FanPost

Is this team REALLY any good?

Yes. Nice record (for us). Over .500 for the first time in ages. Won seven of the last nine games. Look like world-beaters some nights. Seems like players are developing apace. Most of the time.

However...

Who have we really beaten?

Have we won any games at all against good teams? I think one against SA and one against Chicago (without Noah). At this point, I don't consider Atlanta an elite team...they're struggling badly right now. As far as I can tell, this team has gotten fat gorging on victories against crappy teams, slumping teams, or teams missing their best players.

In the last week, we've choked away late fourth-quarter leads against Dallas and OKC at home. Does anyone really expect anything better against Boston? I expect we'll play them tough until late in the fourth quarter, when Garnett or Pierce will do something gaudy and pull the game out.

The whole "at least we're playing them tough" thing worked for us when we were 3-13. This team desperately needs to learn how to close out games against good teams, or it is not a good team. It's that simple. It has nothing to do with superstars, or whatever. It has to do with mental toughness. And this team doesn't have it yet.

Are the Sixers a good team? Not yet. They're a fair team that can beat the bad teams consistently, but can't find a way to beat the good teams.

Is there any good news? Sure. This is also a really young team (other than Brand). Mental toughness is something learned through losing games like this. Or signing a superstar who scores more than 20 ppg and gets the calls :)

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