Sixers back in action tonight in Indiana against a 4-3 Pacers team I actually like. This team gave the Boston Celtics the only blemish on their record in this young season. So the Sixers better be prepared to bring their A-game tonight or risk negating the progress they made on Wednesday against the Raptors.
I’ve been a fan of T.J. Ford since he was at Texas. So far he looks healthy and is playing very good basketball in all areas. Andre Miller is going to have his hands full tonight trying to keep Ford from getting into the lane and causing all types of problems defensively.
I think the key to this game like every game for the Sixers is perimeter defense. It just hasn’t been good at all this season. Even in their win against Toronto they gave up a lot of open looks that if converted at a slightly higher rate would have changed the outcome of the first half. Generally they just seemed to be scrambling far too much on the perimeter. I think they are double-teaming too much and providing help when the on-ball defender isn’t beat and doesn’t need it. Doing so leads to advantages for the offense that weren’t created by the player with the ball and could have been avoided by staying home.
Still early in the season but now is the time to start building some momentum and chemistry. What better way to do so then playing the next 6 games against mediocre to bad opponents. Lining up a string of victories will create an atmosphere of winning that so far has been lacking. That feeling will prepare the Sixers for when they play better teams.
Key match-up to watch: Thaddeus Young against Danny Granger
Sixers vs. Pacers Game Notes
This game was ugly and not well played by the Sixers, but they accomplished a very important thing tonight. They were able to get a victory even when they played poorly. That is a step in the right direction of becoming a good basketball team.
I am not going to waste all of our time writing about the same mistakes and bad play we have discussed so far this season. I am going to limit my game notes it to the very few positive things I saw tonight that led to this comeback win.
Thank God We Have Thaddeus Young
So far this season Young has been the only reason to watch the Sixers. He has been the most consistent 76er in the area that matters the most – effort and energy. He never takes a play off and does EVERYTHING on the court. When he is having a bad offensive night he plays great defense, rebounds and more importantly doesn’t force the issue only to compound a poor game (Andre Iguodala and Louis Williams, I hope you are paying attention). When he is playing well offensively he is easily the best player on the team.
Tonight he showed exactly that. To the average fan it looked like he had a nice quiet 25 and 10. To me it looked like he single-handedly dominated and won this game for the Sixers. He was all over the place. 10 of his boards were on the offensive end, many of which lead directly to layups and dunks. His all-around defense was fantastic. He clearly out-played Danny Granger, the NBA’s 4th leading scorer. Granger had 13 in the first half and only 5 in the second. Make sure everyone votes for Thad as an Eastern Conference All-Star. I want him to get selected ASAP for him and to serve as a HUGE reality check for “80 mil.”
Willie Green Looks Like He Might Keep This Up
Look we kill this guy, at least I know I have. So it’s only fair to praise him when he plays well. Willie Green’s calm, cool and consistent play has been a pleasant surprise this year and has taken the position of 6th from Louis Williams. He is taking good shots, hitting them at a high rate, not turning the ball over at all (6 through 9 games) and providing great energy on both ends of the floor. The Sixers needed another person to help Thad score tonight, and Green, after a slow start, came through to help spur the comeback. The one thing I especially liked was his man-to-man defense. He cut out all the reaching and lunging and just played great straight up defense - and looked good doing it. If Willie keeps this up, my expectations for his performance will be raised.
The Sixers Still Win with Defense and Rebounding
The Sixers clearly don’t have a star that can carry them for long stretches or whole games when necessary. They have to win by being tough on defense and on the boards. After giving up 38 points in the first quarter they clamped down and held the Pacers to 54 the rest of the game. They forced 18 turnovers, had 8 steals and another 10-block effort. Add the 54 rebounds (20 on the offensive end), and that is how you come back from being down 26 and shooting 36.8% from the field.
All that pressure and board work helped the Sixers get 17 fast break points and attempt 11 more shots than the Pacers. This is the way to win for the Sixers. Now they just need to learn, commit, get smacked into playing that way from the first minute to the last second.
I said in my pregame thoughts the Sixers needed to start building momentum. That comes in two forms: Wins and improved play and chemistry. Tonight they didn’t play well, but they got a win. And created the beginning of a winning streak. As I said at the end of my last post the Sixers have a pretty good schedule the next few games. Anything less than 5-1 (including tonight’s win) would be a disappointment for me.
Next game: Tomorrow against the Oklahoma City Thunder
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Yeah, some momentum would be nice, Dannie. Like I said before, we always have trouble defending the 3 and you’ve explained why very well. That’s why we always struggle against Toronto, Orlando, and Indiana, among others. Jim O’Brien knows this because we couldn’t do it when he was here either. Although in O’Brien’s case I think it was at least as much, if not more, on him. His philosophy of protecting the paint and recovering to the perimeter didn’t work for us. I wasn’t to big on his answer for why that was either. He said it was because we didn’t have guys that were athletic enough or quick enough (lacked the foot speed I think he said) to make it work. Of course that begs the question as to why you would stick with a defensive system that you know you do not have the personnel to run.
Anyway, if we can defend the perimeter well it will go a long way toward us getting a win tonight. If we can force them to miss, we should clean up on the glass and have many opportunities to push the ball.
So much for momentum…losing 18-2 in 1st quarter. AAAHHH!!!!! I may start pulling my hair out!
These dudes have absolutely got to be kidding me with how poorly they are playing. How careless they are with the ball and how unmotivated and lethargic. This team is disgraceful!!
Let’s go Eagles!
Dannie –
I’m starting to wish NBA contracts weren’t guaranteed like in the NFL. Then maybe we’d see consistent effort out of these guys.
Since the Sixers are wearing their red uniforms, maybe they should all lay down in the paint. Then there would be a literal red carpet for Pacer layups instead of the theoretical one.
TheCoz Excellent left brain commentary; a funny image and a good laugh!
Reggie Evans looks like Mr. T this year. Has always shot like him.
Thank GOD we have Thaddeus Young
Agree! Only one with a steady pulse.
TheCoz – The NFL is a unique beast with a weak players union which is why they don’t have guaranteed contracts. I doubt we will ever see it in the NBA. The question is could the league and players come to a compromise along the line of partial guaranteed contract years i.e. 5 year deal the first two or three are guaranteed. That way a team could get from underneath of a big rock earlier if a player they evaluated to be better ends up poo pooing after he gets paid.
The rebuttal will always be – do a better job of evaluating.
On a side note, sorry for being so negative in these comments. I’m like most Philly fans though in the sense that I only dig at the team when I see a lack of effort. If they lose and seemed to give their all, I can stomach it. Anyway, things are looking better at halftime. Keep up the intensity near both baskets and the Sixers may have a chance to salvage this game.
GO SIXERS!!!!
Evans’ follow dunk at start of comeback rally was clearly offensive goaltending (wasn’t off the rim). Refs may have let it go at time due to then big spread.
Bob Salmi, certainly not my grandfather’s announcer. Makes my ears bleed. The not-so “young man” is the courtside Pope of pomp and Vicar of verbosity. I miss Steve Mix’s relaxed, knowing, down-to-earth commentary.
JJG - Salmi is terrible. They need to be interviewing for that position as we speak. Find a knowledgeable former player with personality and go that route again.
WHEW. Pulled out a ugly, ugly win. Short game notes coming.
YOUNG, then GREEN (great jobs, you two). The rest climbed on.
Another nice win. Hyperbolized “incredible comeback.” Pitiful start. Tight win.
IMO Elton Brand is a pretender. Clippers uniform, perfect fit.
First game I watched from start to finish tonight. Some observations.
- Sixers right now miss Jason Smith. It was obvious Sammy was not a good match against this team. Last year J.Smith would’ve come in automatically. Now Brand is playing that role and mix and matching around him. I’d love to see JSmith & Elton on the court together.
- Have to give Willie his props.
- TYoung WOW!
- Iggy didn’t have a great ‘O’ game but blended in well and rebounded big time.
- Ivey’s value was demonstrated tonight. He gave good ‘D’ intensity when it was needed most to get us back in the game(except for Diener’s 3). Same for Reggie!
- Lou will right now doesn’t have a clue. Coaches are not even letting him play the point. Iggy was point forward for much of his time on the court. Taking bad shots. Maybe they need to put point guard in his head again because his isn’t AI.
Even though they put themselves in that big hole, gotta give them credit for fighting their way back. They overcame a lot of lapses and showed some heart.
We struggled in the 1st and 3rd quarters when Dalembert was in. We made our runs, got back in the game, and finally won it once Dalembert went to the bench. Going small with Brand at center, Thad at PF, and lots of Willie Green was the magic formula.
I really didn’t think we were going to hold on at the end. Our last two possessions were lousy, especially Brand dribbling into a double team and forcing one up. That happens most of the time when we just want to run the clock. I hate that. Fortunately it didn’t come back to bite us this time.
Harris What’shisname, CSN anchor: “Andre Miller has been pretty much rock solid all year.” He oughta go into advertising/marketing. Reporting is to aim at objective truth. Slow down, Harris.
Marshall Harris. That’s a fact.
Forgot they were missing Dunleavy. Pacers probably wouldn’t have jumped to a 26 pt. lead with him on court. Also as likely, wouldn’t have blown the big lead with him in action.
I was soooooo close to turning this game off. The first quarter was beyond unwatchable. It was painful. But I figured I’d watch the 2nd quarter to see if we made any kind of dent. Then at the half I figured I might as well watch the 3rd quarter. Obviously I stuck with it all the way. There were a couple stretches where I once again considered turning it off, especially early in the 4th when the Pacers pushed their lead out again, but I’m glad I didn’t.
This wasn’t pretty and we got a bit lucky, but I’ll take it. You’re going to get some ugly wins throughout the season just like you’ll have some ugly losses. You always win a few and lose a few that you shouldn’t along the way. We coughed one up against Atlanta and now we’ve pulled one out against Indiana. Hopefully as the season goes along we will stop giving up big leads and also stop getting in big holes.
Denver really looks to be enjoying playing without AI. Another example of addition by subtraction.
Detroit really looks to be enjoying playing WITH AI now that they are over the initial shock of the trade and adjusted to the change in style (I really hope that wasn’t a shot an AI). Beating Detroit in LA easily tonight was very impressive and should serve as noticed to the rest of the East what that team is capable of. They still play good defense but now they have a player that can explode on a team as well as create countless wide-open shots for Rip, Sheed and Prince.
I wish we would have given Denver Andre Miller back and got AI. I am 100% sure the Sixers wouldn’t be 4-5 right now if they had.
I would have preferred a 3 way trade, Andre Miller to Nuggets, AI to Detroit, and Chauncey Billups to Sixers. Love AI but Chauncey would be a perfect here.
True that. Miller is really playing like he doesn’t want to be here next year, and the Sixers will have to do something at point. Lou is gunner, not a point so does AI return, and we have our own big 3!
Dannie, AI has his best chance to win on Detroit due to the physical/defensive pieces around him. Denver was a bad fit. Hopefully, he’s grown up to the point where he will mesh.
Yes, that was a shot at AI. Don’t believe in his career he has given effort in the areas of the game that maximize a teams chance to win a championship. I’m sure for the most part he was encouraged to play that way by his coaches(LB) and if proper talent is put around him to make up for his deficiancies(defense and offensive selfishness) he will have a shot but I don’t believe the young AI’s game(when a Sixer) would translate to a championship at any level; However, He was entertaining but this isn’t pro wrestling. Just my opinion.
“WhereWolves of Minneapolis”: Rodney Carney - 5 gms, 6.6 min, 2.8 pts; Kevin Ollie – 5 gms, 13.8 min, 3.4 pts; Mike Miller - 7 gms, 37 min, 14.1 pts, 38-75 shooting, 73% FT; Kevin Love – 7 gms, 25.4 min, 9.6 pts, 7 rbs; Rashad McCants – 7 gms, 21.4 min, 11.9 pts, 29-78 shooting; Randy Foye – 7 gms, 33.9 min, 10 pts, 29-84 shooting
Frigid 1-6 team start.
Dannie & Pete…I like the new format for the blog. It looks sharp. The font is nice. Will we be able to upload a picture that will appear in the box next to our name? The comment box will now accept HTML tags again? I hope so. I like using blockquote and a few others. It makes everything cleaner and helps with emphasis.
jjg: I also have not been impressed with Brand’s FG%, but 15 boards (5 offensive) and 3 blocks, along with solid man-to-man D and a clutch bucket in the final minutes, go a long way towards a winning effort.
In other news, Thad Young is a stud. How about the isolation play they ran for him at the end of the game?
what happened to the links on the right side of the page? i liked some of them.
bski, I read that you’re going to the game tonight. No, I’m not going, but I felt like giving you a list of things to look for during the game, I thought it might help you get more involved. Disregard if you’d like, and just kick back and relax with your sons. Disclaimer: these are observations from a quarter here and there, not full games:
1. Ask yourself this: WHY has everyone started playing so well, and try to think from a strategic point of view. In my opinion, the story with the past two games has nothing to do with players coming from out of nowhere to step up their games, which is how the media is portraying it. Just like there’s a reason Carlos Ruiz is a better catcher for Brad Lidge than Chris Coste, there’s a reason certain player combinations work better than others.
2. What is the difference between good ball movement and bad ball movement? Good passes vs. bad passes, correct? So what’s the difference between a good pass and a bad pass? I’ll repeat something I said a while back on Deep Sixer: for someone at the shooting guard position, Willie Green makes terrific passes. But it takes two to tango: which of the Sixers are really good at getting the ball in positions from which they can make something happen? I think the no-brainer observation here is that Sammy is at the bottom of that list.
3. This is somewhat a continuation of #1: I think one thing that Pat Gillick did very well in building the 2008 WORLD (EXPLETIVE) CHAMPIONS PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES!!! YEAH!!!, and is a tenet of “Gillickball” is that the roster had a clearly defined hierarchy of roles, and who was in those roles. Scott Eyre knew he was the 2nd best lefty, and would be used that way. Can you imagine what would’ve happened if we’d thrown Joe Blanton in there and told him that we expected him to be another Hamels? We didn’t try to get the best players available, which is exactly what Stefansky has done and it’s caused some early problems. Watch for that tonight, how our best lineups are the ones where each player in the lineup seems to know what his job is, and then goes ahead and does it.
Dannie, Deep Sixer is dying, it’s on life support right now, I’m going to try and “save” it. I’m going to try and “have fun” and “make some friends” on there, and see if I can get some of the older commenters to come back, and maybe some new ones. Nothing against your site, I just feel like it’s my “hometown” of sorts. If I am successful in getting conversation going on there, feel free to go on there and tell them about the in-depth Sixer talk on here, I don’t care. There’s one guy named “Statman”, he’s really insightful, I think he’d enjoy the Sixer talk here, but I think, like many commenters on there, they have a subconscious crush on Kate Fagan. I won’t be on there often, just when I can, like today.
BSKI - Yes, we made a few minor changes to the blog in an effort to clean things up a bit. Any and all feedback is welcome from all.
Yes, the comment box functionality will remain the same. As you can see the HTML quick buttons are still there as well as some examples of acceptable html code you can use right below the comment box.
Yes, you can get an image to represent you now. Go to http://www.gravatar.com and set up an account and upload your desired image and you will be all set.
Have a few more little things that will be added/upgraded and maybe some big things over time as well. This was just a mini update.
Max – The links are back. I was making these changes really late at night so it didn’t disrupt things during the day when the site is more active. Just a small oversight that is corrected. Thank you for pointing it out.
JJG – Brand has been sporadic to say the least on offense. Hoping he will be back to form in the second half of the season after he finds his bearings. I give him a break for now for two reasons:
Morty – Did you see Thad’s post game interview? He was asked about that play and he said Iguodala told him “Look who is on you. Come get the ball and take him.” Thad went on to say he didn’t even notice who was guarding him until Iguodala pointed it out.
Good teamwork and recognition by Iguodala and good execution by Thad.
Zack – Do what you gotta do. We will still be here. There won’t be any turnover on Recliner GM. Pete and I will continue to keep trying to make this the best Sixers and Phillies (primarily) sports blog on the planet. We still have a lot of work to do.
ALL – As always if anyone has feedback, suggestions or gripes. You can contact us privately via email or just drop a comment like you have been.
Zack…I’ll be watching. I have noticed some things already. Our best lineup appears to be Miller at PG, Green at SG, Iguodala at SF, Thad at PF, and Brand at center. This is the lineup that gets us going on our runs. It seems to me that we have been much better when Dalembert is off the floor. Once he sits and everyone else slides over we seem to take off. I also like either Green or Iguodala handling the ball instead of Lou when Miller sits.
Hopefully we are on our way to turning things around. I’m going to a total of 5 games this season and I’d like to enjoy them all. I’m hoping this turns out to be a good Christmas present for my family.
Statman is a regular on Todd Zolecki’s Phillies Zone blog. I like him too. I’m not surprised to hear he’s got some good stuff to offer on basketball also. I’d like to get him over here. I don’t think I’m going to bother with Deep Sixer.
Great to hear from you BTW. How is the move going? I hope everything is well with you. Dannie is doing a great job with the Sixers and Pete is giving us a steady diet of Phillies topics (which means we can have our “Gillickball” discussions), so keep checking in when you can. Always great to talk to you and there’s lots here to talk about.
“The Sixers have to attack the rim at will, get more free throws made and attempted, defend the perimeter, limit their turnovers and a great bonus would be our three point production and our bench coming alive. It has sure potential to do so for the Sixers. Get Rush and Marshall involved!” (From previous Sixers topic, prior to the Pacers game).
Let me see the check list:
-Attack the rim at will. Check
-Get more free throws made and attempted. A HUGE check
(PHI: 22/31–71.0%) (IND: 10/17–58.8%)
-Defend the perimeter A “2ND Half” check
(PHI: 2/8– 25.0%) (IND: 8/24–33.3%, but 2/11–18.1% in 2nd half)
Willie Green- 2/2 in 2nd half!! Green light!
The Sixers “locked all windows and doors” in that 2nd half baby!!
-Limit the turnovers Check
(PHI: 10) (IND: 18)
-Bench A “Hustle” Check
There are some things that cannot be found in the box score, except for Willie’s 14pts, such as the Sixers hustle.
Kareem Rush- 13 min and fun time against his brother. Give Cheeks credit for pulling a class act. Scorless, but made a pass to Willie in which Willie passed it to Young for the bucket and the foul!
However, Marshall did not play, hopefully he will when we face more elite teams!!
Now, hopefully the Sixers can get on a possible seven game winning streak before facing the Magic on 11/26. Hopefully, we will be ready for the Magic though at home! Let’s GO Sixers!