It was a charged environment at the Wach for Allen Iverson's return to the Sixers. The crowd seemed to carry the team most of the night, but when all was said and done, this was a very familiar game for Philly.
Defense did them in, yet again.
Let me begin by saying tonight was the best-coached game of Eddie Jordan's brief tenure as the Sixers lead man. Before you go crazy, realize this was simply the least horrible of a string of 21 horrible coaching jobs, but still, that's an improvement. He started the correct, lineup, which seems like such an easy decision, but he hasn't done it in quite a while. (We'll table the discussion of whether this lineup was a mandate from above). He gave both Dalembert and Brand heavy minutes, including a whopping 34 minutes with both guys on the floor. It's no surprise the Sixers were finally nearly respectable on the defensive glass (73.2%, 75% is always the goal). That being said, 14 minutes is about 9 too many for these small lineups, at least until the team starts playing defense that at least approaches respectability.
As we learned earlier today, rebounding is only 1/3 of the problem for the Sixers on that end of the ball. The other two parts weren't so great. As predicted, they didn't stop penetration at all, and they didn't rotate to the open man on the perimeter either. Denver shot 11/18 from deep and got to the line 26 times. Statistically speaking, the Sixers did a representative job against one of the most potent offensive teams in the league, holding them 5 points below their season offensive efficiency rating (109 to 114), but as I watched the game, I couldn't help but think Denver was toying with us. They could get whatever shot they wanted, whenever they wanted it, as long as the shot they wanted wasn't a clean look for 'Melo, because Iguodala absolutely dominated him.
Overall, it was a valiant effort and I believe it may just have been a win if Iverson was in mid-season form. Now don't go crazy with that statement. The game Andre Iguodala had was unbelievable, and it was also fluky. Much like Willie Green in the last game, Iguodala was just drilling bad shots for most of the night. You also had Sam and Elton completely dominating the glass and the paint. Those two combined for 18 points, 28 boards and 8 blocks. Thad Young also carried the torch offensively with a series of stunning moves in the paint, essentially gluing Melo's feet to the floor. So what I'm saying is that if all the other Sixers could play the games they played tonight, and Iverson was up to speed, I think he might have been able to carry them for a stretch in the fourth offensively and given them a chance to steal the game. The odds of all those things happening again are pretty slim, though. But that doesn't mean a whole lot, Denver is just a better team, they played a solid three quarters then succumbed.
The holes are still there, the coach is still incompetent, this game was probably more fool's gold than a sign of improvement, but it was a good night to be a Sixers fan. Iverson's here, for better or for worse, no one's development was hindered tonight, so enjoy it.
Oh, and if Iguodala doesn't have two or three of the top five dunks of the night, something is wrong with the NBA.
Player of The Game: Iguodala, yes he had a bad stretch early in the fourth, as did every other Sixers, but you just can't ignore 31 points on 21 shots. Plus he held 'Melo to 5/21 from the floor for 14 points.
Team Record: 5-16 (3rd worst record in the league, losing ground to the Knicks!)
Up Next: Detroit on Wednesday night.
Mike was at the game, check back in the morning for his first person report. Until then, have at it in the comments (the Ty Lawson ban has been lifted for the day, although I have an asterisk next to all stats due to the fact he was never defended by a legitimate NBA defender).
Elton did a good job hitting the glass tonight but wow when he gets an offensive board he doesn't seem to have the lift to take it back up strong, kind of a problem when he is an undersized 4 to begin with...We can all argue that EJ hasn't used him effectively or put him in a position to succeed but it's becoming more and more clear to me that he has lost a step or two or three...Anyone think EJ is in danger of losing his job if the defense continues to be dreadful and we run this losing streak up around 15?
I was looking at the schedule, and I think if it gets to 20 we'll have a new interim coach by the New Year. They'll be out west on a long trip, they will have lost an assload of winnable games, they can make the move without having to deal with a home crowd to boo them.
I don't think the streak extends to 20 though, I actually have them winning on Wednesday against Detroit.
Completely forgot to mention the bench in my wrap, and I guess that's fitting because they completely forgot to show up. 1/14 from the floor, -12 for Willie and some of the worst perimeter defense you'll ever see. Kapono was bricking open looks. It was just sad. The starters played well enough to win.
Oh, and I also have a feeling that with Eddie Jordan letting Iverson dictate his own minutes, this will probably be his lowest minute total of the season (38).
We need A.I for 35-38 minutes a night(Seriously, with Jrue/Lou hurt would you RATHER Green/Ivey man the PT?)
A.I did solid, 11, 5, 6. I take that any day, he was a veteran and a spark that led us to where we wanted to be: In a position to get a win, ANY win.
That being said, we're not winning against Detroit. A little banged up, but they got size, speed, quickness and Ben Gordan. That's a blowout, Eddie Jordan isn't going to coach a game like last night's again.
That wasn't a criticism, hell if AI could've played 48 tonight we would've had a better chance.
As for Detroit, you're probably right. I had Iverson exploding in his second game and pretty much carrying us to the victory, but Jordan could easily squander such an effort too. Detroit is a very bad team, IMO, but you can't expect anything from this Sixers team.
It just doesn't seem like the defense has made any strides whatsoever, sometimes they look like they're regressing after i think they have reached their lowest point. Teams shooting 42% against the Sixers from beyond the arc after 21 games? unbelievable. Denver took what they wanted last night. I don't know if Stefanski will fire his buddy after such a short run, but if this garbage continues maybe he won't have a choice. Wasn't accountability one of the major qualities that Stefanski wanted in his "coaching search"? EJ doesn't seem to want to accept blame for much of anything, nor does he seem to have any solutions for this teams problems. He always seems to just chalk the L's up to the other teams playing well, and that is unacceptable and the mark of a loser.
Anyone seen Eddie Jordan's page at B-R.com lately?
Well played. Can you rotate what is said? Becuase it could be fun.
EJ, master of the Princeton Defense- creating open looks and a potent 3pt offense- for the opposition.
That's hilarious!
Brian, that's hilarious about the Eddie Jordan page. How much did that cost you? Was it the minimum price of $5?
Some of my thoughts on the game:
- I found it interesting that Iguodala didn't cede his spot as the last player introduced. He still deserves that spot in general, but I thought he might switch places for this game at least. As it was, he got some awkward applause (that's what it sounded like on TV at least) at the tail end of the Iverson ovation.
- Iverson still can't keep anybody in front of him on D, but I don't think any of us had high expectations in that regard. On offense, he still does one thing better than any of the younger Sixers, even at half speed: after he gets by his man, he can stop on a dime and go up *with balance* for an intermediate jump shot.
- Iguodala played great defense on Carmelo throughout and got in his head eventually. Iguodala then switched to Billups in the 4th and didn't do too badly until giving up the 30-foot bomb. On offense, it was definitely too many jumpers, which was fine while he was hitting but hurt when he missed a few (7 in a row overall, actually) during the big Denver run. On the plus side, very quietly (because it's all come during the losing streak) Iguodala has brought his FT pct. up to 75% with a 49-56 streak (87.5%) and his 3-pt. pct. up to 34% with an 11-24 streak. On the downside, he's also had at least 4 turnovers in 6 of the last 7 games.
- Also very quietly, Thad's 3-pt. pct. is up to 41.5%. He's also starting to see the floor a bit better, made one or two nice passes in this game (and his assist-to-turnover-ratio is inching up toward the magical 1.0 for the first time). On defense, I thought he held his own, other than the expected overhelping.
- Brand's offensive rebounding has been good this year, but I wonder what's happened to him as a defensive rebounder? His def. rebound rate is the lowest of his career, lower than Iguodala's at this point, and it's part of the reason the Sixers haven't been able to control the defensive glass even *with* the big lineup.
- Willie was horrible shooting-wise, but he did make one nice penetration that led to a dunk. I've always thought he has some decent PG skills when he doesn't fancy himself a scorer.
- Ironically, the 4th quarter lineup the Nuggets were using (Billups-Lawson-J.R. Smith) called for a smaller Sixer lineup to match up better on D, but with Jrue out, there was no one to bring in (Ivey would have been a liability on offense with the team trying to catch up, Carney also a liability on offense recently).
- I do have one major problem with Jordan's coaching this game: his wholesale substitutions in the 2nd (and to a lesser extent in the late 3rd). Why does he insist on taking out Thad and Iguodala at the same time? He did it at 8:49 of the 2nd, and the team went from a 32-22 lead to a 34-30 lead by the time those two came back at 4:22 (any Sixer fan could have predicted that the lineup of Kapono-Carney-Green-Ivey-Dalembert would have had a hard time scoring). It was a bit better at the start of the 4th, but I have to question the Royal Ivey isolation (who called that play??).
- Finally, I found it most interesting in the postgame when someone asked Iverson about what changes/improvements he had noticed in Iguodala from then (2006) until now (2009). His answer: "He's older" [has more experience]. Not exactly complementary, and I still wonder if they will be able to coexist.
Thankyou for your summary. Would like to see it more often (hint). Brian, love the link (is there a way to leave comments? (if so, email me how).
This coach is driving me crazy. We would have won this game with any coach in the league (including Franks) as no other coach would have left Willie Green in there and would not have removed all our starters.
Thad needs to learn how to stay with his man. Way too many open shots by JR Smith that Thad was suppose to be defending.
"Iguodala has brought his FT pct. up to 75% with a 49-56 streak (87.5%) and his 3-pt. pct. up to 34% with an 11-24 streak."
Yeah, he's been getting to the line more as well. I was shocked when I saw him shooting the tech, though. Isn't Brand over 80% on the season?
Power forwards do't shoot technicals, jeez what are you thinking
ty lawson! ty lawson! ty lawson! ty lawson! ty lawson!
did you see Ty Lawson........sorry, with the ban temporarily lifted I had to get it out of my system....at this point, if Holliday EVER GETS as good as Ty Lawson is RIGHT NOW, he'll be a success....check back in 4 years...yawn.......
Was nice to see Brand and Sammy play some D and do some dirty work.....and I think Elton Brand needs a shout out.....that guy hammers anyone who thinks he's gonna get an easy dunk....I LOVE his fighting attitude....he needs to start and play every game....I watch in San Francisco on DirectTV's NBA package and I never get the Philly feed. The announcers for the opposition ALWAYS make a snide comment about our silly flailing on the defensive end.....one guy said, "I think PHilly is applying the MUSICAL CHAIRS defense tonight, Tom" Ugh.
"I think PHilly is applying the MUSICAL CHAIRS defense tonight, Tom"
That's a good way to describe it. Just keep passing the ball until your best shooter is wide open, doesn't take long against the Sixers.
Wille Green and Kapono shouldn't ever take their sweats off in the fourth quarter....Kapano looks horrid....Green couldn't stay in front of Todd McCullough...I mean Todd McCullough now.