If the trend of the second half continues tonight in Milwaukee, the weary Sixers will take care of the rested Bucks in demonstrative fashion on the road. Last night's game wasn't your average game, though. The Sixers fought tooth and nail against the Bulls and relied on their most important guys for some heavy, intense minutes. Bouncing back is going to be difficult.
The guy I'm most concerned about is Elton Brand. He's played some inspired basketball, especially on the defensive end, since the break, but his minutes have also been pushed. He's played 33 minutes in each of the past three games, and I'm not sure if he has that much burn in him on the second night of a b2b. Iguodala played 40 last night and Jrue played 39, each of them chased Derrick Rose around for significant portions of the game. Fatigue has to be a primary concern going into this game.
The best way to make fatigue a non-issue is to shorten the game. Jump on top of the Bucks early, build a lead by the half and make Milwaukee run uphill in the second half. It takes more energy to come back than it does to front run, and Collins can steal minutes with some less-than-optimal lineups if he's got a cushion to work with.
The Bucks are without their defensive focal point, thus they are no longer a good defensive team (22nd in the league in DFR). On the offensive end, they have three guys in their starting lineup capable of getting hot and putting up a big number: Brandon Jennings, Ersan Ilyasova and Drew Gooden. Ilyasova is a small four, and if he starts hot, I'd probably put Iguodala on him. Maybe I'd go small early w/ Thad at the four and switch Thad onto Delfino or Dunleavy. He should be able to stick with both of those guys on the perimeter. Gooden is a grossly undersized center who prefers to shoot from about 20 feet. Allen needs to stick with him and make sure to get a hand in his face.
Jrue is extremely familiar with Jennings' game. In their previous meeting, Holiday's high school rival had 7 points, 3 boards and 2 dimes in 29 minutes of work. Jennings has improved this season over his first two, but he still isn't an efficient scorer. Keep him on the perimeter and off the line and you'll be fine.
Every time the Sixers lose a game like last night's I ask myself, "How many times can they get back up?" Well, so far they haven't faltered. They've only lost one game in which they were a clear favorite all season (to the Nets). They've shown an uncanny ability to demonstrate their superiority over the lesser teams in the league, no matter the circumstances. Tonight is another opportunity for them to put their collective foot on Milwaukee's throat. Will this be the night where yesterday's failure(s) impact today's performance and energy level? I hope not.
The tip is at 8pm. Game thread will land around 6.
I see Lou having a big game tonight; after being stymied and denied the ball by Chicago's guards, I think he will be back with a vengeance and more stat padding. That may be a good thing for us in this game with Bogut out, he can live at the line and feast on the likes of Livingston, Udrih, Jackson etc.
the consensus for the next 11 result was 6-5. right now we are 2-3. if we can win this next one, we are at 3-3 with the next 5 being games against Boston and NY, Utah at home should be a win, and even though tough, they can win at Indiana. The Miami game I have pencilled in as a loss. Which of the BOS or NY games do you think we lose?
Any word on whether Stephen Jackson will be back for tonight's game? I realize he was getting less minutes as part of the rotation anyway but just curious.
Good read on last night's game from the CHI blog.
Wow are these guys for real??? This is the trade suggested on their blog mentioned n the article...
http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/988520/sweettrade.png
Completely ridiculous from a Sixers perspective.
Pretty sure he's kidding around.
I'd make the trade if Jrue wasn't involved and we didn't swap Iguodala for Deng.
One interesting take from that trade is that this fan thinks that Iguodala is better than Deng. On a national level I think people recognize Deng as a better player than Iguodala.
He scores more points.
I know they tried to pass to meeks at the end, but is that really a good play either? Lou himself said if he is doubled he needs to pass it. If he is doubled why not a basic play to the open man?
Lets say Lou catches the ball and hits a trap. How about passing to Jrue and having him charge the lane with Meeks spotting up on the other wing? Could be a 3 on 2 with AI9 and thad/voose crashing.
Lou just doesn't get rid of it. He seems to think he can dribble out of it, even when he can't. Plus, I don't think he's comfortable jumping to get the pass over them and he's always sort of swallowed up because both players are bigger than him. Jrue had some problems last season w/ doubles, but seems to have a handle on how to break them now. Iguodala is the best they have at it.
I was thinking more like passing around or stepping through the middle. I see your point that he still needs to work on this, but with his handles I dont think this should take much practice.
It's tough to split it when it's way out on the floor like that. If it's a double off a pick-and-roll, you've got more time and maybe a lane to get through there, but where they're trapping him, it's really like a triple team because the sideline is on one side. He needs to recognize that it's coming, and pass it right away before he has four long arms swarming him. He sees it, but for some reason thinks he can dribble out of it. At least that's what it seems like most of the time. I think there are three things at play: (1) he wants to shoot more than anything else. he's not going to get the shot if he gives the ball up in those situations. (2) it's a somewhat risky/difficult pass and he's really anti-turnover, and rightly so, (3) He's small and just not very good in those situations.
Good points. If he will be trapped against the sideline, inbound to the open man, but if not then he can hopefully get space to pass around. If they spread to stop this, then split or overhead pass
I think the dribbling is to try and get space, but he does seem to need practice at this. As far as the sideline goes that's a hard position for anyone
It seems ever since Lou has been our unofficial "closer" teams have come hard at him at the end of games and he is unable to adjust. Sixers really need to have someone other than him as a reliable 4th qtr option.
For about a month now unless they are blowing teams out, their 4th quarter offense is just terrible.
The fourth quarter offense wasn't terrible last night.
It was good in fact, especially when you consider the opponent. If you can generate good looks against that team, it's possible against pretty much anybody.
To take it a step further, I would argue that the only gaffes came up on poor shot selection. The offensive movement/spacing and general game plan were good.
Interesting argument here, it's not Lou but it's that there is no other guy to keep other teams from doubling up on Lou:
NBA: Williams can’t do it alone for 76ers http://bit.ly/y0OI6o
Thanks for the link. I dont agree with the one part of picking Iguodala over Jrue as the second option. His numbers dont even support this, showing Jrue has done much better in clutch situations.
Hawes could be back next week, but Doug on V8: "Nik is the same thing. I don’t see him as a center." - wait what?? then where the hell is Model T Battie?
76ERS: Hawes to begin basketball activites on Monday http://bit.ly/wzwfQm
I don't get that at all. Is he talking defensively? On the offensive end, he's really the only guy they have who can score with his back to the basket.
Yeah that's a weird statement. Vucevic is probably the purest C on the team...
Is Collins saying "Nik is the same thing" while referencing the sentence before that about being 'a player' when initially referring to Lavoy? Then reverting back to talking about Lavoy as he started out doing in the quote when he said "I don't see him as a center".
Marc Stein ESPN Rankings comment. I felt TK76 would appreciate the point.
The Sixers have held their last nine opponents to 88.7 ppg on 41.5 percent shooting. They've been outscored by a single, solitary point in that stretch. And yet they've lost seven of those nine games...