Sixers Blow Out Bobcats With Will Smith In Attendance
The perfect medicine for the Philadelphia 76ers following their worst loss of the season was a home date with the league-worst Charlotte Bobcats. The Sixers jumped out to an early lead, led 23-10 after a quarter and were able to shift to cruise control for the majority of the second half. The final 17 point margin is no real indicator of how close this game was or wasn't, as the Bobcats were able to make a late run on the Graveyard Shift – whom deprived the starving Fresh Princes in attendance of Big Macs by scoring only 12 fourth quarter points. The Sixers led by as many as 30 midway through the fourth quarter.
The win improves the Sixers' record to 13-6 on the season and 9-2 on their home floor. Outside of the Nets game on Wednesday the Sixers have been able to take care of business in a big way against inferior opponents – none more inferior than the 3-17 Bobcats. They'll play another bad team tomorrow night when the Pistons come to town before a tumultuous seven game stretch in which they will play teams with a combined record of 87-42 – a far cry from the second easiest schedule the team has enjoyed thus far.
Against such a bad team, it's difficult to take anything meaningful away from the game, especially when the game was essentially over in four minutes. However; that won't stop me from trying. Make the jump for some individual player observations.
Frozone Blows Out Bobcats Post Game Thread
If you, like me, had an office pool to see how quickly Francisco Elson AKA Frozone AKA The Savior AKA The Professor AKA Harold 'n' Kumar Go to White Castle AKA Jermaine Dupri AKA Cisco AKA Unleash the Dragon (et al) would get into a game, then you better have collected the money right away because the kid got some runtime tonight!
Complete blowout. I'm really hoping you get the Frozone/Blowout pun. Get it? Please get it.
Post-game it here.
Bobcats Vs. Sixers Game Thread - Jan. 27, 2012
| Bobcats vs 76ers coverage | ||
|---|---|---|
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| 3-16 | 12-6 | |
| Location: Wells Fargo Center | ||
| Time: January 27th, 2012, 7:00 PM Eastern | ||
| Channel: CSN, NBA League Pass | ||
| Probable starters: | ||
| Kemba Walker | PG | Jrue Holiday |
| Matt Carroll | SG | Jodie Meeks |
| Derrick Brown | SF | Andre Iguodala |
| Tyrus Thomas | PF | Elton Brand |
| Byron Mullens | C | Tony Battie |
| Advanced Stats: (league rankings) | ||
| 93.2 (29) | Off | 105.1 (3) |
| 105.6 (27) | Def | 93.3 (1) |
| 45.2% (28) | eFG% | 50.7% (5) |
| 50.13% (24) | deFG% | 44.6% (2) |
| 13.9% (10) | TOR | 11.2% (1) |
| 24.1% (23) | ORR | 22.6% (30) |
| 71.8% (24) | DRB | 75.0% (8) |
| 23.4% (27) | FTR | 24.3% (26) |
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Mortal Enemies: Rufus on Fire |
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Talkin' Charlotte Bobcats and Sixers with Rufus on Fire
With the Sixers set to play the Bobcats tonight in Philly, I emailed Ben Swanson from the puntastic Rufus on Fire (say it out loud, you'll get it) for a blurb about the Bobcats because, honestly, I've seen exactly zero minutes of Charlotte this season save for a few clips of Kemba Walker and Bismack Biyombo doing what they presumably do. From what I gather, they're significantly worse than a nosebleed but not quite as bad as having your eyebrows sawed off with a machete. Lucky for me, Ben answered with a nice thing. That thing is below. Play with it. Learn from it.
The Bobcats are the suckiest right now.Don't get me wrong, I don't mean they're not really freaking terrible at other times, but usually they're less so. Charlotte's starting lineup has been demolished by injuries as of late, with D.J. Augustin sustaining some kind of crack in his big toe, Gerald Henderson's lower back problems after a Jared Jeffries hard foul, and Corey Maggette's strained hamstring. Enter Kemba Walker, Matt Carroll, Derrick Brown, Tyrus Thomas and DeSagana Diop.I really don't know what else to say. There is no way in hell the Bobcats win. Not only are those starters injured, but so is the Bobcats most efficient scorer, D.J. White. Byron Mullens will play, but has a bruised right hand. And Reggie Williams is still out while he recovers from knee surgery.The Bobcats are simply awful on both sides of the court. They settle for jump shots, as shown by their No. 1 ranking in field goal attempts between 16 and 23 feet out. Ball movement is inconsistent and inefficient. The Bobcats only scoring threat is Kemba Walker, who has been nearly exclusively taking the ball on isolation plays. But how much can you blame him with the players that surround him, my god.On defense, they have a major hole in the paint. Perhaps moving Mullens back to the bench alleviates that a little, but Gana Diop is slow-footed and still slightly out of shape. He's not going to fend off opponents from getting into the paint at all. And so the Bobcats become forced to overcompensate for opponent's dominance on the boards and getting to the rack, which opens up the perimeter game.In conclusion, the Bobcats were beat by the Wizards by 17. And that Bobcats roster was better than the one that will play the 76ers tonight.
That's the kind of optimism I like to see from a Bobcats blogger! I miss the good old days. Catch my disease over at Rufus on Fire (say it again) to see what I said about the Sixers. See ya'll tonight for thread. Francisco Elson will be guest-starring. How many points do you estimate the Sixers will win by and, more importantly, how many minutes will Cisco play?
Nikola Vucevic Number 10 In SB Nation Rookie Rankings
SB Nation's first installment of their NBA Rookie Rankings debuted this morning and Sixers' back up center, Nikola Vucevic, comes in at number 10. Here's what our pal Rohan Cruyff from At The Hive fame had to say about Vooch:
Vucevic is another tough player to judge, simply due to how much of his (highly efficient) offensive play comes within the flow of the team's elite offense. He's been used liberally on the pick and pop, representing a sort of evolutionary Jason Smith for Philly, and he's been connecting with regularity from range (50 percent from 16-23 feet). He's also been one of the best rebounders in this class, coming in only behind Enes Kanter offensively, and third behind Kanter and Boston's Greg Stiemsma defensively.
Vuecvic ranks much lower in ESPN's rookie rankings, 17 to be exact. Here's what David Thorpe had to say about the Sixers rookie two weeks ago:
Jan. 13: Vucevic has been a pleasant surprise for the hot-starting Sixers, finding a way to produce in basically every game he gets to play in. He has appeared in eight of Philly's 10 games, never playing more than 20 minutes, yet he's scored six or more points four times and grabbed five or more rebounds five times. For what it's worth, he currently leads all rookies in PER (21.88) while playing 13.4 minutes a game.
I must say, I've been impressed with Vooch thus far. My only real complaints are, he struggles defensively sometimes and is in the Spencer Hawes mold of big men, as in, attempts most of his shots away from the basket and rarely gets to the line. However; with the 17th pick in a weak draft, Vooch has been about as productive as you can ask for.
Philadelphia Sixers Sign Francisco Elson
According to Director of Public Relations, Michael Preston, the Sixers have officially announced the signing of veteran big man, Francisco Elson.
#Sixers announce signing of veteran center Francisco Elson. He will wear no. 16 and is at morning practice. The roster now stands at 14.
With Spencer Hawes and Nikola Vucevic out with injury, and Marreese Speights shipped to Memphis earlier this season, the Sixers were in desperate need for a big man. Since Vooch went down with a leg injury against the Heat Tony Battie and Lavoy Allen have been receiving significant minutes in the front court, leaving the Sixers vulnerable on the glass, which explains the team's abysmal rebounding numbers in Wednesday's loss against the Nets.
Besides the fact that Elson is seven feet tall, I have no idea how he continues to con teams into believing he's a serviceable big man, especially at his age. He has a career PER of 10.0 (5 below average) and a career DREB% of 18.5 (also below average for big men).
From reading our neighborhood D-League blog, Ridiculous Upside, I can tell you that there are better big men prospects available, but for unknown reasons Doug Collins and Rod Thorn like the veteran-ness of guys like Tony Battie and Francisco Elson.
Dan Gadzuric also worked out for the Sixers. Not only has he been a better player than Elson throughout their careers, but he's younger. If the move was for a veteran, and a veteran only, I would've preferred Gadzuric, or Dong, for comedic purposes.
The only good that comes from this signing is the likelihood of more open letters to the Frozone look-a-like.
Sixers Vs. Bobcats Preview: Bismack Biyombo Sighting!
After suffering, by far, their worst loss of the young season, the Philadelphia 76ers will look to bounce back in a big way tonight against the Charlotte Bobcats. The Bobcats own the NBA's worst record at 3-16, along with the league's worst road record at 1-9. They've lost six consecutive games, including a beat down at the hands of the lowly Washington Wizards their last time out.
Adding injury to insult, the Bobcats are also a banged up bunch, missing D.J. Augustin, Corey Maggette and Reggie Williams with various ailments.
Old School Philadelphia 76ers Anthem Is Back
Since taking over, the Sixers owners have been doing and saying all the right things, from slashing ticket prices to getting rid of the 'Hip Hop' mascot. Unlike previous ownership the new group is about as in touch with the fans as owners can be these days, and very accessible on Twitter. One of the first things they did as owners was open up a permanent suggestion box at newsixersowner.com. At first I was hesitant of the idea and thought it was all for show, but fan suggestions have been coming into fruition more often than not.
The latest change ownership has decided to implement will debut during this Friday's home game against the Charlotte Bobcats. It's the return of the old school Sixers theme song! I'm not sure when this song was popular, but I'm guessing the 80's, by the sounds of it. According to the Sixers.com press release, this was indeed another suggestion from fans, and based on the feedback I've seen on Twitter, this small addition has fans pretty excited.
Listen to the full version of the song here.







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