With the same energy they displayed in dispatching the Lakers on Tuesday, the Sixers would've cruised to a win in Phoenix last night. But that energy was nowhere to be found. In its place, a team who coasted through long stretches of the game with this false sense of security. This unfounded belief they would be able to turn it on late to pull out a win. They couldn't.
Lazy rotations. Lazy offensive possessions. Reaching instead of moving your feet. Settling for jumpers instead of pressing an advantage. The Sixers displayed all the typical symptoms of the second night of a back-to-back, especially a back-to-back in the midst of this monster road trip. It's understandable, but not acceptable. Maybe if they came into the game 20-12 instead of 15-17 you could excuse it, but the Sixers gave up the luxury to take games off when they got off to this sputtering start.
This roster goes eight deep, and I use the word deep very loosely. On any given night, Nick Young, Dorell Wright and/or Jason Richardson just completely disappear. Collins gets absolutely nothing from Kwame Brown. Royal Ivey's "extended minutes" equaled 4 last night. The night after Jrue played 39 and Turner played 41, Collins could only get 4 from Ivey to lighten the load on them. Maybe last year the bench could've come into a game like last night's a picked up a flat starting five. That's just not going to happen this year. Nick Young can get hot, Spencer Hawes can start hitting 20-footers, Dorell Wright can get hot from deep, but those guys aren't a unit. Those guys can't come in and really create on their own. It's more like one or two of them can come in and feed off the starters to keep things rolling. Last season, Lou and Thad could come off the bench and carry the team.
The point here is that the starters, and especially Jrue, need to realize there's no help coming. They can't afford to come out flat against lesser teams. They can't afford to dig holes. They can't coast and think they'll be able to turn it on late to pull out a win. If the starters don't set the tone, the game is pretty much a lost cause. Jrue put up a triple-double last night, he had a few flashes of brilliance, but he can't look himself in the mirror this morning and say he left it all on the floor last night. He took a back seat for most of the first half, whether it was part of Collins' plan or Jrue conserving energy, they aren't good enough for him to be able to do that. They definitely aren't good enough to turn winnable road games into losses.
Beating Memphis and the Lakers on the road is great. It's also the type of thing we've seen from this team for the past six or seven years. What turns a mediocre team into a good team is being able to pull it together for a big road win over a tough team, then realizing it's meaningless if you turn around and lose to the Suns the next night.
It's probably a little unfair to lay this at Jrue's feet when he had a triple-double and didn't score that poorly (16 pts on 16 shots and 4 FTA), but this is his team. There were entire possessions where he didn't touch the ball. He basically stood in the corner. Too often, he gave the ball up early to Turner and took a back seat. Too often he pulled up for a sixteen-footer when he could've gone all the way to the rim. Too often he couldn't fight through a screen, or was slow bouncing under it, or caught flat-footed in transition defense, yielding the lane. Jrue has been marvelous in his new role this year. He's the only reason this team is anywhere near .500 right now. If he's going to take the mantle of leadership. If this is going to be his team, then he's the one who has to be held accountable when the team lays an egg. That's what legit All Stars do.
Game tape was requested by Springfield officials. They want to avail it to visitors in Infamy Wing with caption: "Desert Sturm und Drang: Triple-Double Single Disaster; Jrue Holiday, Philadelphia 76ers, 1/3/13."
Exhibit inscription correction: 1/2/13
You're getting sloppy.
Got a long ways to go to reach Holiday-level disorderliness.
Funny, you were quite quiet after the Lakers game :)
Wouldn't be surprised to see Sixers snag 1 of 2 this weekend... ZERO expectations, last night's humbling, day of rest, raconteur Collins setting the stage, full tank of David vs. Goliath mental fuel, Jrue and Evan geeking for Star Club membership, Spencer rising like Billy Paultz, Thad rebounding like a PF, Nick sustaining intensity 5Xs up and down court, Dorell playing without fear of shadow, JRich waking up and resurrecting positive motions, Lavoy building a bridge to Bill Bridges... could happen; odds are against it... Rocky lives on!
Au contraire! Actually I was comment 2 of 235. Said what I wanted to say. Well knew that Sixers' Laker game effort was an adrenalized phantasmagorical outlier.
thought you guys would appreciate this:
http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/social_assets/nba/1_2_2013/WarriorsBenchBlakeGriffin.gif
No one on this team outside of Jrue, Thad (and on occasion Turner) can drive to the basket or score in the paint. Last year the difference between good and bad Lou was his tendency to jack up shots and his ability to generate fouls or use his speed to change the pace of the game.
Seeing N.Young, Hawes or Wright try to do something other than take a wide open jump shot is painful to watch. If the Sixers want a successful bench this year, they need to go after a capable PG that can penetrate and use these players as spot up shooters.
Yeah, I think that's the immediate need that they could probably fill. There are PGs out there who can run the offense for 8-10 minutes/game and generate a little something, and they're obtainable. Getting a good big is going to cost you something, same with a legit wing defender. But a backup PG? I think they're just being lazy.
At this point, I'd be happy if they got Sebastian Telfair.
Problem is, 'Swag' likes 2 or 3 dribbles for max comfort, Wright needs to REALLY be set-up (not good in company) and your 7 ft-er stationed 18-20 ft from the basket gets you a bucket or back door pass every so often but it's not advisable for optimum long term effects, especially since his picks are limp. Don't know that Cousy could plug in that trio consistently.
Sixers have won only 4 of last 17 1st Quarters! Opponents 26.5 - Sixers 23.2. Yet madcap Collins stays with same set of starters. Crazy. If ya can't play D in Q1, how ya gonna do it in Q4? Time for change.
Given Jrue and Evan's improvements this year, what do you think our record would be if we didnt make the blockbuster trade? What if we amnestied Brand to clear his salary and still picked up Young/Wright (if that works under the cap)? Vucevic would be emerging as a good rebounder, our defense would be better with Iguodala, and Turner would probably run the point off the bench since Iguodala would be starting.
But in the end you're talking about a 5 or 6 game improvement for a team that has no chance of being a championship contender.
I want to evaluate what this team is by the start of the 2014 season. The majority of this team's success will depend on Bynum's health, but I am curious as to what DiLeo's outlook is on Turner and Thad. DiLeo does have some good trade pieces to work with for next year- young players with potential like Turner, Moultrie and Lavoy along with the expiring contracts of Spence and Kwame. I think they have about $19 million in expirings for that year.
Yeah, i would agree that 2014 is the key year for this team. I hope that by that time, the new statistical analyst the Sixers hired can make an positive impact on the Sixers decisions.
Who's to say Jrue and Evan would actually improve that much if Lou and Iguodala were still here? The biggest reason for their improvement has been the simple fact that they've been sort of thrown out in the firs as the only capable ball handlers/creators on the team.
If they kept the same team (even with Brand), they probably would've been very similar to what they were last year. Maybe a little bit better, but still a 50 win team at best.
Yeah, Turner's per36 minutes are virtually the same. The only difference is that his 3-point shooting got better. He's just getting more minutes and taking more shots.
i agree with you guys. i was just thinking about it because vucevic got the 29 rebounds and last night we couldnt rebound at the end. i think we only lost the battle of the boards by 2 rebounds or something, but it just seemed like in the 4th quarter the suns got a couple o-boards we really needed to get. im also incredibly frustrated with our defense. its hard to watch.
Vucevic would definitely be an improvement over the players the Sixers actually have, but defensive rebounding is not one of the biggest problems of late. After a bad start the Sixers are up to 8th in defensive rebounding so i guess, we should look for problems elsewhere.
guards placing a higher emphasis on rebounding is stifling the sixers early offense.
Possibly, but when was the last time you saw a Sixers big make an effective, long outlet? I can't remember it at all. Most of their early offense comes off a guard getting a rebound and pushing himself.
I think you are correct. The early offense has definitely taken a hit this year, but it's actually not that different from last year. The guards were helping in the defensive rebounding greatly last year too.
Well, being able to produce the same numbers with an increased role is still a big improvement for any player IMO. Probably the biggest weakness of statistical analysis is the failure to properly capture the importance of roles within the production. It's not the same putting numbers as a bench player against opposing benches and weak defenders, it's entirely another putting the same numbers as a guy opponents game plan for.
That's way oversimplifying things, stan. His usage went up AND his PER/TS are up - that's a very good thing. There may not be enough improvement, it may not justify his 7 million, but there's no way to call this anything but an improvement this year.
I agree. Turner already has scored more three pointers this season than in his previous two seasons combined and he shoots them at an unbelievable 42.5%. I'd say that alone is a huge improvement, not even mentioning everything else, like increased role on both ends of the floor.
we're assuming Collins would actually be playing Vucevic. he's getting starting minutes in Orlando right now.
he's playing Lavoy Allen now isn't he?
He'd basically be forced to with the selection he has to choose from.
My problem with Voose is his Hawes-like strength; his is the path of no resistance to the basket, for any decent big. He blocks shots pretty well though. Needs to hit the gym some.
hahahahahahahahaha well the only good thing to come out of this game was DC semi-melting down postgame...which they CUT OUT of the video on sixers.com!! Not finding any video anywhere, Tom Moore if you are still lurking here do you have it??
What did he say?
someone asked about whether the team was tired or was it just execution and he said something along the lines of "what did John McKay say about execution?" and then started laughing creepily, it was pretty awesome:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McKay_(football_coach)#Quips
Following a Tampa Bay Buccaneers loss in their early seasons, McKay was asked what he thought of his team's "execution." He replied, "I'm all for it."
pretty funny. Collins wants to kill them.
Andre Iguodala shot 1-for-5 from 3-point range and made only one of his seven free-throw attempts in Denver's loss to Minnesota on Thursday night. That followed Iguodala's 1-for-5 performance from both the 3-point line and charity stripe on New Year's Day.
Prior to this season, there had been only seven instances in which a player made as low as 20 percent of his attempts from 3-point range and the free throw line with a minimum of five attempts in each category in the same game, and no player had done that more than once. Iguodala has now done it in consecutive games.
Did Lawson lose his starting job there? He came off the bench last night.
Achilles injury I think.
hes coming off an injury so maybe they want ease him back in
yup. Lawson's been pretty terrible this season though.