“Why do they beat the Lakers on the road, lose to Golden State then come right back and beat Portland on the road?” Bill Simmons often talks about the rock-paper-scissors nature of the NBA, and I think that’s what happened there.  Here’s my take: There’s a softness about the Lakers that “tougher” teams can take advantage of, like the Sixers.  LA tends towards a finesse/high bball IQ game, which can beat the Sixers, but that finesse game has gotta include consistent sharpshooting from 3-point land.  Young teams who can run can beat the Sixers (OKC, GS); in general, young teams do well against the Sixers, so I wouldn’t bet on success agains the T’Wolves (it’s a really strange weakness – maybe they get tired when they have to run all the time and they can’t focus as well because they’re used to the run-rest, run-rest rythm that playing against the likes of Houston affords them).  The Sixers are a horrible matchup for Portland in that they’re kind of a younger, less intelligent, and less experienced Laker team (Roy~Kobe, Blake~Fisher, Aldridge~Gasol, Oden~Bynum, Fernandez~Vujacic, etc…  this is debatable).  Statman from Deep Sixer made a good point once about another kind of team that absolutely kills the Sixers: the team with the dynamic, speed-first point guard (Harris, Paul).

From there, there’s a natural tangent to tk76′s question about what kind of point guard we need.  The goal isn’t to go from a “rock” team to a “paper” team, or from a “paper” team to a “scissors” team, but to become a team that’s all three.  What kind of guard adds a dimension we need without taking away from the Sixers’s strengths?  Or, in today’s NBA, is there a kind of team that has the best chance of going deep into the playoffs?

The problem that has yet to be resolved or sufficiently answered is the consistency at which their play fluctuates up and down.

Why do they beat the Lakers on the road, lose to Golden State then come right back and beat Portland on the road?

Would you really be that surprised if the lost to Minnesota tonight at home?  I wouldn’t and that is the frustrating thing with this team.

How does a basketball team become consistently good.  This is a conversation more so for after the season but it is the sole factor for my lack of enthusiasm with this squad right now.  Passion many times is derived from consistency.  How can a fan honestly be passionate about a team that jerks them around so much?

It isn’t like we don’t want to support.  That we don’t want to cheer.  We don’t want to come to games.  We don’t want to be optimistic.  But at some point reality takes over based on the cumulative of recent historical performance – no?  We stop living off one shot “big” or “unexpected” wins or quarter or 1/3 season runs when the end result is still .500 or slightly better and a first round playoff exit.

And you know what, it certainly doesn’t make us bad fans either when our enthusiasm taper.  It just makes us human.

Lately, the Sixers have been quite the road warriors and are starting play better in close game situations.  Now, I sure hope Marshall and Rush will be a part of the rotation and not just the blowout minutes.    They really create a new dimension for the Sixers and it opens the drives the hoop by that much.  

Also, Reggie Evans reminds me of Apple-Founder/engineer Steve Wozniak.  I was watching “Dancing With The Stars” one day and he was dancing.  The judges loved his passion, but he is no dancer.  With that said, Reggie may not light up the box score with points often or be smooth sailing(dancing) as Brand on the post up game, but his impact and his heart are huge and it cannot be defined in a box score. It appears that against these contenders and great teams, Reggie is always active on BOTH ends of the floor (like Game 1 last season in the playoffs).  Plus, he does EVERYTHING with a smile!  You have to love that, along with his lunchpailing!   He is PLAYOFF material!!  

GO SIXERS!!!  

Nor will they lose to a worse team than the Thunder without Durant and Green.

They have shown that they can play up or down to anyone.