Now I don't know to what extend JSams' mother follows the Sixers, but I do know it is awful mean of them to lose on her birthday. I'm sure they did it on purpose so all birthday-related hate mail can be directed to Eddie Jordan and all of the players with the exception of Jodie Meeks, who got 1 rebound in his minute plus of action. Since he was on pace for 48 if he played the whole game, I'll give him a pass for the night.
Here's the second edition of RickoT, this time RickoT Overvalues Sixers Players!
Iguodala, Williams and Speights are all equally as good [as Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, and Jason Richardson]
Too much fun for one night? I sure think so. But let's get to some game thoughts, shall we?
Thoughts.
- Elton Brand played his worst game as a Sixer tonight. He was pretty hopeless out there on both ends.
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Jrue Holiday and Louis Williams couldn't defend their way out of a cardboard box tonight (how that ever became an expression is beyond me). Steve Nash tore both of them apart, as did Jason Richardson to a lesser extent. Nash may not be the quickest point guard or the best moves, but he's just so much smarter than anyone that covers him that he can create for himself and his teammates whenever he wants to.
- That being said, Lou's offense was there, but that's no surprise because as Jordan detailed, he's breaking out on that end of the floor. Unfortunately this isn't football -- guys play both ways (sexual innuendos aside).
- The Sixers offense and defense were both ranked 20th in the league in efficiency heading into tonight's game (I think), but I can't see how it's not lower than that. We really don't do anything well as a team. There's no cohesiveness, no smart cuts nor consistently setting up teammates in a position to succeed. Is team defense played from time to time? Can they occasionally make the extra pass for an open look? Sure. But if you watch this team for a whole game (a whole game?!), you can see them not find open guys, not set screens for each other, not double team at the right times, not jump out on shooters, and a whole bunch of other double negatives I'm not sure we could come up with. A lot of that blame, sure, goes to Eddie Jordan. But maybe the players are stupid. And maybe they don't care to put in the work to play as a team and it comes out in game situations that they're not making the right decisions. It's tough to group them all together as a plural noun, but since they are a "team," they should be judged as a team, coach included. And they suck. Everybody sucks. If I made a point here somebody pinch me, I don't know how this started.
- "I Love You, Man" is a quality movie
- How does Amare only get four rebounds in 30 minutes? That's a very quiet 22 points.
- Speights played ok. Nothing to write home about. But certainly bullet pointable.
- Iguodala just does his thing. Take too many jump shots is absolutely included in "his thing" but if "his thing" also consists of 20 points on 7-12 shooting and 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 6 assists and no turnovers, I'm happy face about it. Hopefully he has more value in the offseason and we can actually start rebuilding (optimism?) and he can succeed on a different team that will appreciate him. But it won't happen.
- Thaddeus Young is very crafty with the basketball within 5 feet. If he gets close, no matter who's on him, it's usually going in with a sweet little smooch off the glass. The play that comes to mind is his pivot foot layup around Dwight Howard in the playoffs last year. He does make some nice cuts through the paint and gets open for his teammates. He's not a well-rounded basketball player yet, but the kid's still 21 and there are flashes. I'm still not counting him out. 6 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals tonight.....progress.
- Why don't the Suns play Earl Clark more?
- Please check this out. Let's all rent a court and whoever does this first we'll change the name of the blog to your name. The Blog Formerly Known as Liberty Ballers.
- Detroit, Washington, and Indiana lost. But at least the Clippers won, so that's something. That wasn't a thought. My apologies.
- Via Kate Fagan, my pining over Francisco Elson may have to wait a long time, or forever, because he may not actually join the team. If I were Francisco, I wouldn't want to come either, but I sure as hell would start becoming friends, then morph, with Phillies OF Ben Francisco. Francisco Francisco! Or Ben Elson but that'd be much less fun.
- I watched Sinbad's comedy special. In the ten years he's been gone, he hasn't gotten funnier. He has, however, turned 53. His jokes don't fly at 53.
- Via DeanH via Kate, apparently Jodie Meeks hasn't been playing because he doesn't know the offense. I'll let that one stew.
- The Sixers always lose on Wednesday nights.