| 22 November 2009
Just as much as I wasn't happy with some of the previous wins (the two with NJ, NY etc), I am not disappointed after the 97-91 loss to the Shaq-less Cavaliers.
"Low standards", one would comment.
Completely true, but with the Sixers over the last years I got used to be satisfied with things that shouldn't make a fan particularly proud: .500 records, making it to the playoffs, first round exits.
That's how it comes to the "hey, at least we competed" feeling that I had after the final buzzer.
A good team would have taken this game. And now I would have been here writing a "fantastic come-from-behind win" post. But Sixers are a mediocre team this year (5-8, .385), so they lost it. After a nice comeback, yes. After leaving everything on the court, yes. After showing they actually care, yes. But they lost.
So all the praise goes to Cleveland's strong defense in the fourth, to LeBron James stepping up when it counts bla bla bla. All true, don't get me wrong. But Sixers gave more than a help in making Cavs' decisive run (22-10 in the final period) possible.
Because you don't explain the 4/23 shooting in the fourth "only" with the great effort that all Cavaliers put in their half court. Yes, Iguodala should take the blame, because his 1/7 in the fourth, 6/22 overall, are signs of a poor night offensively. But Andre, as usual, did a lot of other things well, and played overall a solid game in my opinion: 8 boards, 7 assists, 'only' 3 turnovers, flashes of good defense.
I blame Eddie Jordan just as much as Iguodala for the loss. He had no answers to attack Cleveland's defense. Sixers run countless, useless isolation plays, with either Lou or Andre dribbling, dribbling, dribbling, then driving and finally taking a bad shot, a fallaway long jumper or a forced drive. So my question is: WHERE IS THE PRINCETON OFFENSE ????
Where are the screens, the cuts, the backdoors, where is the circulation of the ball ??? What I saw in the fourth quarter was prehistoric NBA basketball, one man going one-on-one (or one-on-two, one-on-three..) and the other four looking at him.
Defensively, we made some costly mistakes as well. Clerly the help system is not working, players don't communicate much, or don't communicate well, and many are missing their assignements. We let a man cut to the basket all alone at least three times, and every time LeBron James & co dished him an easy assist just under the rim: Moon had a couple of dunks this way. In the fourth, James beated his man off the dribble way before the free throw line, and no one came to help: the outcome was an uncontested, thunderous dunk for the 95-89.
So the exciting comeback (from 20-4 in the first, with Sixers being totally dominated, to 73-79 in the third, on a corner three by Lou Williams) was eventually wasted. Cavs tied it in the fourth with LBJ on the bench: he came in with the score at 85-85, 6.42 to play.
I hope that this loss will be at least useful, for many reasons (more after the jump).THREE ANSWERS
1) Yes, Carney is on fire and it seems that the coach trusts him now. Another couple of games like this and we will see Green getting DNP CDs. Again, never been a great Carney fan, but he's producing, so more power to him. He started our break in the second, nice boost off the bench.
2) Yes, Thaddeus Young bounced back immediately and had a very good game. I'm really happy for him, another sub par performance would have caused some serious troubles, especially in his confidence.
3) No, no signs of life from Dalembert. It seems he's playing with even less passion than usual. Completely not involved in this team.
THREE QUESTIONS
1) how good is this JJ Hickson guy? I didn't know him, I admit, but he impressed me with his athleticism and attitide. Reminded me a little bit of Brand Bass, another energy player I like. In the first he was everywhere, dunking, blocking shots, he even hit a 15 footer.
2) Why did Jordan decide to dramatically trim the rotation (with Kapono out, btw)? I have no idea. Jrue was a DNP CD (another step in the rookie mismanagement process) Green was horrible in his 6 minutes, Ivey saw the court only for the first 4 minutes of the fourth, when Cleveland cut the deficit. With three startes logging in 40+ minutes, Jordan basically used seven players. I don't like this, Sixers are a pretty deep team and they should use the bench more.
3) Why we didn't give Brand the ball in the low post in the fourth? Zero plays run for him during our extended draught, but he was doing well: 18+14, welcome back Elton.
REASONS
Why we lost the game
Stopped playing team basketball in the fourth, defensively and, mainly, offensively.
To be optimistic
We made a very nice comeback and showed for the first time that we can compete with an elite team, after being buried by Orlando, Boston, Utah. Brand seems another player compared to the one of some weeks ago. Carney is finding his role in the rotation. Attitude was good.
To be worried
The fourth quarter collapse surely won't help our confidence. Team defense is still a concern. Allowed immobile Big Z a whopping 13 points. Missed a great chance for a W that could have been a little turning poing in the season.
Sixers go to Washington on Tuesday.
Check Agent Dagger, the Wizards site of the Bloguin network. Are they missing Eddie Jordan ???? Uhm....
