The Sixers used and abused the shorthanded Raptors in the first half tonight, then held on for their first meaningless win under Eddie Jordan. The
final was 107-98. A few notes and stats after the jump.
The final score doesn't really indicate just how effective the Sixers were in the first half. 65 points on 24 makes, with 19 assists. For the game, they shot 50.7% from the floor and 64.3% from three (9/14). Toronto was without Chris Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu, so don't get too excited about this one. Still, if the first half is any indication, the Sixers will be able to score points.
Unfortunately, scoring alone isn't enough. They struggled mightily on the glass (only collecting 64.4% of available defensive boards. 75% is the number you want to shoot for). They turned the ball over 20 times, which better not become a trend. Free throw shooting was also subpar, 22/32 (68.8%).
If you're looking for bright spots, start with Lou Williams, then proceed directly to the three-point shooting. Lou scored 17 in 24 minutes on only 8 shots. He had 3 assists and only 1 turnover to go along with 3 steals. The threes were just beautiful, Jrue hit two, one off a nice dribble handoff, the other wide open from the corner. Iguodala hit a pair, Kapono hit a dagger to stop a Toronto run late in the game an another. The beautiful thing was how the Sixers were getting their looks, the ball was swinging around the perimeter, into the high post, into the post, out of the post and diagonally across the floor to the open man. The spacing was excellent.
And for the bad. Jrue had a couple of really sloppy plays with the ball and didn't look comfortable in the offense until he hit a couple jumpers. Hopefully, just rookie jitters, but you get the feeling he has a lot of work to do. He looked good on the two threes. Speights had a decent line in the first half, but when he was out there in extended garbage time he looked and played terribly. 5/16 from the floor with 4 turnovers. On the bright side, he did grab 9 boards in his 25 minutes of work, but he needs to show more discipline out there. He's an extremely efficient offensive player when he plays within the system, he doesn't need to be a gunner to get points. I firmly believe his minutes should be limited in garbage time. He needs structure and he needs leaders who will hold him accountable on the floor with him.
Thad and Brand played limited roles tonight, something I hope will change quickly. One alarming stat, Thad had zero rebounds in 25+ minutes. Here's a disturbing split for you as well: Iguodala had 7 assists and 2 turnovers in the first half, 1 assist and 5 turnovers in the second half.
Dionte Christmas was the only free agent on the roster to play in the game. Primoz didn't get a chance to play against his old mates. Kapono led the team with a +18 +/-.
File this under "Won't ever happen in the regular season," Sam Dalembert led all starters in FGA with 9.
So the first meaningless is a win, much better than starting out with a loss. These teams will lace them up again tomorrow night for the second preseason game.
I watched the last 3rd of the game. When I saw the starters playing, wow, they looked like a different team from last year. Good review, Brian.
I think the turnovers were just from rust. This was their first preseason game, afterall.
Still, I hope this doesn`t follow them into the regular season. Iguodala can really hurt the team if he averages more than 3 TO a night (the younger guys will be doing it enough as it is).
I really wish I could`ve watched the game. I`m excited to see this new offense in action. I think Brand and Thad will get better as well.
I`m not surprised about the free-throws - they might lose 5 or more games this season from bad free-throw shooting alone.
I didn`t get to see the game. Any comments about their defense?
I spent way too much time on the importance of free throw shooting to the Sixers last year. Check it out, you may be surprised.
Anyway, the portion of the game I saw really didn't feature much defense on either side of the ball. A couple of things I noticed, Jason Smith was showing very, very aggressively on the pick and roll, and he was quick enough to rotate back to his man. That's an important skill that we need all of our bigs to work at. Ivey was a menace. Willie had a ton of trouble sticking with Quincy Douby, Jrue over-helped a couple of times to make up for Willie and they got burned by threes.
Jrue was a mixed bag from what I saw, one play he sort of got lulled to sleep by Marcus Banks and gave him a free ride to the hoop. Another, he did a good job of forcing Banks into his help on the baseline.
Kapono didn't look half bad, from what I saw.
I'm really hoping that Kapono was just not the right fit while on the Raptors. You'd think a shooter would be perfect for that open offense, but they would put him on the floor with other weak defenders who could also shoot. So his shooting was less of a premium while his defense was exposed.
On the Sixers they can have him be the dedicated sniper while surrounding him with good defenders. He really might thrive.
I still don't want him shooting more twos than threes.
Thanks for the review Brian, sounds like they will be tough to deal with on the offensive end; a spread out team with all our quickness.
Tonight - http://atdhe.net/
Tonight - http://atdhe.net/. ive never been dissapointed with this site, theyve always worked so far, hope thats true @ 7pm today