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Sixers beat Kings in Kevin Martin's return

I came away from tonight's game thoroughly impressed. The Sixers actually beat a solid team -- a completely healthy solid team. They dominated the Kings from start to finish, and closed the game out with defense. It was reminiscent of the way Mo Cheeks '07 Sixers closed out games. However; I'm still not satisfied. I want losses. But wins like tonight's make rooting for ping pong balls and a coaching change a lot harder. 

Note: I'm still sticking with the young guys in the recaps, but two big shout outs to Sammy D and Elton B. They were really good tonight. 

Jrue Holiday

Typical Jrue Holiday game: tough defense, good passing, point guard skillz beyond his years, and a few rookie mistakes. He did a decent job on TyROY Evans despite giving up about 90 pounds. Only 10 minutes for Jrue tonight, but he was productive when given a chance. 

Lou Williams

Unlike Jrue, Lou was torched by Evans. Yes Evans was 3-13 from the floor, but it had nothing to do with Lou Williams' defense. He was also unproductive on offense, shooting 4-15 from the floor. On the bright side, he did have zero turnovers and hit a few timely threes. This is what you can expect from Lou-Will: a few games where he shoots 10-15, dropping 25 points, and then nights like tonight, when he's awful. 

Andre Iguodala

What more can you say about 'Dre? He suffered a terrible ankle spain in the first half, went for x-rays, and was back in no time. Not only did he come back quickly, but he showed absolutely no effects of the injury. I'd bet at least 50% of NBA players who suffer the same injury would not have returned. He was 4-13 from the floor, and I still think he takes too many jump shots, but I can live with it as long as he plays good defense, grabs 10 boards, 7 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks, as he did tonight. Just another day at the office for Andre Iguodala. 

Thaddeus Young

To the naked eye it looks like Thad busted out of his slump. After all, he scored 20 points on 14 shots. I however; wasn't that impressed. Unless he's scoring in transition, or getting really good looks under the basket, he has a hard time scoring. Of his 9 makes I can only recall two where he wasn't set up for an easy shot. One of them was a drive across the lane followed by a lefty hook, and the other was the baseline spin on Omri Casspi. For a guy who's supposed to be the future focal point of our offense, he's not very good at creating for himself or his teammates. 

Marreese Speights

Speights was okay. I don't really remember him playing. He finished with a very quiet 16 minutes. He did lead the team in +/- though, so he must have been good!

Kings vs 76ers coverage

Sactown Royalty

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Thad’s gonna get his. He’s not Kobe. He’ll get points where he can and improve his own shot creating with each year.

It’s laughable when EJ trots out Iverson and Williams to cover Evans and Martin. That’s more than a one foot combined height differential. It’s a joke. They’re such liabilities on defense, that even if Evans and Martin don’t score, other guys have to leave their man to help out, resulting in open looks. Evans ended up being covered by Iguodala for a good part of the game, but if Casspi and Martin hit open looks, this game would’ve been toast. I just can’t imagine how you can rationally justify putting in two of basically the same player to cover guys 6 inches taller than them.

by Michael Levin on Jan 16, 2010 7:29 AM PST reply actions  

plus minus is a bs stat

by killacaravagio on Jan 16, 2010 2:21 PM PST reply actions  

Only if used improperly

/- points out the impact that Jrue Holiday had in the first half – and it makes sense since he can play defense and lou williams and allen iverson can’t…statistics aren’t bs – people who use them improperly make them seem like BS – much like people at work tell me ‘the copier isn’t working properly’ or ‘the computer didn’t do this right’ – it’s not the machinery – it’s the user…/- is a pretty simple stat that doesn’t tell you as much as people WANT it to – but that’s not the fault of the stat – it’s the fault of the user

by jemagee on Jan 16, 2010 2:54 PM PST up reply actions  

i hear that but the stat it self is too fluid. if a guy does nothing but the other 4 players kill while hes on court he look effective based on his plus minus but he was no a factor. ill stick with the solid stat.

by killacaravagio on Jan 17, 2010 6:55 AM PST up reply actions  

Well it all depends on what you think of as a solid stat, I know people who think counting reboundis is a solid stat while i disagree that counting them is the way to go…

There are more advanced analysis that incorporate +/-, but for instance in the firday game you can’t ignore the impact that brand and holiday entering the game had on the game over all

by jemagee on Jan 17, 2010 9:07 AM PST up reply actions  

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