Time is short this afternoon, luckily, the prologue to tonight's epic battle between the hapless Wizards and the no-longer homesick Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers is easy to boil down into a few key moments. An off-balance, desperation three by Cartier Martin, and a Jrue Holiday foul on a 40-foot three point attempt by John Wall, unbelievable.
If you can stomach it, here are the game capsules from
Game 1 and
Game 2 against the Wiz.
Seriously, if Doug Collins can't get enough juice out of those two disgusting losses, this team has no pulse. The Sixers should still be shaking their heads about how they lost to this hapless Wizards team not once, but twice. The manner in which they lost the games is simply salt in the wound.
Since the last time these teams met, Gilbert Arenas has taken his lack of talents to Disney World and Rashard Lewis has been starting for the Wizards, though not playing particularly well.
The three players you need to stop - or maybe just limit - in order, are JaVale McGee (keep him off the offensive glass), Nick Young (he likes to shoot, and seems to shoot very well against the Sixers) and John Wall (we've already seen him dominate vs. the Sixers). The rest of the team is basically borderline NBADL guys (Hinrich is good, but he's questionable for tonight's game).
Even without Iguodala and possibly Hawes (listed as a game-time decision), the Sixers absolutely, positively must win this game. The Wizards are 0-16 on the road, and they really aren't as good as that record would lead you to believe.
Prediction: Sixers 115, Wizards 96
Leave your thoughts on the game right here. The tip is at 7pm, game thread will be up 90 minutes prior.
Sixers favored by 6.5/7 in Vegas. Hopefully they can avoid the typical first game back after a long road trip lethargy.
This game is the perfect situation for Jrue to show that he belongs in the future PG stars conversation. If he can outplay Wall (who is largely expected to become a superstar), Jrue is certainly going to make a statement.
In that context, we've talked a lot about how Turner played better in the 9 games Iguodala has missed thus far, but how about Jrue? He is averaging 17 points, 8.44 assists, 4.11 rebounds on 46% shooting. He also went for 29 and 8 in the game Iguodala got injured.
The point is Jrue has produced even when asked to be the leader of the team at the age of 20 as a PG. He has even been more efficient in that 9 game span (a very small sample size but still significant). And it's not like he has benefited from the schedule either. 7 of those 9 games were on the road and 5 of 9 against probable playoff teams.
He's been very good recently, and it started prior to Iguodala's injury.
I don't think there's any legit reason why these guys can't play well together. Iguodala has already accepted a smaller role on the offensive end. Jrue is stepping into a bigger role. The problem has been Turner's passivity on the offensive end (prior to the past couple games), and his inefficient scoring. If he settles into the efficient scorer he was in college, or at least close to it, everything will be fine w/ the three of them on the floor together.
People are looking for reasons beyond the obvious as to why it is/isn't working so far to this point. It's actually extremely simple in my mind. Turner hasn't been very good offensively, for several reasons. When Iguodala's out, Turner plays more minutes and takes more shots and plays a bigger role because the team has far fewer offensive options. He gets a chance to shoot himself into a groove once in a while.
This wasn't an attempt to undervalue Iguodala or find an excuse for losing at all. I was just trying to point out just how good Jrue has been so far and how little he is appreciated for it. He's been great as 20 year old leader of a team that might make the playoffs. What more can you ask from him...
Yeah, I wasn't really attacking you at all. Just saying I think the meshing issue is overblown, or at least underexplored at this point. Best-case scenario is that Turner develops enough confidence to play this way when Iguodala gets back, and Collins puts an end to the Jodie Meeks-as-starter era soon thereafter.
I can just see the look on the players' faces now.. coming home from a relatively successful road trip, getting praise on comcast for the past few weeks, expecting the fans to show up.. and no one will be there.
Hey, either will I, it's the freaking Wizards but I will be there Friday to thank them for the last few games.