Sixers lose to Celtics 105-74

Box Score

• The biggest difference between this year's Sixers/Celtics game and the games of year's past was the way it started. The Sixers came out cool, calm, and confident. In previous years the Sixers were about to pee their pants halfway through the first quarter before they eventually pulling it together, but this time the Sixers came out, played good defense, didn't force anything, and limited the turnovers. This can be attributed to a couple things. One, the team is a year older and more experienced against superior opponents. Two, their ball movement, spacing and passing actually resembles an NBA offense. And three, Lou Williams is running the offense better than expected. Now, they didn't maintain their lights out defense, nor did they refrain from turning the ball over, but it all fell apart when Eddie Jordan went to the bench.
• Lou Williams has really impressed me so far. He's running the offense much better than I expected. He has the ability to score every time he brings it up, and sets up his teammates at a pretty high rate. The best way to describe his game "controlled". The offense went from smooth to stale when Lou rested.
• I liked what I saw from Andre Iguodala tonight. He played good team defense, good man defense, and played the passing lanes brilliantly. He was aggressive on the offensive end, and did what a star player is supposed to do -- "take over". "Taking over" doesn't mean you force stupid shots. It means you play good defense, take good shots, and set your teammates up for easy buckets. Andre did all of that. 
• Thaddeus Young was awful on both ends of the floor, plain and simple.
• Samuel Dalembert played really well tonight. He showed some skills in the post, including two sexy jump hooks -- one over KG and one over Perkins. And the interior defense was 10 times better when Sammy was in the game, as was the rebounding. 
• This was the first I've seen of Jrue Holiday this season, and nothing he did tonight warrants giving him big minutes yet. However; he still should take the majority of Bill Green's minutes. They both did about the same to help the team, but Jrue needs experience since he actually has a future.
• Any combination of Kapono, Holiday, Green, Thad, Speights or Smith played little to no defense tonight.
• I'm not sure what the Princeton Offense looks like, but I think I witnessed the beginning stages of it tonight -- at least when the starters were in. The ball movement and spacing is much better than it was last year -- again, when the starters were in the game.
• Almost everything Eddie Jordan has done this season concerns me. The Sixers biggest downfall -- every game -- is when the bench comes in during the second quarter. You would think that Eddie would leave at least 2 or 3 starters in to prevent this from happening. No. Instead he brings 5 bench guys in at a time and they either blow the lead, or dig a deeper hole. Fail. 
  
• There are some positive things to take from tonight's 31 point loss like, Andre Iguodala's defense and aggressiveness, Lou Williams' control, Jason Kapono's shot, the Sixers' calmness to start the game, and Elton Brand who made a bigger difference than his numbers project. Let's not forget, the Celtics are a really, really, really good team, and they showed why tonight. I still have hope that the Sixers can score the fourth or fifth seed, and maybe even the third the way the Cavs are playing.