Pre-Season: Sixers Get First Win, Against JV Celtics
by Jordan Sams on Oct 12, 2010 7:16 PM PDT
in Philadelphia 76ers Recaps
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PrintDuring the first three quarters I was convinced the Sixers were going to lose to the Celtics without Rondo, Allen, Pierce, Garnett and Shaq. Luckily, a fourth quarter comeback led by Mo Speezy (15 points in the period), helped the Sixers avoid: starting the pre-season 0-4, a tremendously embarrassing loss, and "Ed-die Jor-dan!" chants.
It wasn't pretty, and it was far from encouraging, but that didn't stop me from popping an icy bottle of sparkling cider to celebrate the first win of 2010. Make the jump for a few observations.
- Jrue Holiday finished with a silky smooth line of 12 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists. Don't let the numbers fool you. Jrue played poorly, as he has all pre-season. His biggest strength is normally his defense, but that wasn't the case tonight; he allowed Nate Robinson to blow by him on numerous occasions. He also shot 36% from the field, and failed to get to the free throw line.
- Evan Turner performed okay in the first half, but completely disappeared in the second. He wasn't bad besides the team-leading five turnovers; he just wasn't a factor.
- Our starting center, Elton Brand, played 27 minutes without recording a single rebound.
- Thaddeus Young showed a few encouraging signs, but played a sub-par game overall. Playing him at the four looks like a big mistake to me. He didn't rebound, and consistently got torched on the post by bigger, stronger players.
- Marresse Speights did what Marreese Speights does. He shot the ball a lot, didn't throw a single pass (unless I'm forgetting one), was mediocre – at best – on defense, but carried the team offensively in the fourth. 19 points on 10 shots is incredibly efficient, especially with the amount of jumpers he attempts. Another thing that won't show up in the box score is Speezy's conditioning. The explosiveness is back to it was his rookie season.
- Jason Kapono was on fire from downtown (4-4), and really helped spark the comeback by stretching the floor. Don't be surprised if Kapono vultures minutes from a youngster this season. I get the impression Collins wants to win, not develop.
- Lou Williams was extremely impressive tonight. He scored with ease, using only 6 shots to score 16 points and had 5 assists in 18 minutes. But the most impressive part of Lou's game was his defense. That's right, defense. Lou Williams played better all-around defense than I've ever seen from him.
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Yeah I absolutely saw a pass.
I remember because I said “ooh, he passed”
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by Michael Levin on Oct 13, 2010 12:07 AM PDT up reply actions
Speights had 19 points and 6 boards in 20 min. That’s incredibly effective, even if he didn’t play any defense. When you shoot the ball at a 70% clip, you shouldn’t be looking to pass the ball to often, at least until they double-team you!
Playing at the end is more important than the beginning, but unless he can’t play the whole game, Mo should be getting more PT in the first half. In comparison with Brand, he looks more effective as a Center.
Reading the twitter feed it looks like we are going to be annoyed by Nocioni getting too many minutes this year.
Noce is still trying to bounce back from the foot injury.
Last time out, he went 1-8, 0-5 from 3 and 2-3 from FT (ithink).
This time, he went 3-8, 1-1 from 3 and 3-3 from FT. That’s an improvement. He also got 2 rebs, 1 assist and a steal with no TOs. Say what you will but you have to admit the guy is improving.
There can only be one Noce!
Really? I’d like to let you know Nate Robinson had 6 turnovers and shot 3-7 from 3(He actually SHOT 7 3’s). Nate played very poorly, his only attribute was getting to the line today.
The 0 rebounds don’t tell the whole story, Elton Brand had several key plays early in the ball game defensively and he forced some turnovers and blocked 2 shots today. Sure, I’d like to see the rebounds but he did good stuff today.
Speaking of Nate Robinson’s horrific game, Holiday played the most towards the end of that 3rd quarter/4th quarter segment and he was very effective defensively, in addition he was getting the boards and pushing us on the break.
Finally Thaddeus Young, he was matched up with virtual 300 pound Glen Baby Davis. Even with the work Young put in, at 230 that’s a major disadvantage that really won’t be presented that often in the league.
Horrific game!? 26 pts, 11-12 free throws, 8 assists is a great line for a point guard. You really don’t understand the game at all do you? Nate was the best guard on the floor. Anytime you shoot more than 10 free-throws suggests you’re dominating at your position.
Young should not be playing the 4 spot, tonight was a clear demonstration of why. Glen Davis is too big for anyone on the Sixers to guard, and it reveals a real weakness in the roster. I am convinced this is a pre-season experiment, although during the regular season Doug may use this line-up against the smaller teams.
It’s all about FG% and assists are an individual, not team, stat and don’t help your team win.
/LeQuan’d
Yeah? Why don’t we ask Derek on how Nate’s game was, or better yet we’ll ask Doc Rivers if he’s happy with the 6 turnovers, the 7 three’s and the countless ball pounding. Nate is INDEED the perfect example of what I call Fantasy stats, his numbers frankly had no outcome on the game.
Just like how, even though Brand got 0 rebounds I thought he played great interior defense. Nate proved why he’s not a starter in this league, but I regress. SOMEONE had to get points on that Celtics team, we were playing excellent defense yesterday.
LouWilliamsMVP: For once, I agree. Lou’s doing what he can to win that starter’s spot. He’s a far better player than Turner offensively right now and that’s what we need. When he had the ball in his hands we got things going. We need to clear this guard/wing logjam and get a serious big in here. I for one would like to keep Lou if possible.
by LeQuan Glover on Oct 13, 2010 11:41 AM PDT up reply actions
Lou Williams is carrying the team on his shoulders!
Give him some backup he can’t do it all himself every game!
"Shoutout to Lebron, d-Wade, Joe Johnson, and chris bosh for trying to create a NBA2k team. Lol. (they would win 80 games)" - Louis Williams
by LouWilliamsMVP on Oct 13, 2010 8:33 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
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