| 01 November 2009
I had another title ready, “Pathetic Sixers lose a won game”, but fortunately it ended well, with a 127-141 overtime win (2-1, .666).
It was not the kind of game that gets me excited, these shootouts always leave me wondering: unfortunately I’m afraid we’ll see a lot of these shows this year.
So Sixers nearly lost it, and this should have NEVER happened, especially with a sorry ass team like this season’s Knicks that, by the way, were in the second night of a back-to-back and had lost in Charlotte after a DOUBLE overtime.
Keep all of the above in mind and you’ll agree with me that one thing is to waste a 23 point lead vs Orlando, Dallas, or Lakers, one thing is to let a no defence-no frontcourt-no playmaker WEAK squad like NY come back, allowing career highs to fellow guido Gallinari (30) AND Al frekkin’ Harrington (42 !!). Add that Hughes (I mean, L-a-r-r-y H-u-g-h-e-s !!) chipped in a whopping 18 and you’ll see why there is nothing to be particularly proud of, even after the road win.
Sixers simply did (well) what they were supposed to do for three quarters. Dominating the boards, the paint, driving to the basket pretty much at will, taking advantage of the fact that Knicks actually have no C and their only good big man is an undersized PF, yesterday slowed by foul trouble (Lee).
That’s how it become 24-40 at the end of the first, in which Sixers shot 16/22, 51-70 at the half, 81-96 after the third. Lou Williams, Iguodala and Brand led us, with Speights very effective again. Not only Knicks never came close, they never gave the impression they could do it.
But in the fourth quarter Sixers showed their worst side. Static offence, with too many isolation plays especially down the stretch, non existent defence, slow rotations on the perimeter. Harrington torched us with his inside/outside game, Gallinari shooting the lights out and Hughes creating for himself and for others (also 6 dimes).
What irritated me the most was the unbelievable amount of three point plays allowed. I lost the count but I think we gave up something like 10-12, the majority of them coming after stupid, useless, sissy fouls. I mean, we weren’t even able to foul right, you get this ?? Sam of course had his usual, ‘good’ amount, but Kapono decided to follow him with a costly one, letting Harrington cut the lead to four, 117-121 with 48 seconds to play.
It wasn’t the only mistake by our sniper, because he surprisingly missed one of two from the line with 10 seconds left (120-122), leaving NY the door open. Duhon took advantage of our porous defence, tying the game on an easy drive (122-122, 5 sec to go) and the last shot by Iguodala, a tough but doable jumper at the buzzer, was off, sending the game to overtime.
I was about to throw up when Harrington put the Knicks ahead at the beginning of the period, also because he did it on another three point play (125-122), but fortunately Sixers decided it was enough. Harrington fouled out and Iguodala carried us for the decisive break. He had a fantastic fastbreak dunk while being fouled (127-129) and Williams and Thaddeus Young did the rest, finishing off the Knicks with a 17-0 final run. Thank God.
THEEE ANSWERS
1) Yes, Gallinari is a legit NBA player. I’m glad he seems to be 100% healthy, it was painful to see a 20 y/o guy out suffering back problems last year. Great game by Gallo, even if he has to mix things up offensively, he has to take the ball to the rim more. And he can do that.
2) Yes, Brand had another nice game. He was playing against nobody, but he seems he is finding his spots in the offence
3) Yes, Sam is still Sam, therefore he followed the good game against Milwaukee with a sub par one. Six fouls in 19 minutes, playing against virtual opponents. (more after the jump)
THREE QUESTIONS
1) Is it possible that our defence on the pick-and-roll consists in both players covering who sets the pick, leaving a wide open shot on the perimeter? It happened in like 110% of those plays, and Knicks NEVER fed the ball inside. I think around 30 of Knicks' 41 three pointers were completely uncontested.
2) Why did Jason Smith get a DNP CD? I think this kind of game was a good fit for him.
3) Does the Princeton offence assume that you play no defence? Apparently this is our case.
REASONS
Why we won the game: players decided to prevent mass suicides among Sixers fans worldwide
To be optimistic.
We scored a lot of points and shot the ball well. Iguodala’s jumper is falling, which is huge, and we are continuing getting to the line a lot and knocking down our freebies at a high pctg. Lou Will seems comfortable at the point in the new system.
To be worried
We didn’t close a game that was ..closed. Decision taking in crunch time is a concern. We should take into consideration that games are played also in our half court.
