MVN - Most Valuable Network

Philly loses a crucial one to Indiana

The Sixers played flat. That’s the only word I can think of to describe the lackluster performance they had last night against a bad team. The sense of urgency that has been so evident throughout this hot streak seemed to escape them. The final score of the game was 85-76.

Jim O’Brien has instilled a complete run-n-gun system where getting the shot up quickly is the most important thing. The Sixers are at their best when on the run. These two teams managed only 35 points combined in the first quarter. The Sixers got caught up in the Pacers style of play and strayed away from their usually efficient offense.

Image details: Philadelphia 76ers v Detroit Pistons served by picapp.com

The most alarming thing appears to me in this loss and also the loss to Boston and Phoenix last month is that too often this team let’s their offense control their entire game. Off shooting games are going to happen but you can’t allow your offense to depict everything else. Too often I see slow rotations coming from the player that is 2/10. This team isn’t a good shooting team and this problem needs to be fixed or a bad shooting game (or 4) could mean a first-round sweep.

The offense was completely out of whack starting with Willie Green shooting about 9 ill-advised shots. 2/14 isn’t going to cut it Will. The Pacers commentators kept mentioning Philly’s poor shot selection. Willie is a scorer and he is going to try to shoot out of his slump. This isn’t the first time Willie Green has shot less than 20% and it’s Mo’s job to realize it and yank him quicker. He wasn’t the only throwing bricks as Louis Williams and Rodney Carney contributed 2/12 and 1/11 respectively.

The only bright spots for the 76ers was Thaddeus Young who scored 21 points on 10/19 shooting and Samuel Dalembert who ripped down 17 boards. It’s looks like the Pacers have a real gem in Danny Granger who absolutely abused Rodney Carney in the 3rd quarter where he scored 15 of his 30 points. He also had some nice blocks on dunk attempts. Andre Miller led the home team with 23 points.

Free-throw shooting continues to be the Achilles heel of this team and it reared its ugly head again last night. 9-21 from the charity stripe isn’t going to get it done if they expect to improve their position in the standings in these final 3 games. The worst 3-point shooting team in the NBA also shot a pitiful 1/14 from behind the arc.

I hope the team can erase this game from their memory quickly like I have and focus on the biggest game of the season. Washington and Cleveland lost but Toronto beat the Nets. This was a big loss because the Sixers slip to the 7th spot (Raptors hold tiebreaker). The 76ers can move up to the 5th seed with a win over the Wizards tonight.

Notes: Reggie Evans only played 52 seconds in last night’s game. Andre Iguodala went back to the locker room to get treated for a leg contusion he suffered on a drive in the first quarter. He later returned sporting a leg sleeve but seemed to be hampered by the injury. If this becomes a serious problem, we can kiss this season goodbye.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at 11:12 am and is filed under Mo Cheeks, Andre Iguodala, Rodney Carney, Andre Miller, Louis Williams, Willie Green, Free-throw shooting, Philly, Sixers, Reggie Evans, Jim O'Brien, Thaddeus Young, Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards, NBA Playoffs, Danny Granger, Samuel Dalembert, Phoenix Suns, Boston Celtics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.