Everyone's favorite "young" team with gobs of upside and an ultra-cool superstar wing as recently as a year ago, suddenly finds itself kept (barely) afloat by an aging point guard with a ton of old-man moves and moxie. This one is wrought with fun matchups, let's take a look at a few.
Jrue vs. Miller - This is the reason to watch, as far as I'm concerned. Miller is the definition of a wily veteran. Jrue is learning the ropes, some nights more quickly than others. Jrue should be able to blow by Miller off the dribble, but he absolutely must stay out of foul trouble. I expect Miller to try to take him down to the blocks, where Jrue is an excellent defender, but the myriad ball-fakes Miller will utilize could put a couple early ones on the kid.
Evan Turner vs. the player people compared him to, back when Brandon Roy had knees - Roy is a shell of his former self, and signed for big money. Turner has the word bust already on the tip of his detractors' tongues. Interesting matchup, to say the least. I expect Roy to take too many shots and Turner not enough.
Iguodala vs. Iguodala Light - Batum has gotten a ton of niche publicity this season, very interested to see how he handles Iguodala, and vice versa.
Brand vs. Aldridge - If you haven't been following this blog for long, let me quickly sum up my feelings on LaMarcus Aldridge: the guy sucks. Extremely inefficient scoring big man who loves to play like a small. This season, he's cut down on his long twos a bit, but he can't finish on the inside so it all adds up to a 50.2% TS anyway. I say if he's happy taking 20-footers all night, let him. Just don't accidentally motivate him to go down in the post with Brand guarding him.
Hawes vs. everything Hawes is not - Let's just say it's a good thing Camby isn't a couple years younger, or this would be a disgusting mismatch. As it stands, it's only gross.
Lou vs. Wes Matthews - Portland gave a second-year player $32M as a restricted free agent. He's been good for them coming off the bench, but he's taking way too many threes, and only hitting 31% of them. Lou is Lou. We need Good Lou to show up and lead the charge, having him outscore Matthews would be a good start.
Prediction: Sixers 100, Blazers 85. A two-game win streak, you heard it here first.
The tip is at 7pm, game thread will be up at 5:30.
Wow, quite the prediction.
I say a close loss where they blow a lead in the 4th qtr. Also, I expect foul trouble for Jrue. Yooung players rarely string together multiple strong performances. Consistency is the last thing to arrive.
I'm hoping McKie has been in Jrue's head the past couple days just saying, "Don't bite on the pump fake. Don't bite on the pump fake." In fact, maybe they should've had him write it on a blackboard 1,000 times.
If he avoids foul trouble, I think he has a big game. There's really no athleticism in Portland's starting back court, he can get into the lane at will.
They do have some length though up front, at least in the starting rotation. I gotta say I was surprised by Jrue's conversion rate around the rim. That's a good sign that he's improving, but he's gotta pick his spots tonight. Camby is excellent at protecting the rim, and Aldridge gets more than a block per game. When those guys are out, he can attack relentlessly. Injuries have killed Portland's frontcourt depth.
Sixers blow out Portland by 15? Bold. I think a 4th quarter collapse is much more likely. I also think Miller will play with motivation score big on us tonight. Someone should keep a tally of all the Miller ballfakes Sixers bite on.
I'm a bold man. I figure if it's close, they probably lose, so a blowout is probably the only way they win.
3rd quarter collapse is actually most likely
now THAT is a face. your pictures are golden.
is batum even iguodala lite? I didn't think Batum was a top defender in the slightest.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/blazers/2010/06/nic_batum_mcmillan_wants_me_to.html
You may be right - I admittedly haven't seen him play much.
However, he's not starting tonight:
http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2010/11/wesley_matthews_will_replace_n.html
Hmmn, interesting. OK, so do you put Iguodala on Roy or do you keep Iguodala on the much more athletic Matthews, who is a more potent scoring threat than Batum?
I'd hope he guards Matthews. Roy can't run!
I hope he guards Roy just so he can completely shut him down and completely demoralize the city of Portland.
Lucked into tickets for this one, looking forward to it and I do think the Sixers could pull out a win...Portland comes in on a 3 game losing streak, though they could be more focused after losing to the Nets.
Off topic but I found it a little funny. http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/251832-cousins-tossed-from-practice
Sixers usually play Portland well for some reason. They're 4-2 against them in their last six games (since 07-08), plus Portland is reeling right now.
Then again, a loss wouldn't shock me.
I didn't know that Matthews was athletic, but taking your word for it that he is, he's taking 4 threes a game out of 10 shots a game. As he's largely a shooter for them, he doesn't seem like the toughest cover. So I wouldn't put Iguodala on him.
I was speaking relatively. I'm more athletic than Roy right now, Matthews is much more athletic.
So who makes the NBA All-Knee team?
Oden
Blair
Roy
Redd
Livingston
Bad taste, I know.
I don't really feel too bad for either Roy or Redd; both those guys got their big contracts before signed getting hurt. And really, both Oden and Livingston did 'ok' with their rookie contracts.
Oden really seems to have taken the injuries to heart, which is a shame.
FWIW, you can't really blame Portland for the mess they're in. The 2006 draft was such a crapshoot that Roy and Aldridge would probably still go third and fourth in a revamped draft. And they messed up the one pick (Oden) that everyone else would have messed up as well. Considering the mess they were in beforehand, the Sixers could learn a few lessons.
They're in a bigger mess now, imo. Roy and Aldridge are going to be eating up their cap space for a long time.
You're right about them giving bad contracts to those guys. In that sense they're just like the rest of the NBA.
I'm only saying you can't blame them for drafting a core of Roy, Aldridge, and Oden, and then hoping for the best.
I still think Portland did a great job of dumping the "Jail-Blazers" players and quickly acquiring multiple draft picks.
They really only suffered 3 bad years, and 2 of those years had promise (the rookie of the year and an improving squad.)
http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/POR/
Yes, the players the ended up with aren't panning out as well as hoped, but that should not take away from how well they revamped the team. The extensions and injuries are another issue entirely.
So they had some good initial luck (winning the lottery from the 6th spot) and then a bunch of bad luck (injuries) followed by questionable extensions.
Part of the strength of their quick turn-around involved playing a ton of young players all at one (much as the Sixers do now.)
The year before Oden these were the ages of their core rotation players:
Randolph(25)
Roy(22)
Jack(23)
Udoka(29)
Outlaw(22)
Dixon(28)
Aldridge(21)
Webster(20)
So equate that to the Sixers (20/22/26/31/22/24/23/22/20) this season. You lose a lot more than you'd expect when you play so much (inconsistent) youth. And also Z-Bo at 25 is sort of like Iguodala at 26. The "star" young vet who likely will get traded.
Anouther game where Dre has noone who can guard him. Too strong for Batum and too good for anyone else Portland can put in front of him.
But he probably won't take advantage of it.
He's been pretty damn good since he got back from injury. I don't see why that couldn't continue. Batum and Matthews do some good things on that end of the floor though, they aren't bad defenders at all.
Watch what you say. You get labelled anti-Iguodala for those kind of comments.
When it comes to AI9s offensive game i am Anti Iguodala. But He's had 4 very good games in a row since coming back from the injury so hopefully he keeps that up, just would like for him to be more consistent on the offensive side of the ball, he tends to disappear at times.
I know some people on here have said they don't have espn insider. My friend forwarded me this website that has a daily deal of $1.99 for a years subscription to Insider and ESPN the Magazine.
Seems too good to be true, but I have no idea what the catch is. My friend signed up and got the deal, and I probably will too.
Here's the link: http://home.dailysteals.com/Default.aspx
I thought I'd pass it along, but use it at your own risk.
Brian, I apologize if you don't want this type of stuff on your blog, but considering we're all sports fans it seemed like a good idea. Let me know if this is out of line.
If you get it make sure to cancel it before the year is up, will auto renew for the full price of $120 i believe.
THANK YOU
Source
That thread is where I read about the auto renewal, It might only be $40 and not 120, but still a lot.
The yearly inside is 39.95 and yes they set you up on auto-renewal and in the past it was quite difficult to get them to turn it off :)
Matthews is starting.
If he can guard Kobe, he can guard Iggy.
Hopefully LMA takes it inside as he has been doing more of this season and kills the sixers. Probably will have a 28-15 game. Matthews O/U on threes is at 4 right now.
Dre Miller really looks too much like Richard Pryor in that pic.
Dre Miller really looks too much like Richard Pryor in that pic.