The Suns sport a familiar statistical profile to many teams the Sixers have faced lately. Pretty good on the offensive end, dreadful defensively. Can Philly take advantage of a glaring weakness, for once?
Defensively, three areas of focus. Jrue needs to put a ton of pressure on Dragic, who's have a really strong season. They need to keep the Phoenix bigs off the offensive glass (Gortat, Morris and Scola are all getting a ton of o-boards) And finally, see if you can entice Michael Beasley to shoot them out of the game. Beasley is in the running for worst #2 pick in recent years, though he has plenty of competition. Beasley is taking 8.5 long jumpers per game, and he can't shoot long jumpers. Just back off him and let him shoot them right out of the game.
On the offensive end, Beasley is lazy, Scole is a sieve and Dragic is weak. Attack, attack, attack.
Thad and Turner both played 40+ minutes last night. Jrue played 37. Everyone else should be fine. The Suns haven't played since Friday.
The tip is at 6pm. This is your game thread. I'll be here thoughout. Join me if you're up for a bounce after the OKC loss.
rewatching the 2nd half from last night, can't believe how well ET was able to stay with Westbrook on the ball
Is this another not-so-stealth trap game - second of a home back to back, Dallas (and I guess EB?) coming in, weak team without anyone to really key in on...who will be the random 30 pt nobody who beats them tonight?
I hope to see jrue break or tonight. He really should be able to drop 30 on this Suns team even without hitting long jumpers.
I hope to see jrue break or tonight. He really should be able to drop 30 on this Suns team even without hitting long jumpers.
33
Expectations for this one? They revert back to their lackluster effort and look nothing like the team from last night and end up in a grind it out affair and lose in the end.
aaand we're off. Lavoy loses the tip. Stop on the first PHO possession.
evan 3 from jrue
ET corner three!
Jrue in the post to Turner for a corner three, good.
damn the Kid has his big boy pants on tonight!
another 3 for evan
ET 3 again!!! wth
Jrue drive and kick to Turner for another three. Heh.
just how they drew it up
3 trips down the floor, 3 times Jrue puts pressure on and hits somebody for a made jumper.
jrue
well maybe this team has learned that points you score in the first do indeed make things easier for you later on...hmm...
Jrue with a falling down spin move.
Scores himself the fourth time.
ET heatcheck.
I hate these sissy fouls, ugh.
ET Lavoy high pick and roll.
Was that a successful pick-and-roll?
Good thought, bad pass by ET.
Jrue in the lane. Love to see him get to the line 5 times tonight.
and it's Swaggy time, what could go wrong?
Too much dribbling, Jrue.
Bad offensive possession there. Too much dribbling by Jrue.
Early subs by Doug. Worried about tired legs, probably.
dammit Hawes
Seeing Spencer camp out around the free throw circle is rather painful. 7' of goo.
Dorell is all out of whack with his jumpers lately.
aaaand Swaggy and Hawes come in and the offense completely shuts down
Got away from driving the ball and started with these garbage screens, offense stagnates.
On one play, Jrue was backing Dragic into the post and spence comes running over to set a screen. Why?
0 for their last 8.
I've liked Dragic for awhile and talked him up as a Lou replacement but he got on a roll late last season. Him and Gortat are a good, but why the hell did they invest in Beasley?
ppg evaluation.
Liked the play out of the timeout, though.
Great pass, Hawes. geez
wright 3
Spence saved Jrue from a turn there.
Haven't heard that enough this season.
First time :)
Does Jrue have a couple fingers taped?
Yep on his left hand. looks like three are taped but may be just two
Moultrie in.
well here's Moultrie, cmon kid let's...hope we don't notice you unless it's for something decent like not getting that rebound
Moultrie!
sissy jumper
Good read by Jrue on that pick and pop.
long two but i guess as long as it works it's a good decision right?
W/ a decent big, that's a dunk. It was a good read because Jrue's man and the help man were both on the high side, so he took them with him, leaving the baseline wide open. Hawes settled for the 16-footer when it was a dunk if he dove instead.
PHI 23, PHO 20 after one.
Good start, poor middle, decent finish. Need to be better.
Man, Wayns seems like a nervous wreck out there. He was much more fluid in the preseason.
I like PJ Tucker.
Doug does know that ET can run the offense when Jrue is sitting right?
7-0 PHO run to start the quarter. Good drive by Wayns to end it. Then a turn on the inbounds...maybe not.
Believe that will always be Wayns achilles heel, defense at this level.
Wright brings a lot to the table but he just can't find the bottom of the basket save a couple good deep shooting nights so far this season.
Wayns rain!
This offense is just painful to watch. They haven't even attempted to penetrate for about 10 minutes.
sissy layup
Nice pass by Turner, Spence cleans it up.
violet. ugh.
Anyone know the deal with Wesley Johnson and Kendall Marshall? Are they injured or just not good enough to see the floor on this team?
they arent injured
Stop sending that fucking pick! Jrue had him backed into the paint, the pick comes, and it turns into a 17-footer.
There you go, Jrue. How hard was that? Hit the freebie.
Un-ET like efficiency thus far. Four field goal attempts, 10 points.
don't jinx it.
Personally I thought he was going to mentally check out after two quick fouls.
Damn these touch fouls on layups. Toughen up in there.
jrue
All night. That's there all night, Jrue.
JRich 3! Spencer ignored him the first time he was open.
Yeah, noticed that too. That was bad.
Jrue to Richardson for 3. Hawes missed him five seconds earlier.
damn
Pretty lethargic 2nd quarter. Not easy to watch.
PHI 46, PHO 41 at the half.
Pretty much identical to the first quarter. I'd like to see better play, probably won't need it to get the win. 13 points, 6 assists, 0 turns for Jrue.
So we made it through the first half with not a whole lot going right; energy level was minimal, we had to draw straws to see wo would take the ball to the hoop, even Lavoy Allen was hoisting 21footers, non-existent rebounding and we're still up by 5.
If jrue still has Dragic locked up in his cell, all we need a little more energy and ET to stay out of foul trouble to pull this one out.
Young attempted 2 fg while guys like Wayns were waxing Iverson.
1) Why is Hawes in the high post?
2) Why does Jrue even pass to Hawes in the hihg post? the ball either comes back, weak dribble or post-up attempts or "Ball-friendly" Hawes botches a pass for a turn. I feel like, if pressed we could find a more benign substitute to achieve such fruitless results.
thad to the line
they are free
jrue dunk, great outlet from evan
Good outlet pass from ET to Jrue leaking out.
I like how the Suns announcers are acting like the Suns should be blowing the Sixers out. Like Phoenix just completely outclasses them.
Sweet
Fucking touch fouls. Richardson that time.
nope Allen, what a killer
That was not off Jrue after replay.
jrue 3!
JRUE43!!!!!
Jrue 4 3!
Practice three.
Come on.
Let's not try the Spence dribble drive again, OK?
What was that call that Violet just made?
Jrue to JRich, ran through screens on the baseline to shake for the corner three.
Hawes is absolutely useless on both ends of the floor. Why are we paying this guy again?
Jrue to the line.
Hawes is worthless
Gortat is making Hawes look like Hawes.
WWWWWTTTTTTTFFFFFFFFF??? Hawes!
6.5 per...............
Gortat only makes like $1M more than Hawes, I believe.
I didn't think I could get any sadder. thanks
Not sure how/when Doug is going to rest Jrue w/ this game so close.
Jrue has been absurdly efficient tonight
You've got to be shitting me.
J-Rule!
These calls are a joke. Not as bad as last night, but still. What a bullshit call there. Kwame's lazy ass actually drew the charge.
Jrue with a bad shot. Drops though
Just fyi.
That's not fair. It's the fourth year, all arguments were catered to the three-year window :)
without the addition that Jrue can cover a PG or SG and that he can ruin a top-flight PG's night w/ some regularity
I guess it's Iguodala's fault :)
kwame!
Jrue's 10th assist on that prayer from Kwame. Plus one.
11th dime. Nick Young hits the triple.
Young is never hesitant
Pretty disastrous two possessions there. Dragic three. Jrue's second turn. Scola to the line. Could've gone into the fourth up double digits. Sloppy.
Heh, Kwame with an Hawes-esque attempt at a dunk. The rim blocked it.
Ah, Kwame.
PHI 80, PHO 75 after three.
Ugh. Gotta weather Jrue's stint on the bench here in the beginning of the fourth.
wow talk about alligator arms
Doug's been resting Evan to come in and spell Jrue here to start the 4th. Can't see him bringing Wayns back here.
Agreed. Hope Turner attacks the hoop.
Put Turner in the fucking post w/ Telfair on him. This isn't rocket science.
That was a kick by Telfair.
Seriously, post ET up Doug!!
We need a timeout, now.
Timeout if they score here. Give Jrue the couple extra minutes of rest during the TO.
3 straight turnovers. Doug pulls Dorell after that risky pass ended in a turnover and puts Jrue back in.
Shit. He didn't wait. Jrue back in at the 10 minute mark. Wow.
Come on. He was fouled before he even caught the fucking ball. How is that shooting?
thad
Lavoy returning is preety big; for defense, and my eyes
Nice, Lavoy.
Jrue Lavoy high pick and roll. And-one for Lavoy
evan
Lavoy block. ET guns a J.
damn good defense and phantom calls.
jrue
et corner 3!
WOW, ET 3, his third! ha
Anther 3 for Turner! Thad kicks it out.
Jrue shooting his 4th and 5th FTs.
even though it's nowhere close to decent, it's good enough to see the WFC with a good handful of Sixers faithful.
That and the Eagles being toast
was there tonight. decent crowd that was real quiet early, got much more into the game down the stretch. its amazing how the stadium starts buzzing when Jrue starts shaking people (or when Swaggy hits a jumper)
Ugh. Don't settle, Jrue.
nice jrue
What a fucking board by Jrue. Holy shit!
Have a feeling this one is still far from over.
Jrue skies for an o-board!!! and-one!!
man's rebound, and one . Holiday
This might be the first time all year Doug has closed with his starting lineup. Not real sure, but can't remember many times he's done this.
Think it might be the last time we see it, too.
Jrue's gassed.
Nail-biting grinder, yeah about par for the course.
just a little more energy to pull this one though.
you can do it.
Better be a decent play out of this timeout for a potential dagger here.
Wasn't a decent play, JRich bails out though.
Big shot from J-Rich. Get a stop here, and you might be looking at a free throw shooting contest.
jrue!
Jrue off-the-dribble J!!!!! Come on one stop
Jrue, bang. Don't like the shot, like the results, obviously.
huge!
not over yet though
looked up 30+ pts, 13+ assists for the Sixers. Barkley did it once. Iverson did it four times.
Time for some d now. Jrue with career high 32 pts.
time for a call from the refs to swing the game
OK, hit the freebies, Jrue.
I was saying there, NO JRUE! why are you passing it to Thad!
sigh
Fuck me. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
No threes, no fouls.
F me, second one rims out. Typical, shit.
1 of 2 at the line. it happens.
bad time.
hit these please
Whew! Did ET have a foot out of bounds when he grabbed that board?
Man, Turner either had his heel up in the air over the endline or he was out of bounds as soon as he secured the board. Officials view of his foot was blocked by Beasley's legs/feet.
Phew.
Turner let him get right to the fucking rim and he blew it. Hit both of these and end it, please.
Beasley is a lefty, don't forget. Still blew it but yeah
strange one there, going to Beasley.
almost made it.
CMON!! eVAN
How did 1.9 seconds not come off the clock?
the game is over
That's shit. They didn't start it until the ball came down from Dudley. Jesus. This franchise can't do anything right.
on the broadcast, they are saying the officials start/stop the clock
That this game would end with some type of official kerfuffle; predictable
Any question about POTG? Welcome back, Jrue.
think this one qualifies as a ride-the-Holiday kinda win.
maybe to make up for yesterday's anomaly.
Anti-climactic win = good enough for me.
Good win, wasn't pretty, but you couldn't expect it to be. Jrue was spectacular, Evan was solid, something roused Lavoy from his coma in the 2nd half. Hawes is still worthless. Solid job by Kwame to put a stop to Gortat owning our interior non stop.
Ersan Ilyasova has been playing like crap this year. He's averaging 6.3 points per game on 8.3 shots per game. His 3P% is down from 45.5% to 22.7% and his per game rebounding numbers are almost identical to that of Andrea Bargnani.
That being said, I wonder if Milwaukee would be interested in a Hawes/Ilyasova swap in December :)
I hope to see jrue break or tonight. He really should be able to drop 30 on this Suns team even without hitting long jumpers.
Not sure if you meant to repost this, but it was definitely a good call.
I have no idea why that re-posted.
Glad Jrue bounced back as he should against this opponent.
Sixers story (with Holiday video): Holiday plays like all-star in victory over the Suns:
http://www.phillyburbs.com/sports/sixers/holiday-does-it-all-in-sixers-win/article_99731919-74ed-59dd-9a15-d9f1b4a34658.html
Jrue 'Cole Slaw' Holiday, after having been shredded, absolutely shredded, by a better athlete and basketball player the night before, found his potatoes against Gail Goodrich Lite and microwaved the ham butt Phoenix Suns in 38:57. Chef BoyI'mGood-with-leftovers-and-an- attitude is cutting down on serving turnovers, an answer to dining room prayers. Next iffy meal: Tues, 7:00 p.m.; Collison Country Stew ("hold the Mayo-naise, please").
Opposing PGs had two really good games in a row against Jrue heading into last night's game. Glad he reversed the trend.
Yeah, had the feeling he'd have flaring nostrils last night. Real nice game. Right side last shot (a milimeter away from ricochet) was willed-in, Iverson-esque. Richardson's earlier one from key was big too.