That’s all this post really is. A place for you guys to discuss the game.
Pete and I will be at the Wachovia center all day today for the Battle on Broad Street competition for Junior Achievement. We are representing our company with two other people in a 4-man shooting competition NCAA bracket, single-elimination style.
Furthermore we are still fired up over Nova’s dismantling of the Dukies. Chances are we won’t watch much Sixers tonight as they will be taking a back seat to the Sweet 16 games.
Detroit, Chicago and Miami are idle tonight, with the Hawks playing the Celtics at 7:30. Tomorrow we’ll take a quick look at the standings after tonight’s games and talk about where you think the Sixers project to finish based on their remaining schedule (not easy) and their 4 closest competitors’ schedules.
Should be a win tonight, but Larry Brown probably has the Bobcats thinking they have an outside chance to squeeze into the playoffs, being only 3 games back of Detroit and Chicago (although 6 of their next 7 games are brutal).
They WILL come out ready to play, bring some energy, and the Sixers will need to match it, shut down any confidence Charlotte might have and let them know their playoff run will not be starting in Philly.
Loading ...
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Philly is just feeling up and up about ourselves. I hope this city can reach a little more of a positive trend. With Villanova’s great momentum, the Sixers, the Flyers, and the upcoming Phillies, this really is the great place for sports!
And more good news and sights for sore eyes:
Here is an Elton Brand sighting
http://csnphilly.com/pages/player?is_popup=1&feedID=700&vidID=7138&startclip=2&ol=1&r=132&af=3&dord=mr
We are going to lose this game: Just don’t have a good feeling about this won. Usually when we got on 3-4 win streaks, we tend to get full of ourselves and take a night off, ending our little runs. Also, every single time we climb the standings in the East playoff race, and come to a game that would REALLY put us over the top and solidify our position more, we tend to blow it. And often to games we SHOULD win.
Conversely, the Bobcats, very much in the 8th seed hunt, are a very tough team…good team defense, and as the season has gone on has bought into Larry Brown’s offensive system. They have, for three years running now (even though the standings never show it) play with zest and energy and are total pests to play against, and never take a night off. I also do not like the fact that they have several very good three point shooters (Vlad Radmon-I’m a whiney bitch that doesn’t rebound and plays no defense-manovitch, and Bell) along with other capable ones (Felton, G Wallace, Augustin).
4-5 solid 3 point shooters is NOT something that bodes well for us. Teams that play good half court defense is not something that bodes well for us. And the fact the Bobcats are in “must win” games every night…and the fact they just coughed one up to the Wizards the other day…means they will be in ultra hungry mode. Plus, I’m sure LB would love to take it to the Philly fans and get a W on our home floor.
I’m chalking this up as a loss in my mind ahead of time, and will be pleasantly surprised if we pull of the win. I just worry about us coasting this game, and hoisting up WAY too many 3 pointers (talking to you, Iguodala and Lou).
Agreed on all the above except for the Sixers. Fan support for this squad has been pathetic for years.
Dave, don’t worry my friend because were going to win tonight. Thad won’t let us lose!
DaveT., one of these times they are gonna get over the hump, I hope it is tonight. Thad on Diaw could be a nice quickness advantage, I hope they continue to go to him.
uugggh, I am sorry to say that you were right Dave. There down by 15 right now with 8 minutes to go, doesn’t look too good. Thad is the only one that has showed up so far, paging Sammy D and the boys? Where are you? Pathetic
That second quarter did us in, the Sixers scored only 10 points. Also, we were getting outrebounded. Normally, we would outrebound and outhustle. Now, we are 1/2 game behind the Heat and they host the Bucks tomorrow. They then host the Magic and then travel to Dallas against the Mavericks. We MUST put our foot down from here on out or else we could be facing the Celtics.
Andre Miller could not buy a basket, especially down the stretch. Theo Ratliff is one of our best individual bigs defensively!! The Sixers seem to be on the same page defensively when he is on the floor.
Also, the Hawks lost to the Celtics and they host the Lakers this Sunday.
Dave T might have jinxed it a little there! LOL
What an unbelieveably sad statement the Sixers made tonight. Yet another inferior opponent marches into Philly and smacks them around. Ten points in the second qtr? Are you kidding! Speights plays 12 minutes with zero rebunds. Miller didn’t come throught as usual. What a sad story this is tonight.
Ken–It’s true that Miller didn’t come through, but to say as usual is not true. But yes, the Sixers really needed his stuff, then perhaps they might eeked it out. Getting outrebounded and outhustled (especially in the 1st half) that is UN-Sixerlike. Yes, it was opportunity lost, but not officially gone. Next week is a big stretch against playoff hopefuls, two against the Pistons. We must win AT LEAST 4 of the 5–of course, we want all 5. But a win against the Hawks better be one of them.
Last 4 games for Sammy 20 points and 19 rebounds.
Glad we have him for 2 more years of this!
The Greek–That is disturbing the past four games for Sammy. But for his defense(no pun intended), he had flu-like symptoms in the morning shootaround yesterday. Perhaps, that was why the rebounding margin was SO big a disparity in favor of the Bobcats (Bobcats- 41 boards, Sixers- 23 boards). Dalembert had 4 rebounds in the game. Get him some Day-Quil or Night-Quil, because the team’s REBOUNDING is KEY in getting many victories!!
Their rebounding has been horrible since the West coast trip started. We rebounded well against a couple of teams like the Warriors, but the Suns ate us up down there.
Last night’s game was so predictable. I knew that we were going to make a run and give the Bobcats a scare. I knew we would cut the lead to 2 or 4. I knew when we got a defensive rebound with an opportunity to tie, we would not take advantage of it. And lastly, I knew they would go right to Boris Diaw who ate up Thad the whole game.
I think we should have put Speights in the game considering he can rebound better, and he probably could have defended Diaw better. It’s not Thad’s fault that Boris has 3 inches on him and easily out-weighs him with muscle. Luckily for us, Thaddeus played excellent on the offensive end to give us a chance. Him and Iguodala tried to bring us back.
Andre Miller played the worst game of the season. Im convinced. He didn’t even look like his head was there. Dumb decision after dumb decision. There was a couple horrible passes out on the break and one in particular. We were inbounding under their basket. Miller was taking the ball out. Iguodala decided to cut to the basket instead of coming to the ball. Iguodala wasn’t open AT ALL but Miller threw the pass anyway. Turnover. A 20 second timeout would have worked perfectly there.
And was anyone else PISSED OFF about the officiating? I thought the refs were absolutely horrible for both sides. Everytime they touched Lou Williams they would call a foul and everytime we would touch Boris Diaw they would call a foul. Not to mention Royal Ivey’s 5 fouls in 10 minutes. What is he… Greg Oden? How can you be a tough defender when you get called for a foul everytime you get aggresive?
So I’ve now paid to watch the Sixers score 8 points in a quarter (NJ) and 10 points in a quarter (last night). I’ll forget about the money if I can get my time back.
Nice to see the Thad show continue, way too few shots for him last night. His handle seems to be improving through the season. To nitpick, he cheats off his man way too much and way too often on D – although pretty much every Sixer does that so maybe I should look to the coaches.
Rob, duly noted about the flu.
no place to talk about nova tonight.. bummer
Rob,
I meant to stay Miller didn’t come through like he usually does. I know the guy is a good player.
Ken–apology accepted. Even I make mistakes in my post. I think a guy like Andre Miller can and WILL bounce back from a performance like that. The Pistons ONLY beat the Wizards in Washington by 2 tonight, so there is still something iffy about that club. Like the Detroit Lions, have you heard about their “Sunday curse” this season?
A few things about the Sixers heading into the Pistons game:
* Detroit is the only team in the NBA with more than 30 wins and a losing home record (18-19).
* Andre Miller has inexplicably accumulated eight assists and 13 turnovers in the last three games.
* The Sixers have given up 100-plus points in 10 of the past 15 games after doing so 10 times the 29 games prior. Philly is 9-18 when allowing 100+ points this season and 3-12 when opponents shoot at least 50 percent.