Andre Iguodala (Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)I don't have a lot to say about this game, mostly because I feel sick to my stomach after watching a full 48 minutes of hoops from the Garden and not hearing one "Fire Isiah" chant. Tonight's 89-81 loss was the Sixers' 13th in their last 15 games. They just keep finding ways to lose.

It doesn't help when your starting lineup digs you an immediate double-digit hole to start every game. It doesn't help when you coach inexplicably pulls your hottest offensive player (Lou Williams) right in the middle of your fourth quarter run. It especially doesn't help when you can't hit your free throws. Tonight's loss signifies the low-point of the season for me.

They took care of the ball (only 10 turnovers), defended the three well (see below), you'd think that would be enough to beat this pitiful Knicks team, but no. The Knicks made the plays down the stretch, and Mo's highly-questionable decision to go back to the same starting lineup that let the Knicks jump out to a big lead in the first for the final minutes of the game pretty much sealed their fate.

Thad was less-than impressive tonight, only scoring two points in 15 minutes of action. He missed a couple of point-blank shots and his ball handling left much to be desired. Iguodala was a monster in the first half, but scored only 6 points after the break. Dalembert rebounded from early foul trouble to outplay Eddy Curry, but that's not really saying much.

Here's the breakdown of the Knicks' three-point attempts for the game:
  1. Crawford (Uncontested, Make, 1/1) Iguodala switched on a baseline screen, for some reason Reggie Evans didn't which left Crawford wide open in the corner.
  2. Robinson (Uncontested, Miss, 1/2) Nobody found him in transition, but he missed the shot. Air Ball.
  3. Richardson (Uncontested, Miss, 1/3) Two passes swung the ball across the court to Q for an open look. Andre Miller was very slow in rotating out to him.
  4. Crawford (Contested, Make, 2/4) Miller was in his face and the shot clock was about to expire when he hit this one. Good defense and a bad shot attempt, but he hit it.
  5. Crawford (Contested, Miss, 2/5) A carbon copy of the last attempt, but this time he missed.
  6. Crawford (Contested, Miss, 2/6) Again, the shot clock was running out and this time it was Lou Williams who was in his face for the bad shot. Another miss.
  7. Robinson (Contested, Make, 3/7) Robinson shot this one from about 4 feet behind the line with Lou in his face. A bad shot that went down.
  8. Collins (Contested, Miss, 3/8) Against the shot clock with Iguodala draped all over him. Another bad shot and another miss.
  9. Richardson (Uncontested, Make, 4/9) Miller helps on a David Lee drive that wasn't going anywhere, leaving Richardson wide open. He hits the three. Bad decision on Miller's part.
  10. Crawford (Contested, Miss, 4/10) Crawford springs open at the top of the circle, but Iguodala closes out him quickly and contests the shot, forcing a miss. Good rotation by Iguodala.
  11. Crawford (Uncontested, Make, 5/11) Wide open in transition. He hits it.
  12. Crawford (Uncontested, Miss, 5/12) Wide open in transition. He misses it.
  13. Robinson (Contested, Miss, 5/13) Horrible shot with Williams right in his face. He misses it.
  14. Robinson (Uncontested, Miss, 5/14) Thad was late to rotate out to the "shooter" but he bricked it anyway.
  15. Crawford (Contested, Miss, 5/15) A 30-footer as the shot clock expired with Iguodala right in his face. Missed.
All told, the Sixers did a good job tonight. The Knicks shot 3/7 on their uncontested threes, and 2/8 on the contested attempts. They did a good job overall of rotating to the ball, but that's not really saying much against this Knicks' team. Their half-court offense is pretty much horrible, Zach Randolph was the only consistent threat they had, but they failed to ride him when they got hot.

The story of the game was the complete futility of the Sixers' half-court offense. How can you only score 81 points against one of the worst defenses in the league? Just pitiful.

The Sixers end the night only 1 game ahead of the Knicks. A low point, indeed.

Player of The Game: Iguodala, I guess
Team Record: 16-28

Tomorrow night in Charlotte the Sixers look to bounce back.



Also on the Network:
√ Brandon Jennings Update [Stop Mike Lupica]
√ Deja Vu It Is [Depressed Fan]
√ You, Me and D. Lee [El Lefty Malo]




[January 26, 2008 7:18 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Tray said

One game away from tying the Knicks for the sixth spot in the draft! I'm not sure if Stefanski really traded Korver so we'd tank or if he just thought he was clearing some cap room, but if it's the former, the man's a genius. I just hope he drafts the right guy. Did you ask him about his penchant for drafting players with major character issues? First in the first round of 2006 there was Marcus Williams with the laptop theft (as well as Josh Boone, whom most people felt was lazy and a dope). Then in the second round, he picked Hassan Adams, who got arrested his senior year on separate occasions for disorderly conduct and DUI and was ultimately suspended from his last Pac-10 tournament. Then this year, he picked Sean Williams, who got suspended from BC twice for drugs/grades and eventually kicked off the team. And if you go back further, he drafted Eddie Griffin (though he traded him right away) and Kenyon Martin, who people forget was basically Ron Artest before Ron Artest. And finally, Stefanski drafted Christian Drejer, who quit on his college team (Florida) mid-season to sign a contract with Barcelona. He also engineered the trade for Vince Carter. Something to worry about.

[January 26, 2008 11:45 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Brian replied to Tray

You're thinking O.J. Mayo, aren't you?

[January 26, 2008 6:48 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Tray replied to Brian

Exactly. I'm nearly 100% positive that if Mayo's on the board, Stefanski will take him. That, I think, would be a bad decision. Here's a guy who draft analysts think is the next Stephon Marbury. You probably want to shy away from someone like that. Not to mention that he isn't even playing so well.

[January 27, 2008 2:42 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Brian replied to Tray

I'm hoping someone with a higher pick than the Sixers will take Mayo. I really don't want him at all. If you're going to really build something long term here you have to take the make-up of the players you bring in into account. One bad apple can ruin the bunch.

[January 29, 2008 1:28 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Tray replied to Brian

I'm not even so much concerned about his character as about the fact that he just takes too many shots for a player who doesn't make shots at a very high rate. If history shows you anything, it's that you don't win championships if you build your team around a gunner. Unfortunately, a lot of draft analysts think he will fall as low as us.

[January 29, 2008 2:01 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Brian replied to Tray

I'd love either of the guys from Arizona, Budinger or Bayless with the first pick, or maybe Kevin Love if the pick winds up being lower. For some reason, he strikes me as an Elton Brand type of player, and he's definitely going to be a post-up 4.

[January 26, 2008 9:23 AM]  |  link  |  reply
stopmikelupica said

You calling the Knicks pitiful is like the Heat calling the T-Wolves dreadful. It's true, but you're not heading for the playoffs either, chief. Or even in the right direction at this moment.

I think your irrational hatred of Curry clouds your vision; how can you say Dalembert "outplayed" Curry? Because of his two blocks? Curry had 11 pts, 5 rebounds, and knocked Dalembert (and then Booth) out early in the first quarter by drawing fouls on both of them. That allowed the Knicks to build the early lead as much as anything. Meanwhile Dalembert had 12 points (on a lower FG%) and 5 rebounds. Hmm.

Of course if Curry could have hit his FTs tonight this wouldn't even be close.

The Sixers looked like the Knicks most nights earlier this season - they fell behind by double digits, climbed back, fell back again, climbed back, etc - but never really took the lead. In the Knicks situation, that was indicative of a starting lineup that wasn't as strong or consistent as their bench. In the Sixers case, I think it was just indicative of a really crappy and unreliable offense. That's how you score 81 points against the Knicks horrible defense!

Aren't the Sixers like last in scoring in the NBA? Do they have anyone other than Iggy who can drop 15 points a game? This is their starting lineup, except for Iggy: Dalembert and Evans, the only frontcourt in the league that makes the Bulls' frontcourt look like the Suns; the worst starting SG in the league; and Miller, a great point (one of my favorites), but he has no jumper, and no perimeter game. What's he suppose to do with this team, other than pass to Iggy?

And who's coming off the bench to help score, other than Lou Williams? Thad Young is crap with potential (I didn't like him predraft); Smith is tough and solid, but he's still too raw, and that's not enough.

[January 26, 2008 11:56 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Brian replied to stopmikelupica

I'm on my way out the door, I'll be back with more later but I just wanted to say that Curry did absolutely nothing after getting Dalembert and Booth out of the game early. He had either Evans or Smith on him and did NOTHING. Unless you count going 3/9 from the line and turning the ball over 3 times something.

[January 26, 2008 12:33 PM]  |  link  |  reply
stopmikelupica said

Oh, I agree Curry didn't do much in the second half. Absolutely. It was a pretty quiet game for Curry, as they all too often are.

But um, well... what exactly did Sammy do to warrant "outplaying" Curry, other than to stand around in the paint (without rebounding), swatting at a few Knicks' drives?

Curry was -2 on a night on which almost every other Knick player (except for Jeffries) had a + in that column. On the flip side, who had the biggest - on the Sixers? Dalembert, at -9. My point being Curry might have sucked last night, but I hardly think Dalembert outplayed him.

And that's my feeling on both centers in general. Curry might once in a while have a big game or so (a top-7 center type game), but he's generally, at best, a top 10-15 center in the league. Dalembert is generally a top 10-15 center (that might be generous), and even on his good nights he doesn't play like a top-10.

[January 26, 2008 4:13 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Mike said

Brian, did you get my email I sent 3 days ago? I'm sorry to be bothering you, but I'm just not sure if you got it. I sent it to your email address and the tryouts one.

[January 27, 2008 2:07 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Ricky - Sixers4guidos said

I am with SML on this, Sam had a bad night and 3 rebounds in 31 minutes are just curryesque numbers (LOL) we can't say he outplayed the Knick

still, I'd take Sam over Curry any day of my life

no big news here, but SML is right also when he says that we have the worst starting SG in the league and the least prolific front court. Unfortunately we have two serviceable 7th-8th men in Green and Evans that "have to" start and play around 30 minutes instead of 15-20

Stefanski will hopefully address that in the summer

[January 27, 2008 2:48 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Brian replied to Ricky - Sixers4guidos

Neither guy played well, but Dalembert had the better game. He had more points, same amount of rebounds, 2 more blocks, 2 less turnovers. We're splitting hairs, but Sammy had a better game.

[January 27, 2008 4:45 PM]  |  link  |  reply
stopmikelupica said

Ah, whatever. I agree with Ricky, in that I think most teams would have a slight preference for Dalembert over Curry. But it really depends on the rest of your personel, too. On a team with "too much defense, not enough offense", like the 76ers (or Bulls), Curry would be preferable to Dalembert. On a team with terrible defense (the Knicks), especially bad penetration preventation... definitely the Knicks could use a guy like Dalembert alongside Randolph.

Take a team like the Hornets (the best team in the West, which in my opinion makes them the best team right now): they won't want a Dalembert-like player to play next to Tyson Chandler, right? Instead, they're doing great with Chandler playing next to David West, whose game mirrors Zach Randolph's in a lot of ways (good at going to the hoop, good perimeter 10-20 footer game).

That's what both the 76ers and Knicks need to emulate - a balanced team. For the 76ers, that means more offense from their PF/SG spots (Dalembert is pretty hard to trade, unless they want someone's trash, or another one-dimensional player, like Brian's favorite, Curry); for the Knicks, that means getting more defense out of one of either the PF or Center, and maybe getting some defense out of the backcourt, too (though, as you noticed, they've worked on that by having Crawford guard the point, and by having Jeffries come in to slow down hot SG/SFs).

[January 27, 2008 6:13 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Ricky - Sixers4guidos said

ouh, I would like to have Zach Randolph in a Sixers uniform, just for the half of the price :-)

really, I think his kind of play would be a good match with THIS Sixers team.

Actually almost anyone would be an upgrade at PF over the current situation, also a perimeter shooting "fake" PF ala Rashard Lewis/Al Harrington (or Troy Murphy, if we want to set a lower standard..), or an athletic undersized player ala Shawn Marion, or an all around ala Lamar Odom... just throwing out names there, reguardless of their situation and contracts... my point is that I just don't want Reggie Evans anymore, LOL

(I meant that for Sam 3 DEFENSIVE rebounds in 31 min are curryesque numbers of course)

SML, good point about the PF/C combos, yeah