 Where Can I Buy A Willie Green Fathead? We'll talk about how big tonight's 106-96 win over the Raptors was for this Sixers team, and how they managed to pull it off, after the jump. Right now, though. It's all Willie, all the time.Take a look at this line..
Mo had an early hook for Thad in the first quarter, Willie first entered with 5:00 left in the opening quarter. I made note of it because I was pretty sure that would be the beginning of the end. But no, Willie came in and hit a quick jumper, then assisted on Iguodala's three before the end of the quarter. In the second, Willie had 8 points on a runner and two threes. The second three came on a pretty play drawn up by Mo out of a timeout at the end of the half. Iguodala handled the ball at the top of the circle, as usual, he ran the shot clock down to about 5 seconds then made his move to the hole. Willie used a down screen to pop out from the baseline to the left wing beyond the arc, Iguodala hit him and Willie drained it. No hesitation. I should've known right there that this was going to be a special night for Willie, but I still had my reservations. Willie entered the game with 7:58 left in the third and he wouldn't take a seat again. From that point on, he dropped 7 more points, dished out 7 more assists and hit the nail-in-the-heart three off a nice kick out from Brand in the post. That's right, Willie was the guy providing the outlet and he made the Raptors pay. This was, by far, the best game of Willie's career and I dare say the Sixers would not have won the game without him. One final stat, +13 with Willie on the floor. Unbelievable. After the jump we'll take a closer look at the game and the rest of the team. Hat's off to Willie one more time.
Tonight was a big night for a couple of reasons: It was the first playoff team they beat; the first road game they won; the first game they probably should have lost that they won and most importantly, it was the first time they haven't looked tight.
All of that Willie praise took the wind out of my sails, so I'm going to run down the rest of my game notes in bullets:
Team Record: 3-5 Up Next: @ Indy on Friday. Check out Arin It Out for your Pacers' game prep. 
Latest Posts• The Truth About Sam • Dei Is Out, Donyell In • 10 Games at a Time • Sixers Preseason Stats • Depressed Fan Field Trip • Sixers Hosed By N.J. • Does This Sound Familiar? • Putting A Bow on the Preseason • Rough Day For Christmas • Anyone In New York? • Sixers Pick Up Three Options • And Then There Were 13SearchBlogs in The NetworkSixers BlogsPassion and Pride Sixers 4 Guidos Liberty Ballers Recliner GM PhillyArena Heard In The Cheap SeatsSilver Dollar Slots | ||||||||||||||
After all my willie bashing, I have to give it to him. Great job. Of course, let's see what he does over the course of a few games : )
Guess you won't be using the garbage cans on this one. (BTW, I miss the Garbage meter!)
I almost broke it out after the first game.
From ESPN,
an interesting stat on the 10 big signings of over 50 mil. before the start of this season: the words BUYER BEWARE might be good advice...
Three are out with injuries (Ellis, Arenas and Smith) while Deng, Davis, Okafur, Brand, Iguodala, Bogut and Williams have all seen their PPG avg. drop and are all averaging under 16 PPG.
The only outperformer is Andris Biedrins, who is averaging 17 PPG, up a whopping 10 points from last year's 8 PPG avg.
Personally, I feel like the Willie criticism is unjust. I do the same things though, question whenever he is in the game. However looking at his stats he is hitting over 50% of his shots shooting well from behind the arc and getting to the foul line. He also has only had one game where he had over 3 turnovers and it came against Orlando when the whole team was turning the ball over. Also, to put icing on the cake, for every turnover he does have he is generating almost 4 assists, that is unheard of especially for Willie. Hopefully he can maintain this pace throughout the year and he could even be a candidate for sixth man of the year.
He's had 3 good games, all in Sixers wins, oddly enough. 2 really bad games, and 2 nothing games. My two biggest issues with Willie have always been shot selection and lack of defense. His shot selection has looked better this season, his defense hasn't really.
No way am I getting on any kind of Willie Green bandwagon, but I will say this. I feel more comfortable with him in the game right now than I do with Lou.
Wow... it's weird, but I kinda feel the same way. I'm not sure I'm exactly comfortable with either, but of the two, right now I'd take Willie.
If anything, I think Willie's experience is helping him right now. He's able to adjust to game conditions, so to speak. Of course, I still think he shoots too much, but if he's hitting, I'm not gonna complain.
Lou, on the other hand, is basically full speed all the time and almost completely one-dimensional in his thinking. He needs to learn to get into the flow of the game, read defenses, and adjust his play accordingly. That might - might - come with time. We'll see, I guess.
Perhaps Willie saw my comment on the Utah game.
Well, it's a vital win and hopefully we can get into a bit of a winning streak to get everyone starting to feel comfortable.
Great game by Willie. Every time the Raptors look like they had a run in them he hit a big shot. Having just ONE guy hit open shots makes the world of differnce on this team. I wish willie could do it consistently. Time will tell...
Thad has cooled off a bit the last couple games.
Deep down I think our best lineup may be with him coming off the bench filling in at SF and PF.
This would mean Iguodola could move back to his natural postion and either Willie/Lou or Rush could play SG. Just a thought...you need someone at SG who can nail open jumpers consistently.
you need someone at SG who can nail open jumpers consistently
This really is not Willie. He was hot last night, and like I said, it was the best game of his career, but he's a horrible shooter, historically.
I feel like Iguodala can hit open jumpers, hes just slumping now. He needs to be a more active scorer instead of being a passive one. If he attacks the basket like the other great ones do, Kobe,Lebron,Pierce,AI,Wade he will draw contact. He needs to get to the line a good 8 times per game. This will open up his shooting game so much. He will get points and begin falling into more of a rhythm and then his confidence will be back. It also opens up the whole offense more.
He's cut down on his bad shots dramatically. Last night he got most of his shots in the post, on the break, and on wide-open catch and shoot opportunities. I've liked what I've seen from him over the past couple of games.
In a sense, there's nothing wrong with treating Iggy like a shooting guard when the game begins. Within a very short amount of time, it'll become clear whether or not he's actually gonna knock down shots. If he's cold, Mo has to react... slide him down to SF and bring someone else in. The problem, as you hinted, Brian, is that neither Willie nor Lou is a sure fire solution. You could bring one of them in and he could suck just as bad as Iggy. I like Kareem, but Mo's not buying into him as a regualr rotation guy, so that idea's out the window.
Anyway, the point is that we have three shooting guards (Iggy, Lou, and Willie) and none of them is a reliable shooter. Mo just has to get lucky on most nights and find a way to play the hot guy when he's hot.
Rush is a slightly more reliable shooter, and he's a 2. And at least we have a reliable-looking small forward. Of course it's only a few games.
Man you guys like to bash willie,last time i check he's in the NBA and we're watching him at home.Negadelphia is a bad disease,Chill Out
I agree Brian which was why I asked the ? yesterday about the +/- with Lou b/c I was not seeing production from him considering his minutes as compared to his instant offense from last year. Was good for Mo to limit his minutes last night.
I also agree with Gdog that Mo should bring Thad off the bench to spell the 3/4 positions with one of the others starting at the 2 moving Iguodala to his natural 3.
One other thing.
ABSOLUTE Classic headline for this post!! I was cracking up when I saw it. ABSOLUTE Classic!! WG Fathead anyone...
I missed the game. How did Speights look out there last night?
And congrats to Willie. My opinion of him remains uncchanged though, until I see him consistently take less poor shots.
Speights looked really athletic and raw most of the time, and like a guy who knows how to put the ball in the basket at other times. If/when he really learns the game at the NBA level, he's going to be very, very good.
I also think he's capable of playing center, which is something I wasn't sure about before. He may turn Sammy into a trade chip next year, if you can find someone to take his contract.
Also, the headline clearly should've been Andre Iguodala Doesn't Play Like a Total Dickhead.
I'm saving that one for either a 30pt game, or a triple double.