The Sixers played a pretty ugly game in Charlotte tonight, but did just enough to come out with a pretty average win. They were far from energetic and dominant, but when the game was on the line they came up with the stops and buckets they needed. As they say, it looks like a line drive in the box score. (
game capsule).
Here's your rotation chart. I highlighted two runs in the first quarter which really should've put the Bobcats to sleep, and the entire third quarter in which they breathed life into a lifeless opponent with lazy play:
This was really only the second game of the season where the Sixers played down to their opponent and didn't show a ton of energy. I suppose it's some form of growth that they played this poorly and still won the game going away. The notable thing about this game is how different it was from the other dozen or so wins the Sixers have against the cellar dwellers. If the majority of those wins had been like this, I probably wouldn't believe in the Sixers either.
We can list the good all in one succinct paragrph: Jrue was stellar in the first quarter. He picked up right where he left off against the Cavs and torched Kemba Walker. Thad was a man pretty much all night and got to the line 9 times. Lou put the game away with his scoring in the fourth and went to the line nine times. The Voose played his best game of the season, in my opinion, and it was really needed. That about sums it up.
The bad will probably take much longer. Jrue disappeared for most of the second half until he hit a big shot in the fourth. He almost completely stopped attacking and they really needed his scoring in the second half. The defense was pretty effective for the game (a 98 DFR is nothing to sneeze at), but it was extremely lazy and nowhere near the standard we're used to. They reached instead of moving their feet. They fouled instead of cutting off driving lanes. They gave touch fouls instead of making sure guys didn't get the and-one. Iguodala did a good job distributing, but his defense on Maggette wasn't up to par and his back seat on the offensive end was felt in a big way. He wasn't covered by anyone who could stop him from getting into the lane all night, so the only possible conclusion is he stopped himself from attacking the rim. Elton Brand looked dead out there pretty much all night. His jumpers were short, his feet were slow and Collins had not choice but sit him for the most important minutes of the game. The rest of the guys played, and that's pretty much all you can say about them.
Overall, it was an entirely uninspiring effort, but a much-needed win. They'll need to bring a lot more to the floor with them on Wednesday night, but a win is a win is a win, and a road win is even better than that.
Player of The Game: I went with the Voose. He finished with 8 points on 8 shots, but his play in the fourth quarter was the determining factor for me. He scored 6 of his points in the final frame to go along with 4 boards, a block and an assist. Lou was great in the fourth, scoring 10 points including what was probably the decisive three, but he was essentially trading buckets with his man. Yes, Kemba Walker hit some crazy shots, but so did Lou. I also think the team absolutely needed the Voose to step up considering the zero they got from Brand and Lavoy (and Hawe's absence) and he came through. Thad was the leader at one point in the game, Jrue seemed to have a stranglehold on the award in the first quarter, but he tailed off.
Team Record: 20-9
Up Next: @ ORL, Wednesday night
Jrue's Goal: So far, so good. 4 free throws to only 1 turnover tonight.
any theory to why voose plays better off the bench then when he starts?
Dunno. Could be level of competition. Could just be a really small sample size. He only started 5 games, hard to draw any conclusions from that. May be nothing to it.
Bismack vs. Nikola- who won?
Actually i don't think he has played that bad as a starter.
He had (according to me) his best game of his short career against the Heat as a starter before he got injured. He also played well against Atlanta. It really has been these last couple of starts after being injured for a while that he has struggled. The 5th one was against Denver where he barely played because of foul trouble.
I would have voted for Lou tonight. He filled up the stats sheet more than normal with 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block in 27 mins. 50% FG and 40% 3pt isn't bad either. I get that his defense of Kemba wasn't great, but he was still 6/15 tonight (most of that thanks to Jrue, i'm sure). I like the new Jrue FT/TO stat counter!
I'm generally not on the same page as Brian but here I certainly am. Take Lou off the floor in the 4th and we still win by the same margin because we won't be getting abused by Kemba. It's been like that with Lou all year, in fact his whole career.
I'm the opposite. I am generally on the same page as Brian. My take would be that Kemba would have made many of those shots on any defender. Some of those shots were bad shot, he just made them. He was hot, somewhat like Kobe the other night. Don't get me wrong, he's no Kobe, but I guess I don't blame him for his defense against Kemba as much as you do. The Voose may have been the surprise of the game, but not the player of the game. IMHO, Lou's scoring and ability to get to the line (and make FTs) was the key to ensuring this win.
You are assuming that we would have scored the same amount of points with lou on the bench or that the bobcats would have scored less.
I thought Nikola had better games versus Indiana and the first game versus the Heat. And to a lesser extent versus the Hawks Saturday before last. Still a good performance tonight as Allen and Brand seemed to be missing in action. Allen hasn't done as well starting as he was coming off the bench. Maybe because he's not playing against mostly second stringers.
Iguodala has pre-All Star hangover.
im not too worried about the sloppy play considering we got the win. they have been playing extremely hard against good teams for the last couple weeks and they must be tired (7 games in last 11 days). i think they will right the ship come wednesday. im just happy we're finally a team that gets wins over teams they should get wins over.
kind of a weird feeling to be hoping the 6ers blow teams out instead of simply getting the win. Last year we were content with all wins - big or small.
This season, just getting a W in the column isn't really getting it done. The difference between pretending and contending (still smarting over that comment) is beating bas teams silly and hanging tough with good teams. Like you folks I check a lot of stats pages and I like seeing the 6ers topping all charts, including rankings charts...
We got Orlando and Dallas coming up. Should for sure beat Orlando and might could beat Dallas too.
I think people are being a bit over-dramatic here. The Sixers HAVE been hanging tough with good opponents all year (save the Heat) and beating some of them. They've been beating the snot about bad teams since the beginning of the year.
They slept walked through last night's game and still won. If they'd have won by 20, everyone would say, "It's the Bobcats, it barely even matters. They SHOULD beat the Bobcats by 20."
At the end of the night, they went into another team's court, played half heartedly, still led the entire game (most of the time my double digits) and won by 9, despite Kemba Walker hitting circus shots in the 4th quarter. Consider me unconcerned about their level of play tonight. They rebounded quite nicely from their crappy effort against the Nets, and that resulted in a loss. This resulted in a win.
Gordon is having arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and will be out for another 6 weeks. He could be back for the final 20 games.
http://www.clipsnation.com/2012/2/13/2796985/hornets-eric-gordon-to-have-knee-surgery-out-another-six-weeks
I'm still not sure if I would trade ET for him. It's a huge gamble.
I wouldn't. He won't even be back on the floor before the trade deadline, then you'd have to extend him after seeing him play maybe 20 games? Not worth the risk.
Couldnt you potentially extend him for cheap, though, because of all the questions marks? It's definitely a risk, but otherwise we're just getting mid to late first round picks each year and not bringing in any FA's.
Is someone definitely going to give him a max deal?
Someone will give Gordon close to a max deal, since the max for a guy coming off his rookie contract starts at under 13M. And having Bird rights allows you to maybe pay him a bit less up front but give him an extra year where he makes it up on the back end.
In terms of injuries, I'm not as concerned about how often he gets hurt as wheter or not any particular injury might have last effects (like it did with Roy.)
My biggest concern would be what is the team planning to do about the frontcourt. The have Young, Vuce and Lavoy... and no one else committed beyond next year. I would worry that committing a bunch to a SG would leave them stuck up front without any answers.
But there is no doubt that a back-court rotation of Jrue/Gordon/Iguodala/Lou would be tremendous.
How can you commit that kind of money to a guy who missed 4, 20, 26 and then maybe like 55 of 66 games over his first four seasons?
If he was healthy, I might be tempted to see what that back court could do, but there's no way I'd tie up that much of a shrinking cap number in a guy who hasn't been able to stay on the floor since his rookie season.
My contract expires at the end of this season.
Yep, he's a restricted free agent. Looking more like a minimum salary guy going forward recently.
Most rockets come back to earth eventually. He did, I did, Jeremy Lin will
OT: Brian - what do you think of Jeremy Lin? Obviously his level of play is unsustainable (we hope) but what kind of player will he be from a longer term perspective? Amare called him the next coming of Steve Nash in the paper this morning. His usage rate implies that he's going to struggle mightily with Amare and Melo, but I just don't know...
His numbers have been impressive so far. I wouldn't say I'm totally sold. There's no way to tell what's going to happen when Amare and Melo (and their 60% usage rate) come back to the lineup. Guess we'll have to wait and see. I think Amare would probably work pretty well with him, but Melo is going to be a problem.
I'm sold :(
He takes a lot of long twos, but he only hits them when he's wide open. He doesn't force bad shots and he can get to the basket. Basically he's a Rajon Rondo on offense with a better jumpshot.
Eh. This whole thing has a Brandon Jennings' 55-point game feel to me.
Brian, going to send a quick article... Just some stats I ran across.
It actually has a bit of a Valentine's Day theme...
Definitely. Send it my way.
I just sent it. let me know what you think. I can edit if (or you can) if you want.
I just fixed some typos...
Sending one last edit/addition.
Guys, I have an idea, and I wanted to get your opinion.
Eliminate multiple free throws. If a player gets fouled and gets two free throws, combine them into one (2 for 1). If he gets fouled in the act of shooting a three pointer, give him one free throw that is treated as all three (3 for 1). If it is an “and one” situation, then that scenario does not change. There is nothing inherently exciting about free throws, except maybe at the end of a close game when the pressure is on. This idea simply adds more value to free throw shooting and will increase the chance of comebacks.
Some may argue that it would mess up past statistics, but there need not be any change to the stats. A made free throw after a two-shot foul simply counts as two made free throws.
The only negative I can think of is that it may encourage more hack-a-Shaq type strategies (or worse, hack-an-Iggy).
Positives:
It would speed up the game. There are about 32 free throws per game, and each takes about 20 seconds. If we can cut out a little less than half of these boring tasks, it cuts out almost 5 minutes of dead time.
It encourages comebacks. For example, if a team is down by 3 with four seconds left in the game and fouls their opponent, they have at least some hope that they can come back if there is a miss.
It makes each free throw more valuable and therefore more exciting. Why can’t this work?
Interesting concept, but I don't think length of game is something the NBA is struggling with.
Yeah, games come in at under 2:30 more often than not. Game length isn't an issue (the Sixers actually play much quicker, I bet they average somewhere around 2:19, something like that)
Game length isn't the only concern. I just think the team-down-by-five-in-the-last-70-seconds parade-to-the-line is one of the most boring things in sports, and anything to speed that up is a plus.
Naismith slowly turns over in his grave.
"I have often overheard some spectators express the opinion that a game was won by free throws. I have always taken the attitude that the game was lost by fouls." Naismith wrote. "Personally, I believe that any tendency toward lessening the penalty of a foul would be a serious mistake."
how about the endless timeouts and commercials? that's takes a decent bite.
But that pays for the game.
trim the coaches ability to waste them in the final minutes. give 'em fewer or make it so they can only use 1 in the final 2:00 oif game time.
do you know how many close games I have watched with back-to-back timeouts? Where the ball is barely in-bounded before Budweiser is telling me again why they are the real American Beer? Too much face time. They can skip that and put a logo at the top of my screen or a Picture-In-Picture, I dont mind.
Agree, the game would flow better if they fix end of game stoppages.
Not sure I am decreasing the penalty, just condensing it. But, I hear you, Mr. Naismith.
By the way, I liked your title "show just enough to win." Milton Berle reference?
Didn't think many people would get that one. I'm old.
I don't know if Nik was last night's MVP or not, but I like his game and am impressed with his skills. The thing that I'm encouraged about is his D. He's active out there, he's covering the paint from side-to-side with his hands up, and contesting shots, plus he's a decent rebounder too. He's suppose to have white man's disease, but he has good timing, and long arms, so he can block an alter shots. Now, don't get me wrong, he's not Dwight Howard, or JaVale Mcgee, but he'll not allow any free passes down the lane without contesting them, and occasionally, he'll get a few. I believe he'll have the presence to keep them honest.
However, without doubt, the offensive side is his strong suit. On this side of the ball is where he's most skilled. I can't remember a rookie center coming into the league with such a developed offensive game. He has a very good post game. Last night he showed a great drop step move that resulted in a layup, I didn't even know he had that. He uses ball-fakes, and up-fakes, at the appropriate time, shoots left and right handed hooks, can pass the ball, and play pick-an-pop/roll. Also, he has a very good J that extends past the 3-point line. I just hope Coach continues to give him minutes so he can relax out there. Right now it appears that he's pressing a little, especially with his jumper, because it isn't falling like it can.
The thing is in the NBA it's a known fact that it takes big men longer to develop than other positions. Even though he's advanced, it's still going to take some time for him to get use to playing in such heavy traffic, against such big men with unbelievable strength. Many experts believe playing center in the NBA, with all its physicality, is the most difficult position on the court. I believe that if we put a big, strong, athletic 4 alongside Nik, and move Thad to the 3 full time, we'll be good-to-go for the better part of this decade.
Best of luck for this team.
So nice to read about such a great and lovely post.
Thanks for the update on Sixers Show Just Enough To Win (Depressed Fan) - Stasia Buckler