You know that guy on the Sixers last year that many people got pretty high on towards the end of the season. Well Rodney Carney is in Minnesota now playing 6.6 mpg (33 total minutes) in 5 games. So he isn’t even getting in every game on a young 1-8 squad. Will he play tonight? He hasn’t played in a game since last Tuesday. Maybe Timberwolves coach Randy Wittman will be sentimental and give him some burn against his former team.
Although Minnesota has a poor record they are still a threat to beat the Sixers. They have a nice inside outside threat with Al Jefferson and Mike Miller. So the key tonight will be stopping those two guys defensively. That means doubling off non-shooters to help with Jefferson and staying home on Mike Miller on the perimeter.
I am expecting Elton Brand to have a strong offensive game going against a smaller set of power forwards in Ryan Gomes and Craig Smith. And the match-up against Kevin Love should be interesting since neither guy is super athletic, but both are strong. Elton should use his face up quickness whenever Love is defending him.
I am looking forward to watching Randy Foye play live. Loved his game at Villanova. Rashad McCants being a UNC fan and seeing what Kevin Love is made of.
Let’s get this 4th win in a row.
Sixers vs. Minnesota Game Notes
Another disappointing loss for the Sixers and it was all about the defense and free throw shooting. Minnesota shot 51.4% from the field and had 29 assists on 38 made baskets. The Sixers missed 8 free throws shooting 15-23. I have no clue what was up with Andre Iguodala who shot 4-9 from the line. No defense and not converting free throws is a perfect formula for losing to a 1-8 team. Sixers fall to 5-6 on the season.
Sixers Winning Stats
- Rebounds (especially offensive) – 40 boards tonight, 11 on the offensive end
- Opponents turnovers (Sixers steals) – 15 OKC turnovers, 6 on Sixers steals
- Fast break points -17
- Sixers turnovers – 15
- Assists – 19 assists on 40 made field goals
They won the battle on the boards. But they still continue to turn the ball over at too high a rate. 17 fast break points is pretty good but because of their poor defense they allowed Minnesota 15 fast break points of their own. Some of which came after Sixers made baskets.
Less than half of their made baskets were assisted which is not good even a little bit. The surprising thing is the Sixers actually shot 47.1% from the line. But the lack of a consistent team-oriented offense and go-to player or play showed most down the stretch when the Sixers final opportunity to keep the game going was a contested three by Andre Iguodala.
Al Jefferson is GOOD
25 points, 8 boards, 0 turnovers on 12-21 shooting. I said before the game the Sixers need to contain him. They didn’t. And in the 4th quarter he scored 9 points and had the back breaking assist to Miller for a wide open three.
I’m just going to summarizes the rest of my thoughts on this game because the frustrations is very high with this team.
- Pick and roll still doesn’t look good and is pretty much ineffective. This is a big concern for me on many fronts. Will write a post just on the offensive inconsistency and struggles.
- It took 21 shots for Brand to score 19 points. He needs to find his touch because many of these misses are decent shots. More importantly he needs to stop with the 4+ turnover games. I honestly think he is reluctant to pass the ball out of the double teams because he isn’t seeing positive results so he tries to force his way through multiple defenders. Lack of trust maybe?
- Iguodala still can’t shoot from the perimeter 1-6 from three. Why is he taking 6 three-point attempts? He did a good job of getting to the line early (6 attempts in the first quarter) but he finished 4-9 and only 2-6 in that first quarter. The coaches need to get him some professional help on his shot.
- Thaddeus Young quietly keeps playing well. 7-11 from the field, 15 points and only 1 turnover.
- Andre Miller looked better tonight 8-13 from the field 20 points, 6 assists and 3 turnovers.
- Craig Smith? Seriously? He ate Brand up tonight. I don’t think Elton game him enough credit for his offensive game and he took advantage of some lax defense. Did you see the cross-over he put on Reggie Evans? That was especially nasty coming from a 6-7 250 pound guy.
- Finally, no Rodney Carney. Considering the lack of playing time I doubt Minnesota will pick up the team option on his contract this summer. I gotta believe someone will pick him up right?
Next game: Friday at home against the Clippers (I will be there for Brand’s first match up against his former team)
Not looking good so far
wow, iguodala with yet another stellar performance as the sixers fall to the lowly wolves. 2 decent buckets in the 4th does not make up for rancid 3-point shooting, rancid free throw shooting, and many poor decisions once again. glad we decided to give him chris Bosh like money.,
iguodala is becoming my least favorite basketball player.
No defensive intensity AT ALL!!! They can!t turn it on and off. It really makes me, a life long Sixer fan appreciate what the dreaded Celtics do every night.
Iguodala either needs to learn how to make free throws or stop trying to draw shooting fouls. You can’t have it both ways Iggy. Incredibly frustrating. Hopefully this team realizes they lost to the 1-8 T-Wolves and it lights a fire under their ass. If not, I think this season may be lost.
The minute Andre Miller committed his 3rd foul in the 2nd quarter, that is when we started trailing in double figures when you have Lou at the helm at PG. Lou is in quite a funk overall, but there was a flash of brilliance early in the 4th quarter from him. He has to bottle up that sequence and magnify it. Mo has to really talk to him and not let Lou boss him around. Royal Ivey should play more– I like his hustle, ball handling, and defensive ability.
I’ll tell you where the three point shooting is– it has been on their bench all along in Kareem Rush & Donyell Marshall. Mo, for the love of getting the 4th seed, please put these guys in the rotation for some meaningful minutes and proper setups for them.
The Sixers should have played “Hack A Jefferson” to gain more possessions and give them a sense of doubt and frustration in the 4th quarter.
16 turnovers for us. Again turnovers are the key to our season. We are committing silly ones like Andre Iguodala palming the ball and getting too fancy. Dalembert committing cheap, lazy, frustrated fouls. Speights is a rookie, but there is no excuse for Sammy to commit those fouls.
Atrocious free throw shooting– 15 /23 65.2%
On a side note, like I said before, the Timberwolves 2-8 record does not truly indicate the type of team they are or potentially are. I look forward to hearing and seeing the highlights of their next game when they host Kevin Garnett and the Celtics. Last season, the Wolves lost two close games to the Celtics. Something tells me that the Wolves will still continue to have more close games.
It appears tonight, the Wolves found their “Brad Lidge” in Mike Miller with the dagger three. I would have just fouled Jefferson and counted on him making one of two free throws.
I wish the Wolves the best of luck, except against the Sixers of course, and we shall have our revenge at Wachovia March 25, 2009.
Craig Smith owns this team he lit us up last year when the T-Wolves blew us out. Sorta like last year Leon Powe had acouple big games against us. Some scrubs have our number I guess. Brand’s jumper does not look smooth he is often leaving it short. Lou again looked bad, than there’s AI2 he stunk again. The D was there sometimes but def not consistent.
Two Words-free throws, it cracks me up when a player gets all hype cause he gets an and 1 while trying to make a comeback than misses the free throw like Brand tonight. This team better win the next two games to get above .500 and stay there the rest of the season.
The game was bittersweet for me. I just figured out that I can listen to Tom McGinnis for free (out of the Philly area) and tuned in for the last 5 minutes!
But they lost to a bad team…disappointing….but it’s a long season. I won’t get too worked up about 1 game (or 11). Then again I haven’t been able to watch them except for that national tv game with Orlando. I’m sure I’d be frustrated if I watched the whole game.
- Al Jefferson exposed Sammy on those 2 big posessions late. Love what Speights brings to the table. May be a better version of Sammy(better feel for the game) in the very near future.
- Concerned about effort that AMiller and EBrand bring to the table on each posession.
– Really think Jason Smith is missed.
Team still under development. We’ll see how they stand in a couple weeks.
Agreed, Jason Smith has been missed.
Sammy Dummy D is the worst
Iggy stinks, pair him up with miller and you have less range then ron jeremy from the perimeter.
And Lou W, how the hell did you get worse?
Philadelphia teams vs. 1-8 teams this week: 0-1-1
awesome.
i should point out that I predicted the Wolves as my surprise team this year.
Randy Foye is really dissapointing. He’s looks horrible. Also disapointed with Corey Brewer’s development.
they need to start Love and let him go through his growing pains. get jarron collins off the court.
Cheeks (& staff): reason to wonder. Sam: joke. Miller: journeyman. Brand: celluloid hero. Williams: nascent mediocrity. Iguodala: playing like the Big O – Oprah. 3 players who have shown well for team: Young, Green, Speights. Tabulation incomplete: Ivey, Rush. Ghosts: Marshall, Ratliff. Hip-hop’s court alter-ego: Evans. 5 up, 6 down; horrid economy: ‘walk-up’ sales will be weak vs. Clippers; up to team to generate enthusiasm.
Timberwolves are an interesting team. Love’s intelligent play gives credit to the game; hits foul shots; step back to create passing angle, hands up as ready target - little moves make difference. Jefferson: impressive quickness, fundamental big man moves; appears to have a fine future. Mr. Smith goes to “treading on Sixers” again (“go BC!” and its rich tradition of good, competitive athletes). Miller: a funky player hits ‘killer’ deep shot; glad Sixers didn’t land him though. McCants, Foye, Telfair: energetic; get after it. Collins: syrupy slow but a working big body. Was good to see Kevin Ollie, another credit to the game.
I had a feeling about that “trap” game. The Wolves have great potential. Let’s see what this Sixers team is made of after a disappointing loss like this, when they take on the Clippers and the Warriors. The Sixers must avoid the distractions involving the Clippers game, I know the Clippers still can’t get over losing Brand and Maggette. I’ve heard their commentators go on and on about when I saw one of their games on NBATV. The Sixers need to find “IT” early and not just the second half of the season.
What kills me about last night’s game is that I can’t stop feeling that we continually shot ourselves in the foot. I must have groaned about 20 times throughout the game.
Obviously, missing all those freee throws really hurt. Beyond that though, it seemed like every turnover, even though there weren’t a ridiculous amount of them in total, was absolutely killer. That opening stretch at the beginning of the 4th quarter was particularly aggravating. The Wolves get called for a moving screen and we get called for a moving screen (Sammy) on the other end. Next, the Wolves have a wing player step out of bounds and we follow that up by having our wing player (Willie) step out of bounds.
Even with the game that Jefferson (and Smith) had, we had our chances. However, instead of capitalizing on the Wolves mistakes, we just turned around and gave the ball right back to them.
The final insult to all this injury was seeing Jefferson and Miller win the game doing exactly what we had hoped to see Brand and somebody do for us, which is make the opposition pick their poison between a big man down low or a shooter on the wing. I keep hoping that we will see the Sixers put the shoe on the other foot and start doing this to other teams very soon.
Oh, I forgot to ask if anyone else noticed the quick hook that Lou got in the 2nd quarter. After Miller picked up his 3rd foul, Lou came in. I forget exactly what happened, but he wasn’t in for long. I’m pretty sure it was after only one offensive possession that Ivey came in. I think Ivey stayed in for the rest of the quarter too.
bski Didn’t notice the brevity, but that’s a good thing if warranted.
Ivey’s kinda small, not much on O, but brings a certain tenaciousness that Sixers would do well to find as a group. In team’s present state, giving him some more minutes can’t hurt. His intensity and pugnacity might instruct others, though watching most of them lag or flail about randomly on D for a couple of seasons limits my hope in that regard.
Funny how during the draft had difficulty figuring out who KLove would compare too. Boozer was one but after watching last night he physically matches up very much with EBrand. SHould be interesting watching him develop. Can see him developing into 16-18 pt. – 10 rebound player with a couple assists tossed in.
For what it’s worth, I just checked the gameflow on Morty’s popcornmachine website. (Thanks Morty. I was wondering what I would possibly ever use that info for.) I was right. Lou came in halfway through the 2nd quarter and he was only on the floor for 1 minute. Then Ivey came in and played the last 4:52 of the quarter. Whatever the reason, it had to be Cheeks sending a message to Lou.
#19 for JJG.
bski Thanks. Nearly 5 minutes of “burn” for Royal in place of Lou to wrap up half. I like that.
bski: If you look at the Popcorn game glow, the Sixers are at +9 in the first quarter, when Mo subs in Green for Young, and that lineup goes -6. You already noted the -5 stretch in 1 minute with Lou, and then a +3 for the rest of the quarter with the same lineup except Ivey comes in for Lou.
Cool site, no?
Yeah, Morty. There is some interesting stuff contained in those grids, once you get the hang of looking at them. I’ll have to make a habit of checking it regularly.
I wonder if we have a team that is going to play DOWN to the level of competition. I!m curious to see how we play against the Celts and Pistons. Seems to be a very passive group and I second the call for more Ivey and Evans.If L.Will., as quick as he is, won!t get in the opposing p.g.!s shirt, then sit him.
Did Minnesota actually trade Brandon Roy for Randy Foye?
JJT- Brandon Roy was not traded to the Blazers. The Blazers drafted him, but Foye sure bounced around in that draft- Celtics, Blazers, then the Wolves.
So far in the Sixers losses:
-Turnovers have been high
-Energy level has not been consistent between starters and bench
-Willie Green and Lou Williams struggle
-Mo Cheeks reacts poorly in substitutions and kills momentum when Sixers runs are made.
-lack of proper playing time for Kareem Rush and Donyell Marshall
Am I right thus far?
Rob – Actually that is incorrect regarding Brandon Roy.
JT – Brandon Roy was drafted 6th in the 2006 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Boston drafted Randy Foye 7th and immediately traded him along with forward Raef LaFrentz, point guard Dan Dickau and cash considerations to Portland in exchange for Sebastian Telfair, center Theo Ratliff and a second-round draft pick in 2008.
Portland turned around and traded Randy Foye and cash to Minnesota for Brandon Roy.
Wow, thanks Dannie, with so many hats, I’ve lost track of how it all happened!
The Knicks are on the verge of acquiring Al Harrington from the Warriors in exchange for Jamal Crawford.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3717209
I am glad that our Division rival made this deal because Harrington is talented, but is a headcase. How many of those do the Knicks need? Crawford is in fact one of their better players and gets into those amazing shooting rhythms, especially at MSG.
For the Warriors, Crawford does help Stephen Jackson in terms of shifting his position to SF, but what about Corey Maggette? What happens to him? The Warriors are glad they got rid of Harrington, but they need a PF. Now, there is a possibility that Crawford might not play this Sunday against the Sixers due to physicals and the league waiting for approval of when both players involved in the trade can play.
Well, with or without Crawford, that team can still score and play small ball, it’s the other end of the floor that is their major problem, similar to the Indiana Pacers.
Get this– the Knicks are having a fire sale and are definitely trying to get LeBron to New York. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
But here is the other trade they are trying to attempt, this time with the Clippers:
New York would trade Zach Randolph to the Clippers for Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley.
http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/55588/20081121/walsh_waiting_on_confirmation_from_clippers/#