The Spurs jumped out to a double digit lead six minutes into the game and never looked back. They abused the Sixers every which way. Don't let the 23 point margin fool you; this game wasn't even that close. Holiday and company were continuosly blown by on the perimeter, Hawes and Brand did their best swiss cheese impression in the paint, and the Sixers offense was completely stagnant. Disappointing, yet expected. The Sixers were playing their third game in four nights, all against near-elite teams. The Spurs were playing at home after two days rest. The Spurs are also good, and the Sixers aren't, who fall to 2-8 on the season.
Normally I'd take this time to break down some of the good things the Sixers accomplished – particularly the young guys we anticipate development from – but zero good can be taken from tonight's game. Approximately eight hours from now, Tanner may get home from the wedding he was attending, with nearly 200 ounces of beer in his belly and fresh Limp Bizkit tattoo on his left butt cheek, look at the box score and loudly mumble, "Jrue Holiday done made 16 points and 5 assists!" Well this nugget of information is for Tanner or any other casual box score reader: Jrue Holiday had 2 points, 2 assists and 5 turnovers going into the fourth quarter. The Sixers were down 32 at the time. Jrue then proceeded to drop 14 garbage time points and 3 assists against 2010 Sixers Training Camp Invitee extraordinaire Chris Quinn – who was on accompanied on defense by Alonzo Gee, Gary Neal, Matt Bonner and Tiago Splitter. Translation: Jrue sucked.
Not to pick on Jrue, but I'm becoming more and more concerned with the amount of times he's getting absolutely toasted on defense. His D is supposed to be his meal ticket, yet it's been incredibly underwhelming through 10 games. In the past two nights alone JJ Barea and Tony Parker have blown by him at least 5 times.
I could go on forever on how the Sixers blew chunks all over themselves tonight, but I won't. It's one game. They're a young team. They're a flawed team. And the schedule dealt them their first rough patch of the 2010-2011 season. They have two days off before traveling to Cleveland for the final game of a 5-game road trip. Cleveland's been decent thus far, but they're more in the Sixers' ballpark in terms of talent than the Knicks, Thunder, Mavs or Spurs. Let's see if Collins can regroup, rid the team from the stench of tonight's vomit, and get them back to playing respectable basketball.
#missionBJ'ers rejoice!
Player of the Game: Andres Nocioni
Up Next: @ Cleveland on Tuesday