Over their current three-game winning streak, the Sixers have outscored their opponents by 34 points. This is significant because tonight's game put the Sixers on the positive side of the ledger: 4,383 points for, 4,375 points allowed. Mark the date, Jan. 26th. At 20-25, let's hope the Sixers can stay on the positive side of the ledger from here on out. A quick look at tonight's win over the Raptors to follow.
Charts
Thoughts
- HUGE game for Marreese Speights off the bench. 10/12 from the floor, 3/3 from the line, 9 boards (6 offensive) for 23 points in only 17 minutes. The numbers are great, but the thing I liked the most about this game from Speights was how he was playing the pick-and-roll. This season, he's really fallen in love with the pop instead of the roll on those plays, so much so that I forgot he's actually got pretty good hands and finishing ability when he's headed to the hole. He was dominant and active tonight, you can't expect much more than this from the kid.
- Speights wasn't the only guy off the bench to have a good game, pretty much everyone did. Turner, Lou, Thad and Speights combined to score 58 points on 24/40 from the floor and 7/7 from the line.
- The two guys who start but really shouldn't, under any circumstances, were the only real drags on the offense. Hawes and Meeks shot a combined 1/12 from the floor for five points. Hawes did have four assists, mostly on nice backdoor passes, but to be honest with you, I'd trade all the backdoor passes in the world for a center who could get more than an inch off the floor. Hawes had several point-blank opportunities where he simply failed to get the ball above the rim. He's a poor athlete, but at 7'1" you barely have to get off the ground at all to throw one down, he's just plain lazy and soft, shying away from contact even when he's within dunking range. It's pitiful. As for Meeks, it's got to be so frustrating when these guys keep making the extra pass to get Meeks wide-open looks from three only to see them clank off the back of the rim. If he's going to be in the rotation, he absolutely must knock down a decent percentage of those. If he isn't, he's useless on the offensive end. If I never see another one of his drives to the hoop, it'll be too soon.
- Iguodala and Brand each did their thing, combining for an efficient 29 points. Iguodala's all-around game was spectacular, though I wish he would've spent more time guarding DeMar Derozan, who was on fire throughout.
- Jrue got off to a rough start and got the hook very early in the first quarter. He came back pretty strong and had 10 and 5 at the half. The game was tied at 50 at the break, and Doug Collins must've said something to Jrue and Iguodala. They came out and absolutely put the Raptors to bed in the third. Over the first 9:34 of the third quarter, the Sixers outscored Toronto 28 to 17. Iguodala and Jrue had a hand in 27 of those 28 points. Iguodala scored 10 and handed out two assists. Jrue scored 4 to go along with 4 assists. Hawes split a pair of free throws for the only other point scored over that stretch. Overall, Jrue's defense was stellar, again, but his scoring was inefficient (15 points on 16 shots and 4 free throws). He did have 5 boards, 11 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks, but 5 turnovers is unacceptable. That's only a good game if your name is John Wall.
- If you're into the youth movement, you should be happy with the DNPCDs for Nocioni and Battie, I know I am.
- Yes, Toronto is a bad team, and the Sixers treated them as such after a shaky first. Good teams put bad teams away by double digits on the road. That's what the Sixers did tonight.
Player of The Game: Speights. No question.
Team Record: 20-25
Up Next: vs. Memphis, Friday night
Game capsule
Hmm is that Speights's first POTG? He's like the ninth different POTG so far right?
Speights simply has to get more minutes soon. The only question is whether he is physically fit to play extended minutes. That has been a problem in the past.
"HUGE game for Marreese Speights off the bench. 10/12 from the floor, 3/3 from the line, 9 boards (6 offensive) for 23 points in only 17 minutes. The numbers are great, but the thing I liked the most about this game from Speights was how he was playing the pick-and-roll. This season, he's really fallen in love with the pop instead of the roll on those plays, so much so that I forgot he's actually got pretty good hands and finishing ability when he's headed to the hole. He was dominant and active tonight, you can't expect much more than this from the kid."
I've been saying this a lot recently, but at Florida the pick and roll was the staple of his offensive game, virtually never doing a pick and pop. He's got great hands. if somebody can convince him to continue, he's going to have success.
http://talksportsphilly.com/2011/01/barkley-doesnt-have-a-clue/
Thoughts on Barkley's comments about tanking the season. Interesting read.
Barkley is correct. That site is very wrong.
The problem this tear is that the draft is less deep than last year. Because of the CBA issues, many of the best players are not coming out.
From casual observation it seems that only about 15 quality starters or better enter the league each year through the draft. This year is likely to be fewer, maybe a lot fewer. Tanking guarantees nothing except the perpetuation of a losing attitude on a team.
Yeah, I really have to wonder about anyone who wants to tank this year when we're 3.5 games out of the 6th seed. Do these "fans" ever want to root for their own team?
lol, i'm rooting for this team. I have accepted that this year isn't about rebuilding and i'm rooting for them to make the playoffs and win a series. Would be absolutely gutting if this team misses out on the playoffs and gets a bad lottery pick as consolation.
But you are fucking up the sixers future as well as Jrue's career by doing this. You are limiting the amount of talent that you can have around Jrue in future years. The odds of improving in FAency are still very low, not many teams are built through Free agency. Boston was built through trades btw, they had a terrible record the year before, didn't keep them from acquiring players on losing teams and then winning a championship the next year.
For those that are still hoping for a high draft pick/slide into the bottom of the East, explain to me how exactly is Collins to go about that? Play the young guys? 3 of the 5 starters are "young guys" and our entire bench minus Nocioni and Battie (who have fallen off the rotation, anyway) are "young guys". Trade away our solid, dependable veterans for some questionable young talent a load of crap? Is that really the best way to develop your young players? By throwing a bunch of untalented, equally clueless players around them? No thanks, I'll leave that for the Timberwolves (who will fuck up and lose Kevin Love to another team sooner than later, I predict).
Playing w/ guys like Brand and Iguodala to an extent is going to go a long way toward helping Jrue, Turner, Thad, Speights etc. become solid pros. This team is too talented to be a bottom tier team in the East and to be winning consistently with 2 sophomores and SPENCER HAWES in the starting lineup should just be an affirmation that our guys are starting to get it and make real strides. If we can play .500 ball a year after losing Miller and Dalembert and rolling with our youth, I'll call that success.
I love people defining what makes one a legitimate fan. I have no qualm with fans who have a desire to win a championship, and want to maximize their chances of doing so.
I love the passing lately by everybody, even Lou, and if that continues our offense may catch up to our defense. Brian, about Hawes; his passing isn't needed with this group, you are right. My simple solution is find a veteran center not playing that sets good screens and defends and hits the boards and can stay out of the way offensively [Voskuhl?] and play him 15 minutes behind Spieghts at the 5. Hawes is hurting this teams chance of being an above 500 team.
What's wrong with Battie? He's exactly the guy that you described.
honestly at this point i'd trade Hawes for anything, just so that he'll free minutes for Speights.
How easy it is to forget!!! If he can play consistant minutes than yes he works for me. I wonder if Hawes and a 2nd rounder gets B.Wallace.
I so wish we could trade for Robin Lopez as I think he'd be a great fit with the team/Collins (& given Phoenix & their current glut at center). I certainly hope an extension for Hawes doesn't happen but I worry about Doug & his seeming sentimentality (in his public comments about him anyway) towards him & what part it might play in it.
Lopez doesn't play defense. Also not a good rebounder. I'd rather not trade future assets and cross my fingers with Speights.
Yeah...you're right cuz there's no way those can be taught...hilarious!
from ESPN:
• Jrue Holiday handed out 11 assists for the 76ers in their 107-94 win at Toronto. Holiday leads second-year NBA players with an average of 6.6 assists per game this season. Last season, Holiday's 3.8 assists-per-game average ranked him sixth among NBA rookies. Stephen Curry, Tyreke Evans, Brandon Jennings, Darren Collison and Jonny Flynn had higher averages as rookies in 2009-10 than Holiday.
Holy offense, Batman ...
Sixers have scored at least 95 points in each of the past 11 games.
That is their longest streak since a 17-game span from Feb. 26-April 1, 1997, and the fourth-longest dating back to 1990-91.
Wow, back in the Johnny Davis era. Iverson scored 40 or more 5 times in a row or something like that around the same time.
Several of those games were overtime games.