Maybe this is what all that heartache set them up for. Maybe failing to close game after game after game in the regular season gave them the fortitude to never say die when the death would've been literal. Maybe it was running without a timeout, letting the players make their own luck on the floor. Whatever did it, this was easily the sweetest win of the year. A tremendous comeback topped with clutch play from the team's youngest players.
Before we get to the charts and thoughts, I want to take a look at the final 1:59 of the game, play-by-play.
- 1:59 left - Iguodala's pass to Lou on the wing is deflected. The refs initially call it Sixers ball but overturn it on replay, giving the ball to MIA. Lou definitely touched the ball, but there was a question as to whether it hit on the line before that point, and was off James Jones. Tough call to overturn in that situation, but they did overturn it. PHI 76, MIA 80
- 1:53 left - Miami uses a LeBron screen on Jrue to get Iguodala and Jrue to switch. Wade immediately gets the ball back to LeBron on the high left wing. LeBron faces up on Jrue, then tries to drive by him on the baseline. Jrue contests LeBron's runner, which comes off the rim hard. Wade crashes in from the top of the key for the offensive rebound and putback. These are the last two points Miami scores in the game. This hoop is entirely on Iguodala. He may have been thinking about doubling to help Jrue, but he never went. He got caught watching the play and never put a body on his man who got the easy tip-in. PHI 76, MIA 82
- 1:35 left - The Sixers inbound the ball to Lou who dribbles up the left side of the floor. Turner comes out and sets a high screen for Lou which gives him a little bit of a crease to get into the lane. Miami's bigs collapse on the paint and cut Lou off just below the foul line. Lou spots Jrue on the weak side and hits him with a pass. Jrue hesitates for a second, then explodes to the middle of the floor (the spot Lou just vacated before sliding to the corner), Turner is all alone on the weak side inside the three-point arc, Jrue hits him in the chest. Turner takes one dribble then hits a one-handed floater from about 8 feet over Bosh's block attempt. Good. PHI 78, MIA 82
- 1:22 left - Wade brings the ball up, Jrue is on him. Miami runs the exact same play, this time Wade doesn't get the ball to LeBron, instead he swings the ball to James Jones beyond the three-point line. Turner closes on him aggressively, chasing him off the three-point line. Jones takes one dribble inside the arc, and kicks to Chalmers in the corner. Lou is a hair late closing on him, but Chalmers misses the corner three. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the hoop, Jrue never lost body contact with LeBron. He fought him for position from the time the ball was swung to the weak side, and kept him just far enough away from the hoop so Iguodala could slide into the vacuum and sky for the board. Iguodala slightly mis-timed his jump and the ball bounced off his hands. It was headed out of bounds, but Turner came from nowhere, leaped into the air and passed the ball over James to Jrue to save possession. PHI 78, MIA 82
- 55 seconds left - Jrue pushes the ball up the court quickly, but the Sixers don't have numbers. Wade and James Jones beat them back down the floor. Jrue dribbles to the middle of the floor, then off to the right wing. Turner filters down to the baseline, passing behind Jrue while Jrue backs the dribble out. LeBron goes in front of Jrue to meet Turner on the other side of his cut, putting himself between Jrue and Wade, who was defending him. Jrue takes one dribble, squares his shoulders and sticks the three right in Wade's eye. PHI 81, MIA 82
- 46.6 seconds left - Wade brings the ball up the left side of the floor, Jrue picks him up at the Playoffs logo. No screen this time. Pure isolation, Wade on Jrue. Wade dribbles toward the lane, then goes behind his back toward the baseline. He puts Jrue on his back, dribbles once, puts one foot in the lane, then spins away from the hoop for a fadeaway 14-footer. Jrue challenges the shot with a hand in Wade's face. The shot hits front iron. Lou cuts across the lane to grab the long rebound. PHI 80, MIA 82
- 27 seconds left - Collins doesn't call a timeout, instead he does his best third base coach impression, windmilling his arm to get the Sixers to push the ball up the floor. Williams keeps the ball, dribbles up the right side. Brand sets a screen to free him up a little, he dribbles to the left side with Wade trailing him and Bosh immediately in front. He then kicks to Turner, Wade recovers onto Lou and Bosh follows Brand down into the lane. Lou pops back out near midcourt and Turner hits him with the pass. As the announcer says, "Doug wants him to shoot," Lou takes one dribble, pulls up two feet behind the line and drills a three right in Wade's face. He literally had maybe an inch of room to get that shot up before Wade blocked it, but he got it off, it went down and the Sixers took the lead. Timeout Miami. Camera pans to Rob_STC wiping sweat off his brow in the stands while the rest of the crowd goes insane. Lou doesn't act like a fool, he just walks back to the bench and the team mobs him. PHI 84, MIA 82
- 8.1 seconds left - The ball is inbounded to LeBron at the top of the key beyond the three point line. He takes one hesitation dribble, then explodes by Iguodala who turns and runs and does manage to keep himself slightly ahead of LeBron, which keeps LBJ from getting into the paint. LeBron takes a second dribble, then hesitates a little bit to let Iguodala clear before he goes up with the shot. That split second hesitation is enough to allow Brand to come from the weak side and sky to get a finger on the ball as it heads toward the hoop. Turner has a body on Wade in the lane, he gets popped in the face as he gets a finger on the ball, tipping it to Thad, then Wade shoves him to the ground and gets whistles for the loose ball foul. PHI 84, MIA 82
- 2.3 seconds left - Turner gets the ball from the ref, spins it twice in his hands, takes one dribble and cans the shot. On the second, he follows the same routine, puts the shot up on the front rim, back rim, front rim and down. 2/2 from the line. PHI 86, MIA 82
- 2.3 seconds left - Wade gets the inbound pass with Jrue on him. Jrue puts his arms straight up in the air, watches Wade pump fake once, then throw up a brick that didn't matter anyway. The crowd goes wild, Doug blows kisses. Sixers win. See you in Miami.
Charts
Further Thoughts
- Wow. I'm not really sure where to begin. This team may have holes big enough to drive a truck through. Their talent level may never get them out of the mediocre range in this league. They might get killed on Wednesday night in Miami, but one thing you can never say about them is that they lack heart. If you want to see what usually happens to overmatched teams when they get down 3-0 in a playoff series, check out the Knicks game. The Sixers never gave an inch tonight, not for a second. Every time Miami went on a run, they got right back up and punched the Heat in the mouth.
- Speaking of standing up, we also saw a little bit of fire we really haven't seen all year when Thad Young took exception to James Jones shoving Turner on a dead ball. LeBron and Hawes also got into it a little bit after Hawes gave a hard foul on LBJ. We need to see more of this on Wednesday night. You don't have to take cheap shots to display toughness, but standing up for your teammates and hard, clean fouls are a requirement.
- Iguodala scored a little more and started strong, but he really faded and didn't play much of a role at all in the final 10-0 run. It was all the young guys, plus Elton Brand's freakish wingspan on that block.
- Doug Collins may have stumbled onto something in the final 3:22 of the game. Miami went small, so Collins went smaller. Iguodala moved to the four, Turner to the three, Lou to the two, Jrue at the point and Brand stayed at center. This gave the Sixers four ballhandlers and really only two legitimate perimeter defenders out there for Miami. Expect to see Turner get a decent chunk of Thad's minutes on Wednesday.
- Player of the game could've gone to Brand (15 points, 11 boards and 2 big blocks) or Turner, who was crucial to this win (17 points, 6 boards, an assist and a block with zero turnovers), but it has to go to Lou who came up huge in the fourth, even before his killer three. Also, it was great to see Jrue come up extra large in crunch time after a poor game to that point. That's two games in a row where he hit a tremendous three in the closing seconds when the team desperately needed it. Once in James' face, and today in Wade's. His defense was also superb. Miami tried to attack him and got absolutely nothing out of it, whether it was Wade or LeBron isolating on him.
- If Spencer Hawes didn't take a single shot in this game, I would've said he was instrumental in the win. As it was (1/8 from the floor), his rebounding and (gulp) toughness (gulp) pretty much made up for the pitiful offense. His highlight was getting LeBron's head. The lowlight was allowing Mike Bibby to alter his shot, barely beating out Dwyane Wade blocking his dunk attempt.
- We've got 48 more minutes of basketball, folks. I'd like to thank the Sixers for that. Wednesday can't get here soon enough.
Player of The Game: Lou.
Team Record: 1-3
Up Next: @ MIA, Wednesday night
Game capsule
Hell of a game, for sure. Glad to see some toughness out there from this squad. Looking forward to Tuesday.
Awesome job down the stretch by my favorite player, Lou Williams. If I ever doubted you in the past, sorry, I didn't mean it. Also thanks to the entire Sixers team for out rebounding the Heat, that was a big time effort.
Wednesday. Not tues.b
Hmmn, don't know where I got Tuesday from. I think they said it on the broadcast. Thanks for the heads up. It's fixed now.
I still think the possession where lou hit the long 3 was an awfully executed and we should of taken a TO. Lou basically hit a prayer.
That's kind of what most end-of-game situations come down to, though. How many prayers have been hit against us this year?
Yes, it does indeed come down to hitting a prayer, but that was like a 27-30 footer if memory serves me right. Also we were only down 1, we didn't need a 3, basically we got the ball back with 27 seconds left and it took us 21 seconds that ended with a prayer being taken when we didn't need a 3.
The line is 23.75 feet - it was a 26-footer at most, and a good look. He shot it in rhythm.
That would have just barely been a 3 in the ABA.
totally agree,. That was a prayer. But every team has their share of "prayer" shots per game.
Great win. Loved it. Be nice to take one in Miami and make the heat feel the heat :)
I'm still basking in a great Philly sports day. Today is a day to be celebrated, and we get at least three more days until we have to evaluate this team. I just want to say that these guys fucking deserve it. They just do.
I was at a family party where the room was going crazy over the Flyers' OT game. My cousin (a huge Sixers nut) and I were thinking the whole time, "We just freaking took that game by the you know whats and just flat-out beat Miami." Everyone else was living and dying on every shot (Boy, the Flyers' goaltending really sucks huh?), but there was two people there, whose loudest cheer of the day came on Lou's bomb.
A couple of thoughts:
As bad as EB has been beaten on the defensive boards in this series, the play he made to get a piece of LBJ's shot was extraordinary. Give credit to AI9 (who has problems with LeBron more than almost anyone else in the league) for cutting him off, but LeBron is so strong that he just bounced off of him. Brand, blessed with limited athleticism, rotated off Bosh at the last possible moment and got a piece. Awesome.
As good as that play was, we still got a little lucky. Turner beat Wade and Bosh for that board, that won't happen every time. It's about time a bounce goes our way.
Speaking of Turner, this type of performance is gratifying for the people who think that he will be a contributor in this league. I don't know if he'll ever be an 18 PPG scorer as I thought when we drafted him (He probably won't be), but that guy is someone that will contribute in this league someway, somehow. This game sure as hell "counts." Fans should be excited that he's on our team going forward.
Holy moly, the moxie/balls it took for Jrue to take that shot was great. Also, isn't it great that two not very high percentage shots won the game for us for once?
I guess a final note of caution: Enjoy this game, it was freaking awesome. These guys deserved it. Don't let it affect our perspectives on the long-term future of this team team though. I guess more importantly pray that the front office doesn't let it get to their head either. Just enjoy it for what it is. OK, that's about it.
Oh, and let's come out and just outwork those stuck-up primadonnas on Wednesday. They haven't exactly proved to be the most stable team in the world, have they? Nothing to lose.
Turner's not a bust! Sweet
Iguodala: great start in the 1st, nearly lost it in the 4th. I still can't believe he didn't make a single positive play while he was in: badly missed 3-pointer (for shot clock violation), turnover, 4 baskets and 9 points allowed, 1 offensive rebound allowed, 1 defensive rebound fumbled. I guess it was good that he got in foul trouble. On the positive side, credit Collins for creating plays to get Iguodala some dunks earlier in the game.
The developing story line in this series is that the Sixers find it much easier to score when Ilgauskas and Bibby are in (leading by 12, 12, and 8 points after one quarter in 3 of the 4 games). The +/- difference between Ilgauskas and Joel Anthony (-27 to +55) is staggering. I almost wonder if the Sixers should start Thad to get him some easy looks before Anthony checks in. On the other hand, Joel Anthony is one of the worst offensive players in the NBA, so if he plays major minutes, the Sixers *have* to devise a scheme to take advantage of that.
random thoughts:
- this is the first game in a long, long time that has earned "save until i delete" status on the DVR...
- ...does anybody besides AI9 have any idea how bad his injury is?
- did today's game move ET ahead of Meeks and Thad in the rotations for game five, and/or going into next season?
- couldn't tell because i was at the game, but did the TV or radio broadcasts ever say why Spencer had that whatever it was in his nose in the 4th Q?
Stat, the Joelle Anthony effect is the reason Thad's contract might not be such a guarantee anymore. How many times have a guy that Thad can't do anything against though? Playoffs are all about matchups and if Thad's game isn't suited for a 7 game series (i.e. teams can easily adjust), management better recognize that. I don't know the answer though.
Pretty off topic, but everyone check out this interview:
http://www.negativedunkalectics.com/2011/04/sweat-in-game-gamblers-grind-in-nba.html
Some really interesting comments on the game, worth the read.
How many teams* in 2nd sentence
hehe exciting win. I believe all has been said already.
I actually considered Hawes for my player of the game. Guess the bar is pretty low. Awesome interior play today. One play, he was at the top of the key after a screen switch or so, bron passed the ball to wade down low on the left, the shot went up quickly. It bounces off the rim and presto, Hawes is grabbing the rebound. I could have sworn he teleported. Never seen him move that fast. Ever. Perhaps it is unrealistic to expect him to duplicate the effort next game.
game 5, anything can happen.
getting over the hump plus confidence is a good sign.
Brian, Statman: I am curious what your thoughts are on the adjustments DC made in guarding Wade-Lebron.
I'm going to re-watch the game, but one thing I noticed on first viewing is that the Sixers are less afraid now to switch Jrue or Turner onto LeBron (Jrue especially) when the Heat go to their bread-and-butter LeBron/Wade P/R. When Jrue guards LeBron, LeBron feels obligated to go into the post, and he simply does not have a good back-to-the-basket game (at least it's not as good as his face-up game), plus Jrue's post defense is better than he (or anyone else) expected.
Wade is a tougher cover in the halfcourt, but his jumper was off in this game. Meeks, Turner, and Jrue all did good jobs on him, I thought.
One other thing the Sixers did effectively in this game, which they probably can't rely on going forward, was to ignore Bibby almost completely. Double-teaming, rotating, and defensive rebounding are easier when someone on the opposition can't hit wide open shots.
I cover some of this in a post I wrote for tomorrow morning. Should be up around 9am.
I feel better about our coach after this game; H. Brown seemed impressed about adjustments Collins made early in this game and I was happy to see Turner kept out there when Thad struggled. Turner seems to improve our defensive rebounding and boxing out when he is on the floor. Jrue is stepping up and doing good things on the big stage, not bad for a 20 year old.
Tk, what other 20 year olds have played this well in a playoff series?
Hah, I was just about to look that up at B-R.
Will post on the new thread.