| 21 November 2009
A really weird game, if you think about it.
A fantastic Lou Williams had a career high 31 points on 12/16 (4/7 from three), Brand had his second straight excellent game, a la "old" Elton Brand, we shot the three well, just as effectively as we defended it, Grizzlies turned the ball over more than we did, and still the final score was 97-102 Memphis.
This is why I'm afraid it's only going to get uglier.
Tonight we go to Cleveland to meet the LeBron Cavs, for the first of seven road games. Between those seven, we play host to the Atlanta Hawks, that currently lead the NBA (!!) at 11-2. It means that Sixers will be put to a tough test, and that our 5-7 record (.417) will likely get worse. Maybe much worse.
I think Memphis is a better team than its record shows (4-8 after last night). They have a lot of individual talent, they are extremely athletic, young and can count on many weapons.
Rudy Gay (33 points) torched us all night, scoring 22 in the second half, many on very tough shots, like turnaround or fallaway high-arching jumpers. Gay easily burned Thad many times, but Carney and Iguodala played good defense on him in the second half: the Grizzlie was simply red hot, we coulnd't do much better.
Wait, we completely lost him on the decisive play: with Memphis up three (95-98) and only 40 seconds to play, our entire defense collapsed on OJ Mayo, attempting a drive: Mayo found Gay wide open on the perimeter and his 17 foot jumper went down for the 95-100 lead, 19 seconds left. I think Young had to guard Gay on that possession.
Before that play came what to me was the turning point. Wit the score at 86-92 and Sixers trying to trim the deficit, Lou Williams had his fourth steal of the night and went all court for a 3-vs-1 fastbreak. He chose the fancy stupid behind-the-back pass, resulting into a steal by Gay, resulting into a jumper by Marcus Williams on the following possession: so instead of a possible 88-92, with the momentum in our favor, it was 86-94.
It's ironic how this bad mistake was made by our best player, who couldn't complete the job after a fantastic game. Similarly for the resurging Brand, who knocked down a tough jumper for the 91-96. Wasted effort(s), right. Add that Memphis coulnd't make a three in the first half (0/4) while we shot 6/9 from behind the arc and you have another interesting stat to mull over.
So how did we lose this game? Uh, check the rebounds: 48-28 Memphis (!!), 27-11 in the second half (!!!!). Yes, we grabbed ELEVEN rebounds in the final 24 minutes. Grizzlies second chance opportunities killed us: we simply didn't box out, and with the best offensive rebounding team in the League, you are going to pay for that (more after the jump).I think Dalembert could have played more (he didn't even had foul troules !) but of course this is not the reason, at least not the only one. Brand's six boards in 38 minutes are not enough, to name another, same for Young's alone defensive rebound in 28.
THREE ANSWERS
1) yes, Jrue Holiday finally played, at Ivey's expense, but not well this time. He was clearly tryng to show something in the few minutes he got, and made some mistakes. I think the fact he's getting alternatively DNP CDs or 4-5 minutes of action is not helping him.
2) yes, Primoz "gangsta" Brezec made his debut as a Sixer !!! Yeah baby !! Nevermind, the 7-foot-1 center was 0-3, all shots coming off putbacks just under the rim...
3) no, I don't like 'small ball', but Jordan seems to disagree with me. We were outrebounded 37-21 at the end of the third (...), and our coach started the fourth with Williams, Green, Carney, Kapono and Jason Smith. WTF ??????
THREE QUESTIONS
1) What's happening to Thaddeus Young? An airballed hook among other bad plays. His body language is bad, and it even looks like he doesn't care much. As I said in a comment on a previous post, I think he should start focusing more on defense, offense will come. Either way, PATIENCE is the key here, the kid is 21 y/o !!!
2) Sam ??? You here ????
3) Will someone tell Iguodala that he needs to work on his free throws? He missed two straight in the third, the first was a long brick, the second came way short. An awful 66% for the season.
REASONS
Why we lost the game
Killed under the boards. Their big men in great shape.
To be optimistic
Our big three (?) are playing well: Brand really seems on his way to full recover. Lou Williams looked like an All star, Iguodala's shot was not falling but he did a lot of things to help the team (9 dimes !). Carney had another solid outing.
To be worried
We lost to a team that was 0-6 on the road and the schedule is not helping us. Two startes look MIA. Every night you have a bunch of questionable decisions by our coach.
Bring on the Cavs. Ok, not so quickly.
