Comments on: Sixers vs. Orlando: Can They Actually Beat a Good Team?

By: jjg

jjg — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:11:32 +0000

Didn’t see much of the game last night. Have a sense of it though from a lot of interesting posts. My one response: Jameer finds his shooters at prosperous times, and knocks enough of his own down to make himself a constant threat; with him playing, I suppose result
would’ve involved a bigger spread. If Sixers can’t beat Magic at home while Magic deployed a 6′ 10″ “point guard” to initiate offense, that says something about Sixers’ defensive deficiencies and Mo’s coaching. Turkoglu is a very good player, one who plays under control, but Sixers need to be smarter, more focused and disruptive on D if they want to find themselves in upper tier of league.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

By: guest

guest — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:18:15 +0000

guys, I just got done watching the game because I was out eating dinner with family so I recorded it. I can honestly say…. I think my heart just sank into the lower levels of my stomach. We played an overall tough, impressive, responsive, and strong game. But we lost. Im in disbelief. Thaddeus Young should not have left Lewis open. We kept doing that the whole game. When do we get the point that Rashard Lewis can shoot? This is a tough one to swallow definetly. But to answer the question at the top of the page…Yes, we can beat a good team. Just not when we give the opponent numerous wide open three’s down the stretch. Well, looks like we are going to have to shake off another tough loss. This game provides a little bit of hope though. I saw some good things out of our team, but I think Lou played too many minutes. I realize we want to see what he can do, and see if he can develop into a 20-25 minute player, but when he is shooting that bad from the field, it’s time to take a seat. Sorry to be a little harsh, but 3-10 isn’t cutting it. I realize Miller did even worse shooting (3-13) but we keep asking for Ivey, and were not getting him. I say we should have found some way to fit him in the rotation maybe at the end of the first two quarters. Maybe the last three minutes of each and we should be able to see a little bit of what he can do.

By: deepsixersuede

deepsixersuede — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:53:23 +0000

Dave T., I value Sam!s rebounding and shotblocking but everytime we talk about improving this team it is at the 1 and 2 spot. But as you have pointed out tonight, Theo showed in a short burst what a big at the foul line area that can pass and screen could do for this offense. Is 15 and 10 combined too much to ask next year from a Jason/Spieghts tandem next year, providing Jason comes back healthy along with good shotblocking ability.

By: 2one5

2one5 — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:34:43 +0000

Why is Iggy not dunking the ball he goes up and tries to do a finger roll or sweeping layup all the time he missed at least 2-3 easy shots at the rim tonight. Also what is up with being up in the game with under 2 mins to go and Iggy trying to dribble behind his back and losing the ball out of bounds.

Also this team is running BUT the passes in transition are bad. As some of the commentators were saying our fast break is not smooth

Hubie Brown was great tonight and it was good to hear him after listening to Salmi all the time.

They should have taken their chance with guarding Howard one on one for the last couple of possessions even if he scores or you have to foul him and even if he were to hit two free throws a two their hurts you way less than a three

By: bski

bski — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:30:43 +0000

Dave T….Can’t blame me for trying to come up with something, right? It just frustrated me to see Sammy posting Howard. I kept thinking, “Sammy, if you get the ball, what exactly are you going to do with it?”.

I’m signing off for the night. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I’ll try to check in at some point tomorrow (probably in the morning).

By: Dave T

Dave T — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:20:37 +0000

Bski: That would work with Brand, not D-Bear. Pretty much every team’s scouting report for Dalembert likely reads: “Cannot hit shot outside three feet of basket…sag off Sammy if he strays 10-15 feet from the basket, and get in position to help the on ball defender.” Dalembert is a total liability for that…because of his complete ineptness on offense, there’s just no reason for the defense to follow him anywhere.

I understand what you mean about the defender not being able to hang out in the lane for a 3 second violation…but they would still leave Sammy to be a more active be a defensive threat with cutting off passing lanes, to use as a quicker double for someone else, to be in position to rotate for a penetrator, etc.

The other problem with Sammy is that, as Hubie Brown mentioned, he has zero ability to pass the ball from the high post, nor to shoot. It’s one thing to purposefully move a guy like Bosh, Brand, Garnett, Boozer, etc out to the 15 feet area to clear up the lane for a better matchup with your other big…but that only works because those guys can all: a. hit a jump shot b. read the defense effectively c. effectively pass and run an offense through the high post. Clearly, Sammy D cannot do those things.

Just want to also note that while Sammy D frustrates me, I’m not a Sammy hater by any means. I don’t mean the above as an anti-Sammy post, as I’ve always valued his rebounding, shot blocking, and sometimes good defense…but having him float out to the high post area, or the baseline wing, just wouldn’t work well often.

…as opposed to Ratliff, who made excellent contributions from the high post, forced defenders to guard him because he can hit a 10 foot shot, and fascilitated frontcourt off ball movement when the ball was passed to him around the free throw line. He had an excellent pass to Brand down on the block…unfortunately it missed because Orlando quickly rotated and then doubled.

If I were a Sixers player, I would read the above paragraph and ask, “Hey…what does “rotating” or “helping” on defense mean? I’ve never heard of this. Hey, Mo, can you teach us this stuff next practice?…”

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:19:15 +0000

Well, Young learned a “2nd year” mistake in helping too much when guarding Lewis. In the words of Salmi, he has to have “instant amnesia” and recover soon enough as he will be guarding Paul Pierce on Friday, a matchup I am looking forward to. The Boston Celtics will not be an easy task, but I am looking forward to this matchup between these two teams for some reason. Hopefully, with a couple of things tightened up, we can certainly match up with these “elite” teams. HOWEVER, Iggy cannot commit silly turnovers down the stretch and Dalembert cannot be a playmaker down the stretch.

Today, I saw the REAL Elton Brand working hard for everything, points, rebounds, blocked shots, defense. It’s a shame we wasted that great effort! I don’t know about you guys, but there really is something special about this team and with this being an 82 game season, they are bound to come alive soon enough.

Anyway, I want to wish you guys a Happy Thanksgiving. I probably will be busy preparing the feast, but will probably keep in touch some time during the day as a great reliever. I now have a name for the Turkey I will be eating on Thanksgiving Day, it is Hedo Turkoglu!

I want to wish everyone in the Sixers franchise, a “Happy Thanksgiving”. Sixers, don’t overeat at Boston Market, but a taste of victory against the Celtics would be even better!! Let’s stuff the Celtics, KG needs to eat something!!

By: bski

bski — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:12:18 +0000

Dave T…..Great points. Surprising how well Ratliff played Howard. It really makes Sammy look bad to have a guy who has barely stepped on the floor this year handle a guy that’s abusing you, oh and screen and pass better too.

I really get tired of seeing guys like Tony Battie and Craig Smith have career games against us.

Did you happen to see the Raptors-Celtics game I’m talking about? What do you think about us copying that with Sammy. I think he’d help the offense a lot more that way.

By: bski

bski — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:06:06 +0000

Suede…Since you’ve mentioned Sammy and his IQ, I’d like to bring something up.

A couple weeks ago I watched the Raptors play the Celtics. Garnett took Bosh out of the offense early. Then Bosh started moving out to 15 feet away from the basket on most of Toronto’s possessions. He even went so far as to go out of bounds 3 or 4 feet below the baseline. He did this to take Garnett with him and clear the lane so Jermaine O’Neal could go one on one against Perkins, Powe, Davis, and whoever else. It worked. O’Neal had a big game for the Raptors, even though they lost.

I thought this was a fantastic move by Bosh. Instead of forcing things against a guy who mostly had him bottled up, he recognized that O’Neal had the better matchup, regardless of who was defending him.

Early in this game, Dalembert continued attempting to post Howard, even though Howard almost made him swallow his first shot attempt. I couldn’t help thinking that if the Raptors could use Bosh to pull a premier defender away from the paint, why can’t we do the same thing? Dalembert should have been pulling Howard out of the paint, since Brand against Lewis was clearly the better matchup for us.

I realize that Dalembert is no Bosh (I have a gift for understatement). Nonetheless, Howard would be forced to make a decision. He couldn’t just hang out in no man’s land (defensive 3-second violation). He would have to choose between staying with Dalembert or going to double Brand. In either case something would open up for us. If Howard stayed with Dalembert, Brand has a one on one matchup or if a wing player came to double Brand, then one of our wing players would have an open lane to the basket.

Specifically because Dalembert is no Bosh, something like this should be a no-brainer. We are not sacrificing major offensive numbers if we decide to use Dalembert this way against any major force big men. What do you think?

By: deepsixersuede

deepsixersuede — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:51:15 +0000

Blski, a great, I!m being sarcastic, turnover by Iggy late in the game trying to dribble between his legs around 1/2 court with no break oppurtunity at all. H.Brown made a good point on Iggy never using the glass on his drives to the hoop, always going for a fingerroll or dunk.