After every crushing loss, I find myself asking "Why put yourself through this?" Games like this are the answer. The Sixers held the Spurs to 25 points in the second half tonight, and even though they couldn't throw the ball in the ocean for long stretches, their defensive intensity never wavered. They took every punch the Spurs threw, got up and punched back. Easily the best win of the season.
Charts
Thoughts
- A 77-71 game is truly music to my ears. When win games based on unconscious shooting and just enough D to get by, the win feels hollow. I don't think this group is capable of sustaining that type of play, it's not who they are. But when make good teams play ugly, when they fight and scrap on every defensive possession, take away their opponents' offensive bread-and-butter and they scuffle to get enough points on the other end to win the game? That's repeatable. That effort, that desire, it's the equalizer. It's how you beat more talented teams (and there are plenty of them), and it's how you shock the world in a playoff series.
- Jrue Holiday is your player of the game, no doubt about it. 9/14 from the floor, 3/4 from three, 6/6 from the line. Check this out, he scored 35% of the Sixers points (27/77) and took only 17% of the team's shots (14/82). Probably more important than the scoring was the stifling defense he played on Tony Parker. Parker shot 3/10 floor for 9 points, turned the ball over 3 times and rarely got into the lane to collapse the defense. Jrue was very aggressive, especially in fighting over, or bouncing under screens. He wasn't just solid on the defensive end, he was disruptive. He had three steals, and a couple other really nice plays. One comes to mind, he was on Parker, off the ball, Parker came off the baseline and ran Jrue into a screen, it looked like he was curling to the wing to receive a pass. Jrue went on the high side of the screen, Parker saw it and immediately cut backdoor. Jrue read the play, reversed direction and got his hands up in the passing lane, knocking the ball out of bounds and preventing an easy layup. It was the type of play Iguodala would make. The dream is that we'll eventually see this type of defense from Jrue on a nightly basis. If you get that (and Iguodala is still here), all you need is one passable big to have an elite defense.
- Jrue was great on both ends of the floor, but without the herculean efforts of both Brand and Iguodala, the Sixers don't win this game. Iguodala had Richard Jefferson talking to himself through three quarters, then turned his attention to San Antonio's closer, Manu Ginobili, in the fourth. He completely shut Manu down, which rarely happens with the game on the line. Brand grabbed 17 boards, and 16 of them came on the defensive end. Those defensive boards were desperately needed. Even with all that work, the Sixers only grabbed a hair over 70% of available defensive boards, imagine what would've happened without him.
- Mixed in with the feel good win are some alarming trends. Lou Williams was simply atrocious tonight, I mean, he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, and Doug Collins still called his number down the stretch time and time again. Jrue was basically unstoppable on the offensive end, and the only shots he got in the fourth came in transition. A couple times, Jrue wound up with the ball and made plays, but he wasn't initiating offense at all. He did play 20 of 24 minutes in the second half, and he was the guy they trusted to put the nail in the coffin from the line, but I was disappointed that he wasn't given the opportunity when Williams clearly wasn't getting the job done. If Collins is going to continue to talk about how so many different guys can initiate, then he can't be so dogmatic about who initiates at what point of the game. The value in having different options is that if one isn't working, you can go to one that is. Tonight, Jrue was on, Lou was not. The ball should've been in Jrue's hands.
- Not to take anything away from the Sixers, but does anyone have any idea why Tim Duncan didn't get the ball on the blocks every single time he was covered by Spencer Hawes? Whenever he did, Hawes didn't even put up a fight. It was like taking candy from a baby.
Player of The Game: Mr. Holiday
Team Record: 25-28
Up Next: @ Minnesota, Saturday night.
Game capsule
How about this? It was the Sixers' first win when scoring fewer than 80 points since Dec. 9, 2003.
boy Iguodala's defense is so under-appreciated. granted he owns Jefferson but to clamp down Manu, especially on that last iso play = airball!
Unbelievable defensive work tonight from Holiday (I thought he did very well against nelson the other night even though he got into the paint often).
EB didn't have a great offensive game but no kidding with the boards and the blocks and defense on Duncan when he had to spell Hawes.
your 3 best players coming through; is how it's supposed to be.
Now we go from best record team to nearly worst record team.
PLS don't drive me crazy with a letdown game.
Fourth game in five nights and long flight to Minny ...
It won't be easy. One writer said over/under on Love's rebounds is 17.5.
I'll take the over. Minny also played tonight, which helps. Love played 39 minutes, and he doesn't appear to be the best conditioned athlete in the league. Maybe that helps.
He actually got himself into much better shape this offseason. He def was pretty fat before but credits last summer with this break out season
Video: Brand on Sixers upsetting the Spurs:
http://ow.ly/3V6Mz
Game story: Sixers grind out 77-71 victory over Spurs:
http://ow.ly/3V6l9
Nice win for the boys - great to see Jrue step up and carry the offensive load, with huge supporting contributions from AI and EB.
In addition to player of the game you should have a goat of the game for the player who had the biggest negative influence on the team that game. I have a feeling Lou would be leading this team in goats of the game.
why is it necessary to disparage lou so much? i just don't get it. he brings so much to this team an is an integral part of its success this year yet he is constantly disparaged.
Here's a positive comment on Lou for you: I thought Lou deserved his spot on the floor over the last 6 minutes because of his defense. He wasn't scored on or beaten off the dribble once in the last 6 minutes ...
Yeah, he did a nice job on George Hill last night, I was worried about that matchup going in.
Here's fun stat for the non-believers.
The Sixers are 2 in the eastern conference in wins vs. .500+ teams with 13 wins. The only team that has more is Boston. Miami and Chicago have 12 each and none of the others has more than 9.
Great stat; unfortunately, the Sixers probably also lead the league in losses to Cleveland ;-)
Don't take this as a negative...
By the numbers Jrue played a great game as a SG.
How is that a negative, except for those who don't believe Jrue can succeed as a SG? :-)
Most of the team's best wins have been either after gut wrenching defeats or against teams who blew them out. Case in point- there wins agaisnt the Spurs and Bulls- the two teams that blew them out earlier in the year. Also their quality bounce back wins after many of their terrible throw away losses.
So definitely points to good character and coaching to be able to turn negatives into positive motivation. Also reminds me of the Sixers under Cheeks and DiLeo. The bifg picture issues have not abated, but certainly a fun team to root for.
Early A.M., but still no excuse for lousy spelling and grammar.
Speights played only a few minutes in the first half. Does anyone have any incite as to why he gets no minutes? Is it that Hawes must be evaluated this year, but that they have another year with Speights? Has he never recovered his explosiveness from Jordan rushing him back last year? Does anyone even have an idea?
Speights doesn't defend (other than to try to draw a charge), doesn't react well and isn't a good defensive match against anybody with size. On offense, he's a jump shooter. He was not good last night. Don't blame Collins for not bringing him back in the second half.
Yeah, but what's Songaila? Speights is better than him.
Not at the defensive end, especially against big guys. Several writers near me commented on how ineffective Speights was last night.
Do any of them every comment about how ineffective Hawes is defensively or offensively?
And you know, if you use Speights in pick-and-rolls, he's more than a jump shooter offensively. You saw the Toronto game.
Speights is a victim of the Collins coaching style that is selectively applied
Jodie Meeks fails he tells jodie to 'just play'.
Speights fails in his first appearance of a game - he's out the rest of the game
Songaila was only playing because Battie was unavailable
That's true about Battie. He would've gotten those minutes if healthy. Collins chose Songaila over Speights.
Is there a way to politely ask Doug what he has against Speights, what Mo has to do to earn some minutes back?
My belief is that Collins doesn't think he can rely on Speights. It comes down to that.
What a game last night, huh?!! That was a barnburner from start to finish.
Couple of my favorite things from last night were two plays. The first was around the 4:08 mark of the 3rd quarter when they ran a baseline curl to free Jrue for a midrange jumper that he nailed. Think Hawes was the one setting the pick. Can't remember who started it at the top of the key but it was something I haven't seen them run before. And the other one, was the Jrue to Thad to Elton play around the 1:07 mark of the 3rd (I think that was when it happened). That sort of scoop-handed whip pass from Jrue to Thad in the post was a laser and really nice for Thad to see EB cutting to the basket for the finish.
Even though his defense was sorry and token at times on drivers to the basket, I thought Spencer played an otherwise good game. His trips to the line ended up being huge along with his early boarding.
Andre is just playing so stellar right now on both ends of the floor, just wish he could be more consistent with his scoring night in and night out. He was in drive and be aggressive mode last Friday vs the Knicks but seemed to settle for the perimeter game last night. If he could put up a consistent 15-18 points a night we would be so much more potent with Jrue and Lou and Thad being up and down from game to game scoring-wise. Thought Lou played pretty respectable defense down the stretch to make up for his lack of shooting last night too.
What a win! We're gonna get that sixth seed.