Iverson’s Return: More Excitement, Same Results

Jordan and the Sixers didn’t disappoint.  We are up to 10 in a row and counting.  Before I get to some observations from the game on the court, let’s talk about Iverson’s impact for a sec.

If nothing comes out of this but more fans at home games, it’s a win for everyone.  Sold out crowd of 20,664 provided for plenty of energy for the players to feed off of.  And they did for about 2 and a half quarters.

Iverson looked out of shape, slow and gun shy, unsure if he should attack, shoot or just distribute.  He missed two easy lay-ups with his strong hand and passed up on another in the first few minutes.  When he finally got a tip in lay-up the crowd erupted, but that was a mini eruption compared to when he made his first jumper from the corner.

A couple things stood out.  Iverson can, and I believe will, help this team win games.  IF he plays the right role AND can get back in shape and gain back a bit of his quickness. He had a hard time turning the corner cleanly on drives which is something we as Sixers fans aren’t use to seeing from him.  I think he could rack up assists and good scoring numbers if he plays at a level pace and limited role.  Will he do it?  Maybe, maybe not.  I think we will know that better once he gets used to being back and his conditioning catches up to his will.

“Myself, from the circumstances of not having been out there on the basketball court for a month, just having one day of practice and tying to learn everything on the fly, and playing that many minutes [38] after not playing at all, I’m proud of myself. I did the best I could. My heart said yeah, but my body said no. My legs were weak, my arms were weak, I was telling my teammates on one play I wanted to go baseline, I seen the opening, and my heart said yeah and my legs said no, and I just couldn’t do it. So it’s going to take some time” ~ Allen Iverson

I do think his talent doesn’t quite fit this roster.  We won’t have enough reliable jump shooters on the floor with him to maximize of his penetration and kick ability while also masking his individual defensive struggles.  I do think that won’t be as big an issue when Speights returns and if Thad continues shooting well in spot-up situations.

I will say this even though, he didn’t do too much just his presence made the game feel different (read: more enjoyable).

Haven’t been to a game with this much energy in the building since, umm, still thinking, well I’ll just get back to you on that one.

Iguodala came out jacking horrible, contested perimeter jump shots but was on fire and wasn’t touching the rim on his ill-advised heaves early in the shot clock.  He clearly had a “this is my team, and I will not be overshadowed” look on his face.  That is, until those same bad shots stopped falling – as expected.  Then he reverted to the disappointing salty face we are all accustomed to.

The front court dominated this game.  Brand and Sammy combined for 28 boards, 8 blocks and 18 points on 9-19 shooting.  If not for their play, this game would have had a much different feel early on.

Chauncey freakin’ Billups. I knew there was a reason I really liked this guy as a player.  Forget the fact that he dominated this game in every way while his young star was pouting all game.

He had a VERY clear agenda for this game:  I am not letting Allen Iverson get off – period.  He was in straight locked down mode to start the game.  He was all over Iverson with ball pressure and denying him the ball all over the floor.  He didn’t want to Iverson to feel comfortable, get hot and have the crowd be a major factor in this game by provided energy to the rest of the team.  On top of that he finished the game with 31 points, 8 boards 8 dimes on 15 shot attempts, 11-11 from the line and only 2 turnovers.

At the end of the day we lost this game because of three reasons:

1. Hot early shooting lead to too many jumpers throughout the game and therefore not enough free throw attempts
2. The bench is filled with trash players and provided 2 points on 1-15 shooting and no defense or rebounding
3. The coach is still a buffoon

The first two are self explanatory.  But I just want to touch on the coaching a bit.

First off Jordan was pretty much forced into playing the big line-up tonight with Iverson starting.  That was a blessing because the bigs played great together.  Besides that Eddie Jordan had nothing to do with the positive play the Sixers had in this game.  It was based on pure energy and adrenaline that carried them through two and a half quarters.

Jordan killed it in three ways…

1. He made no adjustments offensively when Denver started doubling all ball screens.  He continued to run side ball screens all game, and Denver trapped those and forced the ball handler back towards half court.  The pass out of that double was slow and passive.  He didn’t put anything together to combat it and started to force bad shots up against the clock in the second half.

2. He played too much “you don’t have to move” match-up zone.  Denver was ice cold for nearly three quarters.  The fourth they got hot.  But it wasn’t hard since they were getting wide open looks because of the zone.  I mean they were getting wide open looks on simple side-to-side passes at the top of the arc.  With the way Sam and Elton were defending and rebounding playing zone took them out of the game.  The defense should have been funneling them towards shot blockers and taking away the three as to make the game a 2s vs. 2s game.

3. He did a poor job of mixing his line-ups with starters and reserves as well as putting a team on the floor that had zero strength to rely on (defense, shooting, offense, energy etc.).  He just put a straight up scrub line-up on the floor to piss away a lead and give Denver some confidence and momentum.

Great game to be at, I enjoyed it.  To bad the chances of this team actually winning a game against anyone are next to zero with the way Jordan dictates their play.

Oh yeah the last time the building felt like that was Iverson’s first game back when he played for the Nuggets.

December 8, 2009