I have a splitting headache so no pre game analysis today. All I want to know is what are you expectations going into tonight’s game against the New Jersey Nets.
Brand is out again tonight. The Nets are 2nd in the division at 10-8 and playing much better than expected lead by Devin Harris. Andre Miller will be in for another tough point guard match up. Looking forward to just sitting back and watching the game tonight. Hopefully the Sixers can keep rolling and start putting some wins together.
Sixers vs. Nets Game Notes
Coming off a nice win and a well played game against Detroit on the road the Sixers came back home and completely shit the bed. This teams inconsistency is feels like a punch in the stomach every other game. This was game 21 so we passed the 20-game grace period for the Sixers. I will have much more on this tomorrow, but it’s clear this is not the team we thought they would be after all the off-season hype. About this game tonight…
Starting back court had 10 of the teams 15 turnovers. No one else had more than a single turnover. How many basketball games can we expect to win with that kind of ball control from our guards? You know the guys who handle the ball the most. That is completely unacceptable especially considering the Nets played zone for much of the game. Meaning there was NO DAMN PRESSURE!
Speaking of that zone, the Sixers didn’t attack it well at all. They simply settled for three point shots and feel right into the trap the Nets set for them. 6-21 from three = 28.6%. I guess these guys forgot they are not a three point shooting team, and Cheeks obviously forgot to remind them. Aside from a couple back door lobs the Sixers offense was rendered completely paralyzed. They simple played hot potato passing the ball around the arc until the clock got down and the loser with the ball late took the shot. But this certainly isn’t just on the players. Cheeks and the coaches just sat their and let it happen. They never designed a offense set where there was a man in the middle as a release and attacker in the center of their zone. The end result the Sixers only made 28 shots the entire game for 36.4% from the field. Terrible job all around offensively.
The biggest thing I notice with Brand out is the rebounding. The Sixers aren’t dominating the boards with him out of the line up. They won the battle of the boards 41-40 and had 15 offensive boards. But in the beginning of the season this was a clear advantage for the Sixers. Not the last two games.
I will say it every game if I have to, Andre Iguodala is the lamest 4th quarter player.
Lou Williams had another solid game and his jump shot was pretty good tonight. If he every gets that going along with smart penetration he will be the 6th man we all want him to be.
Gotta love Donyell Marshall. Cheeks has put him in a suit for most of the season, but as soon as his number was called he steps up. That is the definition of a professional. I’ve been to a bunch of games and always pay attention to the bench. Even though Marshall was inactive, he is always actively cheering his teammates, helping to coach the young players and very attentive to the game. He is quickly proving there was no reason he shouldn’t have been playing for game 1. Good job Cheeks, way to waste 19 games to figure it out – genius. We do have a knock down shooter on this team and his name is Donyell Marshall. It’s about time the coaches get a damn clue.
I would do anything to get Devin Harris right now. He is exactly the type of versatile point guard the Sixers need. Too bad Kiki Vandeweghe has already put the “untouchable” tag on him.
I’m pretty pissed right now. This team has done nothing but disappoint all season. Until they start putting together a stretch of strong play and wins I have no confidence in them.
Next game: Wednesday at home against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavs on ESPN (you know I got tix for that right)
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I don’t know why and this may sound crazy but I think I may be more confident in the sixers with Brand out of the lineup….is any one else getting that vibe or is it just me?
Can Someon tell me who is gaurding Bobby Simmons? STAY ON HIM HE IS KILLING US WITH THREES!!
No Ryan, not getting that vibe at all.
Didn’t get to see the game, but from the box score:
1. Iguodala: Why would Andre Iguodala’s 3 point attempt number ever be higher than four? Ever? Why?!?!?! Every time I see these box scores of him launching up 6-7 threes it kills me. Ugh. Even if they go in every now and then, it’s just more him catching fire and random luck. We do not need him shooting from the outside this much.
2. Sammy: I saw D-Bear had gone 0-6, and only 20 minutes played. Before reading the rest of the box score, I figured, “Hmm, must have been foul trouble like usual.” Then I keep reading, and see only 1 foul. Looks like someone’s in Mo’s doghouse.
3. Thad: Clearly a bad shooting night, which, given his youth and insane level of growth from last year to now, it’s nice to see he’s still human and can have off games. Since I didn’t see the game, I’m curious…were those 11 shots, especially the four 3’s, in the flow of the offense, or was he forcing them against the Nets?
4. Sweet Lou: Box score-wise, it looks like he had a nice night, and this is what I expected from him since the beginning of the year: to provide scoring and be an offensive sparkplug from the bench. Or was he just wildly jacking up crappy shots and getting lucky, and the box score is lying?
5. Key stat: Team assists = 15. Said this once, will say it many times throughout this season…with the makeup of personnel on our team, we will NEVER, EVER WIN unless we are a team that can consistently get around the 23-25 apg mark. The “one pass, jumpshot…two pass, ISO play…no pass, barrel through the lane” deal has got to end. And, again, this is on none other than Mo, whose job is to get our team playing together and MOVING THE BALL.
I got a chance to watch the Jazz again last night…and once again, they are the complete 180, anti-Sixers. They have incredible floor spacing, always make the extra pass, utilize the shot clock well, don’t make mistakes or careless turnovers, and are such a “team” in every sense that when a guy is injured, they can plug in anyone of slightly lesser talent and the ship sails smoothly. Mr. Sloan…hats off to you.
Bout to write up some quick game notes. Just wanted to point out one that thing…
Dave T - It’s not about total number of assists its about the % of assisted made field goals. The Sixers only had 15 assists because they only made 28 shots in the entire game. If you check some of my old game notes I point this out most of the time.
Everybody seems to agree that the Nets three point shooting was the difference. Really, the Sixers had a chance when they were down by 3 once Marshall hit a three early in the 4th quarter. Then the Sixers started taking quick threes, especially those that can’t knock them down consistently like one Iggy three, one Willie three, one Lou three. Also, forcing and assuming the contact would be there in an effort to get a lot of trips to the free throw line in the 4th quarter.
I must say that Devin Harris is impressive. He reminds me of someone we played yesterday and someone who spent 10.5 seasons with us. That guy also played his heart out and played with the flu on numerous occasions. He also played with many sprained ankles like other quick players, but would get up anyway and continue fighting the good fight. That person is Allen Iverson. The truth is Devin Harris is really a great SG, not a PG!! And the Nets are lucky and fortunate to get him. He just has to stay healthy!!
I thought that the Sixers did a much better job on Harris in the 2nd half of the game. He started scoring those points in the 4th quarter when the Sixers were missing all those shots once we had the deficit down to three and when the game was out of reach.
The Sixers held the Nets to under a 100 points and they did not attempt so many free throws in the game, especially Devin Harris. Vince Carter was well defended by the Sixers. Really it came down to the three point shooting and the Nets zone defense.
The only threes the Nets hit that were WELL CONTESTED were the ones Vince Carter hit and the ones Keyon Dooling hit with the shot clock winding down and with a man in their faces.
The threes that we gave up to Bobby Simmons, three of them, as well as the two threes by Ryan Anderson, were UNFORGIVING!!
We also need to get Kareem Rush’s shots and confidence going. We are putting him in the wrong spots and with the shot clock winding down. With the shot clock winding down, the Sixers are asking him to take an uncomfortable three. Good shooters need RHYTHM, ask Donyell Marshall!!
This team NEEDS Brand. (In a Bill Walton tone) Our Frontcourt Scoring was HORRENDOUS!! Also, we need to see the experiment of Brand getting double teamed and now he can kick it out to Marshall who is hot from downtown. Hopefully, we can get Rush going!
Speights showed signs of being a rookie and, for now, is better off coming off the bench.
Where’s Sammy? That is like finding a man with red and white stripes witn glasses on!
We need everybody on that roster to be on the same page once Elton Brand returns. In the words of the Beatles- Come Together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEBsSJvGoWc
(Here come old flatshot [Miller], he come groovin’ up slowly … [Brand's expression while sitting] He got feet down below his knees
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease come together, right now over me)
Side note, the Nets are also contenders for going after LEBRON JAMES. Really, a Devin Harris and LeBron James combination would be lethal. LeBron is more of a playmaker, a BETTER playmaker than Devin. I have a feeling that Carter is going to be traded before the deadline to a playoff bound team ( Heat, Cavs, Lakers). Soon the Nets are Brooklyn bound and LeBron LOVES NY!!
LET’S MAKE A HALLMARK CARD FOR EB GUYS!!!
This team officially made me depressed. How many times can we cut the lead to 4 and 5, only to give up an uncontested three or easy basket, go down the court and launch up a three of our own. Pathetic. I love Iggy, but why does he try to take over games? Why does he have great first halfs shooting wise and then shoot poorly the second half? I get so pumped when I see the boxscore at halftime but at the end of the game it looks the complete oppisite. Also, I think we overrated Thaddeus Young a little too much. We made him seem like he was our best scorer, but he definetly has slowed down.
I dont feel like writing too much about this game because most everybody played bad. EXCEPT THE BENCH. Dang you Dannie, you proved me wrong. I was overlooking the bench. Great job Marshall and Lou. Everybody else….better step up your game before LeBron comes and destroys you like he did my hometown Bobcats tonight.
p.s. Did anyone see him cheering on Stephen Curry earlier today against my N.C. State Wolfpack? Curry nailed a clutch 39 ft three pointer and walked down the court just glaring at LeBron. And James was jumpin up and down cheering for him. You should be thankful Dannie to have those tickets. Should be an exciting game.
Not much for crowing, but I gotta say that I was right about the Nets being a decent team:
“I actually think the team won’t be as bad as you guys think, because they remind me of the Sixers last year. I see a lot of the guys here settling into roles to become a whole-greater-than-sum-of-parts team.”
I was wrong about how it would happen, but the Nets are a perfect example of how important it is to clearly define roles on a team, no matter what the endeavor.
Some roles that have been messed up:
a) Sammy being the defensive anchor of the team – what’s happened to the guy? If this were a continuation of last year, Sammy would’ve won two or three games by his defense alone.
b) Miller playing coach on the floor - I guess that, with the vets around, he thinks he shouldn’t be doing that anymore; his floor coaching was more important to last year’s success than people think. I wonder if he still takes the extra time to practice with the younger players like he did last year.
c) Knowing that you were more athletic than the the guy across from you, and that you should use it – we had an extremely athletic second unit last year and they usually kept it close while the starters were out, or outperformed them.
d) Was Lou’s role as an attack-the-basket scorer taken away by the addition of two serious low-post guys? Was Lou only effective because his centers and power forwards last year preferred to play further away from the basket, much like Devin Harris’ big guys last night?
I guess this was Stefanski’s oversight – he tried to fill a weakness, but in doing so he took away several of the things that made us a formidable team last year. Oops.
Zack, telling S.F.W. last night if your Lebron how can you pick the Knicks over the Nets, [Harris/Duhon; Lopez/Curry; Yi/Gallinari; Douglass-Roberts/N.Robinson] What young core is better? Dave T., Something isn!t working, is it A.Miller, Sam, or Mo. Sam has been a factor in 8 of the 21 games so far and as we get more talent his warts seem to show as much as his plus!s. I don!t know why the team plays better with an old Theo or with Elton at the 5 but they do. Do I move him? If you can put the plan in place to clear cap space with the intention of getting Sheed in the offseason ,yes, without question. A.Miller; he has me going back and forth more than anybody. He dominates the ball and takes pressure off our young guys but when are our young guys going to be ready to do more with him dominating the ball. If we were 12-9 right now I wouldn!t question what he is doing but the inconsistantsy starts up top. I really wonder what an uptempo p.g., similar to L.Will., would do leading this team. Watching B.Gordon in 2 games against us was a good example of a player “changing” his game when given a different role. I wonder how much more open looks our guys would get with L.Will. penetrating for 30 minutes a night because if you look at what the role of our current p.g. is, it is to score more than distribute. Mo, sounds like E.S. is happy right now with him and he must watch the practices and such so maybe Mo is doing as much as he can .
No comment. Well maybe a couple. didn’t like the substitution pattern in the 4th qtr. Should’ve removed Marshall in middle of qtr to get a break and brought him back for the last 5 minutes. Instead he was taken out with 4 plus minutes remaining. Brought in RoyalI over the last 2 plus minutes. Lou Will or Willie couldn’t contain DHarris? Thad ? Defensive issues. Like Ivey in D role but had Ivey, AMiller & Lou on the court to finish. Just don’t get it. Their are major issues with our defense on the perimeter. Obviously, we still can’t defend the 3.
Dave T – About Thad, all his shots were good shots. He just had an off shooting game. I mean the threes he took were wide open good shots after some quick ball movement. He missed a bunny right at the rim and the rest were what we have been seeing him do, which is pump fake or jab step and take a nice mid range shot. He was just off. It happens. What I didn’t like was he didn’t get any post up opportunities throughout the game.
Guest – I wouldn’t worry about Thad. He had a poor shooting game last night. He was 11-22 from the field and 2-5 from three the previous two games. He is fine.
Zack – I agree I think roles are messed up but I don’t think it has anything to do with Stefanski’s additions to the team. In fact…
This team is a mess right now. Stefanski and Cheeks need to figure it out.
Yeah I noticed that too, sfw. I had family over so I wasn’t paying complete attention to the game. Late in the 4th I did a triple take because I didn’t think I could have been seeing Ivey, Miller, and Williams out there together (along with Iguodala and Speights). BTW, Marshall came back in for the last 1:40 (Ivey and Speights came out and were replaced by Marshall and Young), even though it was a bit too late at that point.
You’re also right that the 3 killed us again. Gets tiring, doesn’t it? Every time we got close the Nets knocked down another 3. Shooting 2-10 in the first half was good. 9-16 in the second half was not so good.
Guest…It looked to me like Thad took good good shots. It’s just that everything was a bit short. This tells me he probably had tired legs from playing Friday night. It happens. No reason to think we overestimated him based on that.
Sorry to repeat a point you made about Thad, Dannie. I was unaware that you had posted yours while I was typing mine.
I agree he did take good shots, and it was much more of an off game, but is it just me, or did all of the easy scoring oppurtunities being disapeared for him. I probably over-reacted to this game a bit. But just looking at the boxscore at halftime, I realized Iguodala was the only one in double digit scoring. Usually it’s Thad getting scoring oppurtunities early on and it seems as though that has disapeared. Well lets hope it was just tired legs because we don’t play till wednsday so it should give us a good break.
Im currently watching NBA gametime on NBATV, and Rick Kamla just informed me that Devin Harris had the flu! How does he drop 27 on us with the flu?
Not only did Marshall come back at the 1:40 mark he promptly hit a three 5 seconds later.
Guys, do you think Marshall!s good showing may allow Rush to see the light of day ? He got a little run last night and Willie [who!s defense and decision making is improved] is slowly dropping in f.g. perc.. Mo is loyal to a fault sometimes but what Marshall!s shooting has added can!t be ignored.
Last week I mentioned starting Marshall over Sam and moving EB to center to space out the floor and help with offense. Marshall seems to be solid for 12-15 minutes a game. The announcers and coach mentioned his age at 35. I do believe Jason Kidd starts plays 30-35 minutes a game and is 36.
Its not about age its who is a better fit to start. You can see teams defending entirely different while he is in the game. Can’t pack the paint and leave a shoter by himself. Start em.
I love it man, ed staff. goes out and signs all these dudes and through 18 games cheeks barely plays any of them besideds brand. That is until Eddy made the road trip and had a little heart to heart with MO. Sammy sucks, we need to trade him asap, if thats possible.
finally stinkadala has started to finish in the lane like a real man instead the thief who robbed the sixers of 80 million and finished like a prissy lady in traffic.
Thad’s lowest offensive output games: Utah, Charlotte, Boston, Detroit, NJ. A decline in his performance from strong start has surely been in evidence. As for the excuse of tired legs resulting from playing 2 consecutive days - that’s a laugh; he’s 20 years old!
jjg…It’s not an excuse, just a possible explanation. I didn’t say he was dog tired or wiped out, as I doubt he was. It’s just that when I see jumpers coming up a bit short, the first thing I think of is the legs. (That’s where the jumper comes from, IMO.) Also, it doesn’t take much of a dip in energy to affect the shot, again IMO. It happens to the best of them (although admittedly less often), so I can understand it. As long as it only happens here and there, I don’t see it as anything out of the ordinary or overly alarming.
A.I. just gave up 25 pts. and 9 ass. to Duhon, seems EVERYBODY gets big numbers on him now. The 4 seed [Boston,Cleveland,Orlando] is really up for grabs in the east this year. If we only could get our sh@#*@# t together.