It's a shame, really, that a thrashing like that only counts for one win. The Sixers dominated every facet of their resounding 101-75 win over the Pacers last night, unfortunately, Doug Collins wasn't around to see the time run off the clock as hundreds of fans celebrated.
- Roy Hibbert
- Solomon Jones
- Josh McRoberts
- Tyler Hansbrough
It's usually a cop-out when a blogger starts a post with a list, but this one serves a purpose. Those are the players who tried to guard Elton Brand tonight. Each one failed. Indiana tried to double him, tried to smother him, tried to hack and grab him. None of it mattered. Brand was a man on a mission, and his mission was to leave Indiana questioning their 2-1 start. Mission accomplished.
That may be a bit of hyperbole, but seriously, Brand was unbelievable in this game. The only negative concern Brand was Michael Curry (who took over for Doug Collins), running his minute total up to 36 with an ill-advised stretch late in the fourth quarter. Brand wound up playing 78 minutes over the past two days. Were those extra minutes really worth it in a 30-point game? I don't think so.
Brand is your player of the game, there's no need for suspense here: 25 points on 9/15 from the floor, 7/7 from the line with 12 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks and 0 turnovers. That line is oddly reminiscent of the Elton Brand who used top play for the Clippers. It sure seems like he's back, I'm just not sure how long he's going to be around if his coaches keep abusing him like this, minutes-wise.
If you look up and down the box score, pretty much everyone except the two guys we got for Sam Dalembert had a good game, and even Hawes was only bad today, rather than atrocious. He even hit a three (a set-shot three, which looked vaguely like my two-year-old trying to throw a kickball to his sister). Jrue continues his march toward dominance (or at least relevance) and seriously outplayed Darren Collison, the bane of his UCLA existence. 11 points. 4 boards, 5 dimes, 4 steals and only 1 turnover.
Andre Iguodala was the focal point of some griping during the game thread. All he did was score 11 on 9 shots and grab 9 boards. Not to mention 4 assists, 1 steal, 4 blocks and zero turnovers. Oh, and he made Danny Granger look like every bit of the benchwarmer he was for team USA. Granger finished 2/14 for 7 points. Collison was a bit better, 4/16 for 11 points. Honestly, the entire Indiana team was pitiful. 28/89 (31.5%) from the floor is just about the worst shooting performance I've ever seen.
Here are your charts from the game, a few more thoughts to follow:
There was a somber note to tonight's game. Doug Collins could not return to the bench after the half due to another bout of vertigo in the locker room. At this point, I'm worried about the guy. It's been five months since his fall and the symptoms seem to be getting worse. On top of that, they seem to be exacerbated by the thing that makes him good at what he does. Long hours of film study, extra work, extra stress. He might need to take a decent chunk of time off, and I really do not want Michael Curry as our head coach. I feel like Collins is somehow getting through to these guys, I want him better and in the locker room as soon as possible. Get well soon, Coach.
Prior to the game, Collins broke out his stat sheet and starting naming names. He wanted his guys to be more aggressive in attacking the rim, he wanted them getting to the line, and he was very clear in who he was talking about. Collectively, the team shot 25 free throws, with Elton Brand leading the way. That number is probably not indicative of the Sixers' offensive effort, though, considering Indy basically gave up with about 6 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Finally, there's no way Marreese Speights is going to grab 11 boards in 14 minutes and not get a nod in my wrap. Speights couldn't hit a shot to save his life, but he was working his ass off on the glass. If Collins was there, he may have even cracked a smile.
Thad continues to confound me. The effort is better, on both ends of the floor, but the production...it just isn't enough. 14 shots to get 16 points isn't bad at all, but that's a really good game for him. He was hot tonight, and doing pretty much everything right, and his line was only good. He really needs to be the best he can possibly be to have a dramatic effect on the team's chances of winning or losing. Even a good game, like tonight's, is only a little better than treading water. He's going to need to start hitting threes or getting to the line a lot more often to be an effective offensive weapon, which is really his role.
That's enough cold water, though. The Sixers are no longer among the winless, heck, they're on a roll.
Player of The Game: Elton Brand
Team Record: 1-4
Up Next: Cleveland, on Friday night.
Game Capsule
Agree with everything except Thad to a point. May I complement you on the kickball line on the Hawes three? He makes Andre Miller's jumper look as smooth as Kobe Bryant's.
I posted this in the other thread about Thad: Offensively he's been deadly efficient scoring the basketball. Even though he's not getting to the line shooting 64 percent! He cuts out the threes, and focuses on the mid-range game and in. That makes him good. He's also taking his time, I don't think I've seen the Thad shuffle once yet.
I think defense is his problem, and we need to do two things to hide him on that end. Play two members of JTI at 1-3, and Battie and Brand at center. He can't be on the floor with Speights, Lou, and Kapono at the same time. That's a recipe for disaster.
Yeah, I don't think we really disagree, you're just a little more optimistic than I am. What I'm saying is that to make up for his defensive deficiencies, he needs to be a well-above average offensive player. I don't think he can keep up the 64% shooting, and since he never gets to the line and rarely hits threes, he really needs to shoot better than 50% to be a real asset on that side of the ball. At 64%, he definitely is, at 52%, not so much. And not enough to offset the defensive damage.
That's kind of a broad view, though. If you look at this team specifically, there are definitely minutes for him even if he's only getting you one point-per-possession. The sad fact is, that's better than some units are capable of.
The sixers played a great game hopefully this will continue on Friday against the cavs. Michael Curry is a horrible coach we need Doug to get better asap.
Looking around the league before I head to bed.
- Favors is much further along than I thought he'd be at this point. Good game for him against the Bobcats tonight. No idea why the Nets have played all four of their games at home, though. Odd.
- DeMarcus Cousins is losing more and more minutes to Sam every night. Tonight, he had 5 fouls in 20 minutes and used 13 shots to score 11 points.
- OKC's smoke-and-mirrors defense from last year looks like nothing but smoke so far this season. Rough night for Durant (0/10 from three). The Clips also got their first win. Big game from Eric Gordon.
- Monta Ellis is looking like a more-efficient gunner this season. GSW is 3-1 now, even without Stephen Curry.
- Kevin Love finally played 30 minutes, in 42-point loss to Orlando. Minnesota is such a mess. Lou for Kevin Love, straight up, make it happen, Rod. Wes Johnson had a rough time in his first start, 3/11 for 8 points. Dwight Howard had 18 points, 16 boards and 8 blocks in 23 minutes in that game. Unbelievable.
OK, that's all I've got. Happy Thursday.
Cousins is doing just fine. This is his first bad game, compared to, what, Turner being a non-factor 75% of the time he's playing. Not that Turner hasn't showed a ton of promise, but Cousins has been the second most productive rookie thus far. Last game he has 10 fourth quarter points, scores 1.6 points per shot and a point per minute. His shot selection is a little troubling but so is the shot selection of practically any big man with range these days.
"Cousins is doing just fine"
I've watched quite a bit of Cousins so far this year, and I definitely notice a disturbing trend that's not yet fully showing up in the boxscore. During high school, he had a reputation of drifting out to the perimeter too much when he could dominate at will in the post. Cal corrected this at Kentucky, but he looks to be reverting to his ways. It first manifested itself in deep two's, but last night he took 4 three's. His perimeter game needs to augment his post-up game, not the other way around.
If Rod could get Love for Lou straight up that would be incredible.
Well the Wolves need another PG, right? :)
Now that is what we've been waiting for. Only 10 turnovers for the team tonight. Big win! Can't wait to watch the game on my DVR tomorrow. This team will be ok. I'm not saying they are a playoff team as currently constructed but I think nobody will want to play us later in the year because there is no quit in this group.
What kind of record does everyone think we would have if a Kevin Love/Iguodala trade happened today? I would guess 44 - 38.
PG Jrue Holiday
SG Evan Turner
SF Thad Young
PF Elton Brand
C Kevin Love
I think that is a very good young squad. I'd venture to say a 6 seed.
1. Orlando
2. Miami
3. Boston
4. Atlanta
5. Chicago
6. Philadelphia
7. Milwaukee
8. New York
Would we have to get rid of Brand at that point? I don't think that would be necessary this year if we had a more balanced team. Love is averaging 17 ppg / 11.5 rpg in 25 minutes per game.
I'd rather suck this year in all honesty. Does that team ever get out of the 2nd round (let alone the 1st).
I see 3 potential All-stars on that team in their prime with Holiday/Turner/Love. Thad has a high ceiling but we just don't know if he'll ever sniff it. The problem with superstars is that they are not going to come to philly unless they are already a good team. This is not NYC. So you go after a JJ Hickson or a Robin Lopez in 2012 who are both restricted free agents and they are all come into their prime at the same time.
I dont think we'd be better than milwaukee this year with love or Iggy, that's a pretty good squad. I love Bogut, did anyone see him get in KG's face last night?
And with that horrible (that word doesn't even really do it justice - http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/22748484/25626885 - good read, kinda sad though) deal that Mike Conley just, it sure looks like the Griz will have trouble holding on to Marc Gasol. I'm a fan.
Derrick Favors vs Dwight Howard on Nov 5th. I hope Favors gets to play D against Dwight, atleast for a little while. Dwight has 20 lbs on him but I want to see if Favors mans up with the big boys. God I wish we had him with Jrue, no knock on Turner.
Was at the game last night- Brand was a monster.
The line up that looked the best was the Jrue, Turner, Thad, Iggy, Brand line up. That's the group that really buried the Pacers in the first half. They looked good. And the key to the run was really Brand- they worked it into the post and he made great decisions based on what the defense gave him.
Turner impressed tonight. He was quiet but effective. Good defense and the shots he hit that counted, I think he had 8 pts going into the 4th, were spot up jumpers.
Overall great game!
The Brand-Young-Iguodala combo by itself was +23 for the game. I've always thought that Iguodala and Young play well together, and it showed in this game. What I've seen more this year than in previous years is that Iguodala and Brand have played well together.
Did you guys notice at Indiana's opener Iggy got booed everytime he touched the ball, like he took minutes from Granger at the world games; they shoulda booed Granger, he seems to disappear at times.
Another great effort from Brand - I'm not too worried about the minutes, considering how little he has really played the past 3 seasons. Let him build confidence while he's going good.
I think that Iguodala is trying to play the role that he's best suited for, but the youth/inexperience of the 3 ballhandlers that he defers to will lead to inconsistency in his opportunitites. His defense on Granger was great.
Thad Young - he's just a mediocre NBA player, I don't think that he has one above-average facet of his game. I feel like any number of players (including Nocioni and Kapono) would give you similar production in the same minutes. That is not the kind of player that you extend.
I agree with what you said about Iguodala, but no way Nocioni and Kapono get the same numbers if they play the same minutes as Thad.
People are complaining a little too much for someone giving us 16 and 5 off the bench. I think his D is a problem, and if it doesn't improve over the course of the season I would hesitate in signing him for too much, but that doesn't mean he should be knocked down to Kapono/Nocioni's level. Especially, Kapono's.
I second the comment about Kapono. If he's not hitting his shot, he's quite possibly the worst player in the league. On the court for only 12 minutes last night, he still had time to make two horrendous plays on defense:
* On a Pacer missed shot, somebody tipped the ball out to his man on the baseline. He could have challenged for the loose ball except that he was faceguarding his man (after the shot!) and had his back turned to the play. This interesting block-out technique illustrates why he has 3 rebounds in 40 minutes this year.
* On a Pacer inbounds play, Kapono can be seen gazing into the crowd before he realizes, "!@#$% I'd better cover my man." He then makes a mad dash toward a wide-open Dunleavy, too late to prevent a swished 3. You can see the other Sixers standing around dumbfounded, wondering how Dunleavy got that open. Since it was a blowout win, that was my favorite play of the game other than the first block of Granger by Iguodala.
To be fair to Thad, he currently has a TS% of 62.7%, with an efg% of 61.7%, with a PER of 19.9 and a WS/48 of 0.164. All of those are far more than "treading water".
(He's second on the team in TS%, first in efg%, 3rd in PER, 3rd in WS/48)
He's been very good. My point is that there's no way he's going to maintain the TS% & eFG if he doesn't start getting to the line a lot more and/or making a ton of threes. He's been much better this year than last, but I don't think his scoring efficiency numbers are sustainable w/ the game he's playing and his contributions in all other areas, while improved, are pretty much pedestrian.
I don't disagree with that. I was arguing that he has been effective and efficient, which your post seemed to indicate that even playing as well as he has that he has not been. I believe he has been efficient, but I do agree that he is unlikely to maintain this if he doesn't start getting to the line and hitting three's.
Thad's shot selection is kind of interesting early into the season. Close to half his shot attempts (per game) at the rim.
http://www.hoopdata.com/player.aspx?name=Thaddeus%20Young
Yeah, I was more talking about last night's game. As a 50% shooter, he isn't really helping all that much.
The issues with Thad have always been rebounding and defnse more than his ability to get to the basket.
How are those doing?
PS - the best thing about Brand last night was the back to back (over time no less) aspect of it.
Slightly better on the defensive glass. Basically where he was as a rookie. Worse on the offensive glass than when he was a rookie. Defensively, I think he's been better, but still really bad.
So, basically, back to his pre eddie jordan production of all offense and little else?
I thought it was interesting to see how the players responded to Doug Collins's comments going into the game. Supposedly, Collins made turnovers and getting to the foul line a priority. Sixers responded with only 10 turnovers and by going 21-25 from the stripe.
I was impressed with their ability to focus on a problem and correct it. I don't think we've always looked like the most intelligent basketball team. One of the strengths of having players like Iguodala, Holiday, and Turner is that they're smart and can execute when directed. Hopefully, this is something they continue to improve.
Espn said there was around 5000 fans in attendance for last night's game if that's true that's just sad.
I was at the game and that figure sounds about right. People were yelling the same tired 'you make too much money' comments at Brand and Iguodala from the 20th row of the lower level and it would echo throughout the arena. It was a testament to the effort of the players on the court that they played so well in front of such an empty arena.
Not to place a damper on things, but we do have to keep in mind that this was the Pacers, you know. Show me the same thing vs CLE and then we may be on to something. Sadly, I'm not expecting it though.
Eh. Even if they do show the same thing against the Cavs, it's only the Cavs.
Yea if they still had Lebron we might expect a crowd, but it might be just as bad. Until they start winning Philly fans won't show up.
It's funny cause I truly believe part of the reason they picked Turner was to appease the fans who would complain endlessly if they took Favors.
Fans have been endlessly complaining about Turner since they picked him (some even before they picked him).
The fans won't show up until the sixers win in the playoffs. Even when they were getting bitch slapped a couple years ago as the 8 seed they weren't selling out the home playoff games.
True. Which is why I said "may be" on to something.
Not to place a damper on things, but we do have to keep in mind that this was the Pacers, you know.
You mean the team that beat the sixers about 5 days ago?
We've got a busy day here. Key indicators coming up around noon, then at least one more post later in the afternoon. Also, I believe tonight will be the return of SixersBeat, the live radio show Derek Bodner and I host. Check back throughout the day.