In the wrap I touched upon the horrible game everyone but the big three had. After running the game over in my mind for a couple hours, I realized we need to dive deeper into this abject failure.
The numbers are stark, but the shooting percentage alone doesn't nearly tell the whole story. Check this out: 8 players, 113 minutes, 19 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks, 7 turnovers, 19 fouls, 26 shots, 16 points.
Of their 7 made field goals, 2 of them didn't involve one of the other three players in some way. Only 4 weren't completely handed to them by the Andres or Thad. Check it out:
- Speights hits a long jumper in the second quarter (Williams assists)
- Speights hits a short jumper in the lane in the second (Miller assists)
- Lou Williams hits a fade-away jumper near the buzzer in the second. No assist.
- Dalembert throws down an alley-oop. (Iguodala assists)
- Willie finally hits a catch-and-shoot jumper in the third. (Miller assists)
- Lou cherry picks after arguing a non-call, gets a layup (Iguodala assists with a 90-foot pass)
- Ratliff throws one down. (Iguodala draws three defenders, wraps a pass around one of them to Ratliff for the dunk)
Think about that for a second. They made 7 shots, three of them were handed to them on a silver platter by the big three. Combined, they had a rebound rate of 6.0/36 minutes, they committed as many fouls as rebounds grabbed.
On the bright side, this group did manage to shoot 2/4 from the line. I suppose it's redundant to say the Sixers need more out of this group of players. I just can't believe the extent to which they killed the team tonight.
I mean, Speights had to work a little to make that second shot. I don't know if I even score an assist there. I would like to see more Speights in general, Orlando seems to have virtually no interest in taking advantage of our no-doubles strategy on Howard so I don't really see what harm it would do to have him out there instead of Ratliff. I wasn't even happy when Howard fouled out because, if they're not going to use him on offense, they hardly lose anything when they go to Gortat. (In fact, he was +11.) He's just as good a rebounder per minute, blocks some shots, etc.
Yeah, the Speights jumper and Green jumper, fine. But the two dunks and the layup for Lou were all completely handed to them by one of the other three. So four shots created and made on their own, for 8 players in 113 minutes. Pitiful.
I'd absolutely prefer Speights over Evans when Sam and Theo have foul trouble. Everything went to hell when Evans came in in the second.
I'm depressed.
Yep, that was a rough one to lose. Right there for the taking. Have to hope they play a solid game on Friday.
As devastating as tonight was, a loss in Philadelphia would be much, much worse.
Tonight pissed me off, the wasted opportunity stings, but I don't think it was devastating. Devastating would've been getting our doors blown off and having it look like they're a much better team. That's not the feeling I have after that game.
We're not gonna win both games at the Wach. I'm sorry, but thinking about it, it is quite likely that our coach will continue to use poor rotations. And their bench is gonna consistently outscore our bench.
It was not the defeat today but the causes of it that make me realize that I should eradicate all my false hopes. I support this team but I honestly think they are going down.
I don't know, our bench dominated theirs in game one. Honestly, I'd expect our bench to outscore theirs regularly, last night was probably the aberration.
Role players play better at home. Look at Leon Powe in the finals. He sucked in LA and dominated in Boston.
Can the Sixers break their recent trend of each loss starting a losing streak? (In the regular season a loss started at least a 2 game losing streak 6 of the last 7 times.)
I see Orlando as a mediocre team with a gimpy Hedo and Lewis. The Sixers are a streaky team... on their game they should beat the hobbled Magic team, but off their game they can't beat anyone.
Hopefully the home crowd can start a hot streak. I hoping Thad has a 30+ breakout game (and I hope they give him the damn ball.)