For the second straight game Mo Cheeks leaned on his veteran bench warmer, Donyell Marshall, in the fourth quarter. For the second straight night, Donyell delivered. He hit 5/7 from the floor all told, including 3/5 from downtown. Unfortunately, his 13 points and 5 boards weren't nearly enough. The rest of the team provided little help.
The only highlights I can really dig out of the rest of the team's play came at the free throw line, where Miller and Iguodala combined to shoot 16/17. Of course the rest of the team shot a pitiful 6/12.
As inept as the offense was, the Sixers were still in this game. I can't really tell you how, I guess it was because they got to the line so much. The reason they lost was their inability to defend the three (if you're a pessimist) or New Jersey's unconscious shooting from range (if you're an optimist). New Jersey hit 11 threes, 9 in the second half. They hit them early in the clock, late in the clock, with no one in their face, with a man in their face. It didn't matter who was shooting them, they were going down. To be honest, though, most of the looks were wide open.
In fact, on back-to-back possessions Andre Miller stood 5 feet away from Devin Harris and dared him to shoot from beyond the arc. Both times he swished them. That's just lazy.
Heading into this back-to-back on the schedule you had to think the Sixers would come out with one win, one loss, at best. They managed to do that, although not in the way you would've predicted.
Cross your fingers that Elton Brand is back on Wednesday, because I don't want to have to watch any more minutes with Reggie Evans and Theo Ratliff in the front court. It's painful.
If Brand does come back, at least we got one positive from his absence. Mo gave Donyell a chance and hopefully he's earned himself some burn when the roster is healthy.
Player of The Game: Donyell
Team Record: 9-12
Up Next: The LeBrons on Wednesday.
Future Project: Thad has 12 touches (8 shots) in the first half, 10 touches (3 shots) in the second half.
I predicted the Sixers would lose to the nets...who are a rebuilding team and still better than the Sixers in every phase of the game. A week from now the Sixers will be 9-14. Dont even begin to think they will beat Cleveland in either game....Lebron is on a mission. I hope Stefanski is seeing which coaches are available...Maybe Avery Johnson ? Eddie Jordan ?
Im not sure its totally fair to Moe but I am sure he had a lot of input into which players are on the team so its his fault too that we have a bunch of mismatched pieces. Plus even with all this speed and athleticism...the team cannot defend the three.
Of course it's fair to Mo, he's had more than enough time in his career to show that he's a capable NBA head coach, and he hasn't...and he's going to get paid through next year, working or not...he'll be fine
I don't see how difficult it is to see that this team excels in the running game. Even with Brand, we should have no illusions that we are a good half court team when our most consistent shooter is Brand and his range is 18 feet max. Iggy can drive but can't finish while Young can finish but isn't comfortable enough handling the ball. Sammy is just there for open dunks and putbacks.
We should try what we did last season. When we are unable to run then we post Brand up or take advantage of the mismatches Thad/Iggy/Miller may get.
I don't want to put all the blame on the coach, he does seem a genuinely nice guy, but a lot of the Sixers problems stem from coaching and player rotations. He looks completely clueless at times and I think even Lou, Speights and Thad have no idea what the coach wants from them.
Cleveland is sooooo overrated. Of the 17 wins they have this year, they have gotten two from the bucks, pacers, bulls, and knicks. In additon to this of the 16 playoff teams last year they only have 4 wins, and 3 losses. The rest went against garbage teams. Im not saying to take the game lightly but Im not scared of Lebron's "mission" at all. If we can beat Detroit, why cant we beat Cleveland? Now granted, we dont beat the teams we are supposed to beat(Charlotte, Chicago, Jersey, Miami) but I think this team can still turn things around.
Best wins...
Nov 3 @ DAL W 100-81
Nov 13 DEN W 110-99
Nov 15 UTH W 105-93 - Without Deron
Nov 18 @ NJN W 106-82
They have relaly beaten no one except Dallas, who I would say is around the 10th best team in the NBA.
I still think they are better than the Sixers and I think they had a lot of success against the Sixers last year. We will see. Maybe the team will get it together.