back out even hungrier and with more intensity in the second half.
Dannie, what you pointed out in response to Morty is the crux of why that game left me feeling really disappointed with Mo - Rip had it going on, he was killing all our comeback attempts in the 4th. I’m 100% positive that even though Detroit screens well, there’s something you can do to minimize the damage from that (your brought up strategies). If Willie is fighting through the screens and it’s not working, then do something else, so Mo threw a hail mary (Carney). But it really shouldn’t have come to that, or relying on Willie Green to try and get us back in the game, it’s a whole lot of other stuff. I feel like Mo doesn’t teach enough about how to tilt the little things in the Sixers’ favor, which is what the playoffs is all about. I feel like the Sixers are still playing as if it were the regular season, although if that were true, Iggy wouldn’t be this worthless (right now).
I agree with a lot of the comments being stated on here…especially about Mo not making great adjustments. I’ve always thought he has a better intuitive “feel” for the game, then being a staunch X & O’s guy. This isn’t a bad thing in itself, but I do think that weakness is being exposed in this series.
Dannie, you had asked why some people are ripping on Dalembert. For me, as much as I’ll give Sammy D amazing props for improving his game, showing great hustle and nice defensive rebounding…he still pisses me off more then any other Sixer on this team (Iggy has only pissed me off this series, D-Bere for the season lol).
Dalembert STILL does not box out. It’s actually kind of amazing to me that he gets as many double doubles as he has been without showing some proper fundamentals. I’d say a good half of the offensive rebounds that Detroit has gotten haven’t come from them simply outhustling us…it’s because Dalembert isn’t actually blocking out his man. He tends to go straight for the ball, or just stands there with his arms up, instead of immediately bodying up his man. This is a huge problem with his game, and what is stopping him from being a force.
The other thing is that, for all of Dalembert’s improvements in his one on one defense, and his shot blocking, he still looks clueless a lot of the times in the team defensive comment. While he’s a GREAT weakside shot blocker…he is not good at immediately stepping in to be the first help defender when the guards get burned on the drive. When Sammy is often late on these rotations, it forces Reggie Evans, Thad Young or Iggy to compensate by leaving their man to help, resulting in two open options for the offensive team to pass to.
I don’t think this is a minor complaint either…I feel Sammy has improved in amazing ways, but these two particular achilles heels for him effect the whole team in a big way. I don’t get, especially given his enthusiasm, how in 5-6 years in the L he’s still not efficient with defensive rotations and boxing out.
the pick and roll defense was terrible. the whole time i was watching i kept thinking back to the playoff series against the pacers when smits and jackson kept running it and theo would just sit back.
Third quarter was hard to watch but you could almost see it happening in slow motion right after Sheed’s technical. Game slowed down and we were stuck in the half court. The thing that gets me about D-bear is his trying to take people off the dribble or even trying just trying to post up… his thin fram is just not suited for it.
Morty is right about Green’s defense on Rip: at the most critical period of the game, where Rip had 3 straight buckets, Green was left behind. I can’t help but think that Carney’s length and speed would be better suited in those kind of situations. What I really would like to see is more PT for the young guys. Lou, Rodney, Young, and Smith have all played well this series. It would have been nice to see those guys playing during the third quarter and try and provide some energy. Still, looking forward to game 5, go sixers!
ps. Dannie, the fans performance was embarrassing… pretty disappointing, especially after seeing the GS series last year.
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