Sixers lose to Hawks: Tanking 'Bout Somethin'

This game was a parody of games. It happened as Sixersy as you expected it would. Sixers got out to an early lead, Atlanta game roaring back to score 59 points in 19 minutes, Damien Wilkins and Anthony Tolliver both score 21, Hawks win. Pretty much the way anybody would draw it up. But my favorite thing has to be this screenshot of the final moments of the game.

I'm going to print this out and frame it on my refrigerator. Regardless of score or context, this is the best 14.9 seconds of basketball ever played. You could show this to Charles Barkley, and were it not for the team names, each of these would get a "Who he play for?" That's how you finish a game, guys.

The Sixers really didn't play much defense. Especially when Hawks tried to get to the basket. They typically just allowed that to happen. And that's about it.

For the rest of the recap, we'll spice things up with the unveiling of a brand new game called "AM I CONCERNED?"

AM I CONCERNED ABOUT JRUE HOLIDAY?

Eh. Whatever, this season's effed anyway. Take a few plays off, Jrue. See if you can hit that fadeaway over Josh Smith. I ain't even mad. Take your 11 points on 12 shots and go dancing with Evan. Let Jeff Teague do whatever he wants on offense. Do you, baby. Plus, this. Not concerned.

AM I CONCERNED ABOUT EVAN TURNER?

Yes, always.

AM I CONCERNED ABOUT THE SIXERS NOT FIRING DOUG COLLINS?

Yep. I don't pay too much attention to what Adam Aron said to John Gonzalez a few days ago, but his bleeding adoration of Doug Collins has been painfully apparent since the new ownership took over. If they think this is an All Personnel, Not Coaching problem, then I'm about as concerned as it gets. Going into next season with Collins as the coach would be bad. Signing him to another contract would be an unmitigated disaster.

AM I CONCERNED ABOUT CHARLES JENKINS POTENTIALLY NOT KNOWING HE'S ON THE SIXERS?

Yes, this is a legitimate worry.

AM I CONCERNED ABOUT LAVOY ALLEN'S PLAYING TIME?

Sometimes you find yourself in the Doughouse. Dorell Wright was there. Nick Young had a vacation home there. Arnett Moultrie sold his other house because he was spending so much time in his Doughouse cabin. Nikola Vucevic still comes back to his bungalow in the Doughouse every summer. Lavoy will dig himself out eventually. Regardless, he's not important to this team going forward and he expires after next season anyway. I wouldn't care if they let him walk.

AM I CONCERNED ABOUT NICK YOUNG'S INJURY?

Yes, I need him in my life. Plus I gotta see his Shaggy P look in action.

AM I CONCERNED ABOUT ARNETT MOULTRIE STILL NOT GETTING DEFENSIVE REBOUNDS?

Umm. Sort of. I've never loved Moultrie as a player, but he's done as well as can be expected with the ridiculous playing time he's gotten. He still has lots of issues on the defensive end and has only pulled in 25 defensive rebounds in 243 minutes (which is a DREB% of under 12%). That's bad.

But from the eye test, it's not that he's letting his man get all the offensive rebounds. It's more like he's boxing out and just letting other Sixers (like Evan, Dorell, and Thad) actually pull in the rebound. That's purely eye test stuff, but 82games (which hasn't updated in 2 weeks) has the Sixers even for on/off splits in terms of defensive rebounds. Very small sample size so take that for what it's worth.

The other reason I'm not terribly concerned is because he is an absolute freak on the offensive glass. After tonight's 6 offensive rebounds, he's among the league leaders in OREB%. He should be up to about 16% after tonight's stats go through, which, if he had qualifying minutes, puts him higher than Tyson Chandler, Roy Hibbert, Reggie Evans (!), and Omer Asik. He's in Andre Drummond territory. Of course you have to consider the garbage time he's playing in, but the offensive rebounding is something he can hang his hat on and we shouldn't worry too much about his poor DREB numbers yet.

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Sixers have the Heat on Friday. Perfect way to spend a weekend in South Beach, falling to 15 games under .500. Toronto beat the Suns tonight so we're now slightly behind them in the standings, meaning the 10th pick currently belongs to the Sixers. A few of the teams below them start to get hot, and we could really see them dropping fast.

22 games left to tank. Finish with 6 wins or less and we're golden. Let's go.