| 30 March 2010
Sixers stand at 26-47 (.356) after the 105-98 win over Atlanta.
Today they are tied with the Knicks for the fourth worst record in the Eastern Conference, "trailing" Indiana (27-47) by only half of a game.
With only nine games remaining, starting from tonight's against the Thunder, some considerations can be made.
THREE ANSWERS
1) Yes, the last two wins have been extremely pleasant to watch, I must say. Sixers playing hard defense, making threes, sharing the ball, making clutch plays etc.
Really bad timing, though: we should have done that from Game 23, not 73.
2) No, all the wise tanking we previously did, even good, wasn't enough. Minnesota is on a 16-game losing streak (!!), Washington has 15 consecutive losses (!!!!), Detroit lost eight straight and 15 of the last 17. Definitely a tough race here... who will be rewarded ??
3) Yes, so the last back up to get a start was Speights (in the pic). He took Dalembert's place in the initial lineup and he played ok. Not great, not terrible, but ok. Limited by foul troubles, he showed he wasn't used to manage his minutes in terms of using his fouls properly.
I have to say that before the season ends I'd like to see Speights playing extended minutes at PF, WITH Sam, and not at his expense.
THREE QUESTIONS
1) Will we see more bench players getting starts/more minutes? Instead of Kapono (played even too much in the last games, if you ask me, just as if we were showcasing him before the trade deadline...), I'd give Carney 28-30 min per night for 3-4 games and see what he can do (more after the jump).2) Will Brand manage to grab ten rebounds in a game before the season ends? This is not even funny anymore. Remember his answer to this question some weeks ago, something like "Yeah, we have Sam catching a lot of them...", bla bla bla. Then how is possible that Kapono (!!) outrebounded your ass on the defensive end against the Hawks? K-a-p-o-n-o !!! The final count was 5-vs-3...
3) Any more Jrue doubters? Feel free to jump on the bandwagon now. First points-assists career double double, to go with only two turnovers in nearly 39 minutes of action. Over the past seven games the kid is averaging 13.9 points, 6.3 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game, adding even 2.8 steals !!
REASONS
Why we won the game
Did everything well, delivering on the key possessions. Iguodala was just phenomenal, one assist shy of a triple double, (I think Kapono missed on purpose his last two open threes, both times off passes by Andre...lol).
Dalembert scoring twelve in the fourth is something that you don't see often, also.
To be optmistic
Well, Holiday's progresses are tremendously exciting to me, he can be the starter of this team for, what?, the next decade or so.
To be worried
Clearly the winning streak must end immediately. Starting from... now (tip off while I'm typing this). "Let's go Thunder" (**claps hands**)
