Nothing To See Here About midway through the third quarter of the Sixers 126-116 loss the Suns you could see they were out of gas. I noticed it when a couple of rebounds bounced in the lane a couple times and no Sixers made a move to grab them. They just didn't have anything left in the tank. It was a valiant effort, but you aren't going to beat the Suns in Phoenix if you don't bring 48 minutes of energy. It sure looked to me like Andre Iguodala left everything he had on the court at Staples Center. He only managed to get 10 shots up and only went to the line twice, making one. If you need a more concrete reason for the loss than just being tired, I'll point you to free throws (18/27) and defensive rebounding (the Sixers only had 22 defensive rebounds, Phoenix grabbed 15 offensive boards. I'm no math wizard, but that's not a good percentage.) Three things greatly disappointed me in this game:
This was really a poor team effort. Sammy started out playing tough D on Shaq, but faded in the second half. Willie shot the ball well, but wound up getting lost on defense way too many times, and giving up easy hoops on gross mismatches. It's probably best to count yourself as lucky after this one. Both Miami and Detroit lost tonight, so the standings remain static. Lick your wounds, get some sleep and come ready to play on Friday night. There can be no excuses in Oakland, that game absolutely has to be a win. Player of The Game: Donyell, again. He was +12 and fueled a furious 11-0 run to erase a 10-point deficit in the second quarter. Team Record: 34-32 Up Next: GSW on Friday night. 20 Comments | Leave a commentLeave a commentLatest Posts• Sixers Need To Regroup • DiLeo The Burglar • Friday Morning Links and Updates • Late-Night Scouting • A Simple Solution? • Nothing To See Here • So Good, Yet So Bad • How Did They Do It? • Iguodala's Game-Winning Shot Video • Do You Believe? • Upset City? • Change The ScriptSearchBlogs in The NetworkSixers BlogsPassion and Pride Sixers 4 Guidos Liberty Ballers Recliner GM PhillyArena Heard In The Cheap Seats | ||||||||||||||||
I wonder why they did not double Shaq more. They seemed to allow the Suns to stay in their comfort zone.
Also, how come they could not make them pay when Shaq was out there? Sammy should have been running him off the floor (Like when the Sixers played Yao.)
When they did double him, it was like a sneak attack from the weak side. I guess they figured you have to pick your poison w/ Phoenix, and they'd rather have Shaq against Daly one on one than an open shooter behind the three-point line.
I don't know why they don't run the offense more through Thad other than him being young (pun intended) or just the fact he isn't looked at as the primary guy. He does better and better when they put more responsibility on him. They should have Iggy play more of a Paul Pressey mode (master facilitator and sometime scorer) and leave the primary scoring to Young.
One other thing. Donyell has definitely earned some PT with his performance in the last few games. He's provided a spark everytime they've called on him so far and his trey shooting is a welcome addition.
He's been more than they could've possibly hoped for. I just hope his minutes don't evaporate any time soon.
GSW is likely to be another track meet but this time w/o a big cactus in the middle. Doable. And it's another game well suited for Speights. We'll see.
Pretty exhausting road trip.
Well since I only thought they'd get two wins on this trip (and those games have not been played yet) they're still ahead of the curve, but after watching a portion of the second quarter and seeing how bad the defense was, I turned it off, I know they had some runs to get back but I had no confidence they could win the game based on that first half defense that I saw.
The whole 'second half' thing seems to be a common theme for the sixers - the first half hot hand seems to be ignored more often than not in the second half - i'm not sure I can think of a reason why. Then again maybe there are still 'no plays called' for Thad?
I don't think that's it. He's getting the ball in good situations early. He just doesn't get the ball later and I'm not sure why.
After watching the game I have to say I'm not sure they can pick off the Warriors. You can't play like that and expect a win.
Well, hopefully they won't play like that coming off a back-to-back, at least hopefully they won't play like that defensively.
Thad is shooting 48.4% for the season. He made just 6 three-pointers last season but has managed to hit 53 thus far at a 35.1% clip. If he can work on improving those numbers slightly and raising his FT% by about 5% we have our no.1 scoring option.
As to why the coaching staff and the other players seem to forget about him sometimes, I have no idea. Maybe they are so stunned by the talent of their 20-year old they don't quite know how to react.
It's inexplicable because it's not his off-days when they forget about him, but in the games when he's torching the other team. Even in high school teams know to stick with the hot hand.
Do you think there's any chance it could be a defensive key? Like, maybe they deny him the ball and he isn't good at shaking his man off the ball?
Brian,
I doubt it. One of the few games I got to watch this same scenario happened (he started off good and didn't see the ball again in the 2nd half). I was watching to see what was going on. He was open and would put his hand up for the ball and it wasn't forthcoming. I can tell you in that game that it seemed in the 2nd half the two 'Dres were doing a two man game.
How does this get resolved? I'm not sure unless DiLeo tells them they have to re-establish roles.
One other stat to note. At the start of the year, Thad had a great PER and WP/48. Once they moved Iggy back to 3 and cut Thad's role down his PER and WP/48 plummeted (down to WG territory - less than 12.5 PER and a negative WP/48). If you look at him lately, he has almost gotten back to the league average. Which means he's been coming on like gangbusters. If they give him a bigger or a primary role I think he can take it. I think if they keep going the way they are they are hold him back.
Last night, I don't think the problem was just the Andres. Ivey and Williams were dominating the ball for long stretches when they were on the floor w/ Thad and neither Andre was in the game.
I'll try to keep an eye on where and how he gets the ball in the first half and see if those same situations are being ignored for some reason in the second next game.
Cool. Have you noticed if they put Iggy in at two with Thad at three lately? Ed S. said in an interview the other day he'd look into doing that but they've been talking about this for a while and haven't seemed to be doing anything about it.
I've been keeping close track of the rotations for the past 4 games, I think after the next two I'll have a long post looking at the minute/position distribution. Don't have my notebook here at work, though.
One reason why the Sixers have a chance against the Warriors: Biedrins won't suit up for that game.
Yeah? That's big.
Not to mention it's a back-to-back for them (GS vs Lakers tonight). Opportunity is ripe here.
We gotta be able to beat the Warriors if we seriously want to get to the playoffs.