 Sixers Continue To Defy Logic I thought that by sleeping on it, I may have a little better perspective on last night's loss at Golden State. No such luck. Looking back over the games since the All Star break, one thing becomes painfully obvious. This team's defense has gotten worse and worse and worse. What's the cause? I mean, they haven't lost any of their athleticism. They haven't suffered any critical injuries. They haven't shifted their rotations too much (if anything, Coach DiLeo has used his "defensive" specialists a little more). What could it possibly be? My only guess is that a simple scouting report has been dispersed around the league, and teams are exploiting a glaring weakness in the Sixers. Namely, they overreact to dribble penetration, help too much and leave shooters wide open if you just put a little pressure on the interior of their defense. If I had to point to one thing that's consistently let this team down, it's that. Last night, how many times did we see Anthony Morrow or Kelenna Azubuike heaving wide-open threes? Both of those guys came in shooting better than 47% from downtown. How does something like that happen? The Warriors weren't running any kind of elaborate offense. They don't really run an offense. They don't even have a point guard on their roster. To compound things, whenever a guy gets into the lane, instead of having their center, who is a very good shot blocker, come to help, you consistently have Thad Young coming off his man, and Andre Iguodala cheating into the lane, and Willie Green, well who knows what Willie was doing, probably trying to chase his man down from behind. I don't really want to get into stats today. If you look at any number other than shooting percentage, the Sixers should've blown the Warriors doors off. I mean, it shouldn't have even been close. The Sixers took a mind-numbing advantage in almost every way and decided they'd play a gambling defense and try to trade jumpers with a team which shoots much better. Their rotations were horrible, Donyell Marshall saw 6 minutes of game action, touched the three times on offense, by my count, missed two shots and was never heard from again. When Marreese Speights was in the game, being guarded by Corey Maggette, the team didn't go to him in the post once. As I'm sure you can tell, I'm not feeling too confident about this team, its coaching staff or its leadership at the moment. At some point, Coach DiLeo and his assistants are going to need to realize that Royal Ivey and Reggie Evans are rarely the solution when the problem is offensive efficiency. In fact, they're the cause. In a game like last night's, Reggie should've never gotten off the bench and whoever had the idea that a lineup of Speights, Evans, Ivey, Green and Lou Williams was a good idea should be fired. Player of The Game: Sammy Team Record: 34-33 Up Next: @ Sacto, Sunday. 
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Evans and Ivey have been awful offensively. Speights, as a rookie, only cares about scoring and stats. Green and Williams have always been defensive liabilities. Green is having a decent season by his standards (but still the 2nd worst starting SG in the league) while Lou has been poor. Yes, that is one awful lineup to put out there, one that would lose to a lot of those lineups in the NCAA.
Actually they did give the ball to Speights when Maggette was guarding him. He took one power-dribble with his back to the basket. Maggette fell down, and created an offensive foul on the Sixers' part. I think the commentator said Maggette had created three offensive fouls up to that point. He's pretty good at flopping.
One of them he was in the circle but he fell so hard they didn't even bother to recognize it (and the home team announcers would never mention that)
Alvin - I'm pretty sure you have no idea what Speights does or doesn't care about.
On that note - did anyone else see the Warriors broadcast when they showed Iguodala talking to Speights?
The sixerrs shot 38% and the Warriors shot 56% - I'm not sure why you gotta look any deeper than that - when you have an almost 20% difference in FG% you probably are going to lose
The warriors announcers were enamored of Andre Miller - the warriors seem to have a lot of shooters and duplicated parts.
Would you consider a sign and trade of Miller to the Warriors and what would you want from the warriors roster assuming Miller doesn't sign for more than 7-8 mil a year
The Warriors, under Nelson, are a team of one center and four ballers of similar size/skill. That's Nellieball. They have a duplication of everything, really.
I'm antsy about trading away Miller. He's the type of guy you'd try to ride til he drops; replace him with a carefully groomed PG out of the draft.
I like CJ Watson and of course Morrow. If we could get rid of Evans and Lou in the deal (ignoring salary matchups for the moment), I say Sixers come out way ahead. To replace Evans, if you need a banger, snatch GSW's castoff, Richard Hendrix who's polishing his game in Dleague. Nellie didn't like him cuz he's not a sprinter and has a kind of funny shot, but he's super reliable as a rebounder and can actually score a lil bit, too. *shrugs*
I think I saw Sp8's get 3 touches down low last night, although I don't know who he was being guarded by.
As for the D, I can't understand why they don't gamble more on the perimeter esp. when Sam is in the game.
But remember that game a few weeks back aganist Orlando, where the coach and some players said in the quotes the next day that it was the gameplan to force them to shoot from distance. It is like they are banking on giving up, a normally, low percentage shot. Not too much low percentage about it if you are wide open.
Something seemed to be up last night with his subs, b/c he brought Lou in with 3 min. left in the 1st and played him with Willie, taking out Miller. Could this be b/c of Miller's calf never being able to heal?
Forcing the Warriors to shoot from the outside is a stupid game plan - they have some of the best 3 point percentage shooters in the game - give them time to set - and you're kind of screwed.
Against a perimeter team sam will get lots of rebounds - against a perimeter team starting Ronny Turiaf at center with Rob Kurz as the back up - he should get a lot of rebounds even more so - Speights would have had a lot of rebounds as well if he played those minutes - and he hs some post up game.
The sixers half court sets last night on the offensive end were just pathetic - constantly - seriously - aside from Young on the 'curl' to the foul line (which he got a wide open look every time) - the sixers seemed playless...made me angry.
They should have gone to speights more when he was on the floor.
yea i absolutely believe miller is still injured. he hasn't seemed himself lately.
the coaching has been horrendous the past 2 games. they let both PHX & GS dictate the tempo of each game all night long. very discouraging after the huge W over LA, and just further proves that this team is disgustingly MEDIOCRE. i pray they finish this trip 2-3. there is NO CHANCE they will beat portland.
I'm starting to think that the most important off season move is going to be the head coach and coaching staff.
I'm a bit concerned about that
Agree with everyone. They have huge systemic defensive issues that go beyond the personell, and seem unchanged under DiLeo. The offense will get better as Young, Speights and Lou mature and Brand returns. The defense will only improve if they get rid of their over-help, over-switching scheme. Maybe they make a run at Tom Thibodeau ( http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2008/04/21/assistants_will_be_sought_after/
As for the offense, they are improved under DiLeo, butr do send out some offensively challenged line-ups to say the leats.
thibodeau would be an interesting choice. he is a defensive genius, but has never had the opportunity to prove he can be a head coach.
No head coach has has the opportunity to prove that he can be a head coach - until he has...Thibodeau has been a hot name for a couple years now - and still isn't coaching yet - i gotta wonder why
he was actually here in philly as an assistant to john lucas from '94-'96.
Did not know that. That was an interesting team...
Well after going to the Miami game last week and then watching the Laker game on tuesday I was as high as I have been all season on this team. That all came crashing down the last two nights...Phoenix I get...but Golden State ??!!!?? If the Sixers dont win the next two this trip will be another failure. Can anyone coach this bunch ?
Before this trip started you honestly had them winning more than two games?
3-2 was a stretch. I had them at 2-3, which is a big letdown after the first win, but what can you do? It's imperative that they win tomorrow night, absolutely imperative.
I didn't anticipate them getting blown out by the Warriors and I thought they would get lucky in one of the three other games PHO, LAL or POR.
I mean are we EXPECTED to lose to every good team on the road ? Is that what this team is ?
By the way, that play I was talking about yesterday for Donyell, they didn't use it once last night.
First Lou, now DiLeo. Bri, bless your generous spirit, but you're giving these guys credit they haven't earned. Moments of clarity are, oddly enough, momentary. Don't be shocked when they return to the mean, back to dumb shit.
DiLeo is in waaay over his head.
I'm still frustrated by DiLeo giving the OK to play that game with the lights on halfway and on the road. That was boneheaded to say the least and it just happened to coincide with the Warriors run. After reading Miller's quotes, it seemed to play a part in the game.
On another note, Iggy did know that guy from the Lakers sideline like Mike was asking - his shooting coach.
And if our D is going to be this bad with the players we are trotting out there, can we re-discover Rush at the end of the bench? Probably no, as DiLeo says he is comfortable with the rotations. Just like he thought he was comfortable with the rotations before he discovered Marshall could have a role on this team. Arrrggghhh!