Without Andre Iguodala, Sixers fall to sharpshooting Warriors 110-95

Without Andre Iguodala, the Golden State Warriors drained 15 three's on their way to a 110-95 victory at the Oracle Arena, dropping the Sixers to 2-3 through the first 5 games of this 8 game road trip.  The next stop on the trip is Phoenix on Wednesday night. 

The Warriors were led by Dorrell Wright, who dropped 28 points on only 11 shots, including 5-7 from three point range.  Wright came within 2 points of tying his career high, set earlier this year.

The 15 three pointers the Warriors made were a season high by a Sixers opponent, handily topping the 10 Washington made on November 23rd, which was previously the most given up by the Sixers.  Already at a disadvantage by missing their best perimeter defender, the Sixers gave up open look after open look to Wright, Stephen Curry, Monta Ellis, Vladimir Radmanovic and even former Sixer Rodney Carney.

Jrue Holiday and Thaddeus Young did their bests to keep the Sixers in the game early, with Holiday finishing with 8 points and 7 assists in the first quarter, and Young 7 in the first quarter.  The Sixers trailed by 5 after 1, 6 at halftime, and by 5 after three, before Golden State dropped 34 points in the 4th quarter to put the Sixers away.  David Lee scored 12 points in the 4th, with help from Wright (7 points in the frame), and Curry (10 points).  Radmanovic (3 points) and Ellis (2 points) finished off the big scoring quarter for the Warriors.

It's not surprising the Sixers ran out of gas late in the game on the tail end of a back to back, particularly without their best defender.  That being said, the Warriors had open looks all night, and the Sixers did an incredibly poor job of rotating defensively.  The way the outcome came about was perhaps more disconcerting than the actual result.

A few random thoughts after the jump.

• I thought Jrue played a marvelous game, marred by a few really poor decisions with the ball in the 4th quarter that hurt the team.  He did the most to help the team tonight, and probably should have been player of the game, but he'll lose it to Brand because Elton did the least to frustrate me tonight, and sometimes that's enough to get player of the game.
• Thad really carried the team offensively in the first half, but for as much as he hustled, he had a huge hand in the Sixers porous three point defense.  Whether it was overrating or simply losing his man, Thad was everywhere on the court tonight, except for where he should have been.
• After Turner got his first two attempts blocked by Amundson, he went into the typical Evan Turner shell offensively.  He broke out of it in the 4th quarter, with mixed success, but he can't go three quarters playing the minutes he did while being invisible offensively.  Indecision is the name of Evan's game right now more than anything.
• Elton was workman-like offensively, not getting a whole lot of plays run for him but scoring off of effort and second chance points, while being a beast on the glass.  For sheer effort, Elton gets player of the game honors.
• As much as I'm not a Louis Williams fan, this is a game where we could have used his ability to get to the line, which was virtually non-existent against a terrible defensive team missing their best defensive big.
• What was with running three straight plays in the post for Spencer Hawes to start the fourth?  The Sixers came away with nothing to show for those possessions, and struggled to find a rhythm in the fourth as the Warriors started hitting their shots.
• Speaking of bigs, I wasn't a fan of Craig Brackins at the time of the trade, and he's not exactly showing me anything to think I was wrong. It's only his second game, and (despite the fact that he's 23) he has plenty of game experience to acquire.  That being said, you could see his lack of lower body strength numerous times as he struggled to keep the Warriors off the offensive glass.  Doug going to him that early in the third just showed how desperate the team is for a big other than Brand to contribute, especially with the depleted guard depth and the increased desire for Young to eat up minutes at the 3.  It was desperation.  If he's ahead of Marreese Speights in the rotation, that's bad news for Sixers fans.  
• No clue on what the prognosis on how Iguodala's Achilles is, and how long they're going to rest him.  Outside of the Lakers game, the schedule is beginning to look less daunting.  They need Iguodala if they're looking to make a run.  Andres Nocioni played 25 extremely forgettable minutes, shooting 0-3 from deep, missing some easy bunnies, and showing his lateral shortcomings defensively.  It will be interesting to see what Doug does with the starting lineup if Iguodala misses any more time.