PRESEASON - POST GAME WASHINGTON GENERALS....I MEAN PHILLY

Underwhelmed.  In a word, that's how I feel this morning (and hungover.  I went out for sushi and a lot of sake afterwards).  The Sixers are probably the worst team in the league (although, after watching the 2nd half of the Lakers-Jazz game, I wouldn't put money on it) and we coasted the 2nd half last night ourselves.  With Michael Carter-Williams, Nerlens Noel and Jason Richardson all out, this should have been a blow out of Biblical proportions, comparable to the Red Sea obliterating the entire Egyptian army, and yet we actually lost 2 points off our halftime lead.  We still lack the killer instinct allowing them to get 20+ digit leads down to single digits.  I'm not sure that, other than Tony Wroten and KJ McDaniels, the Sixers could be described as a good D-league team.  Ok, some props to Arnett Moultrie and Chris Johnson but the trail grows stone cold after that.  We should have beaten them so badly reporters had to have been kept out of the locker room post-game until the sobbing was gotten under control.

1.  We took 89fgas, not bad, and 37 of them were 3pt fgas.  Live by the 3, die by the 3.  Last night we lived and thrived but that's because the Sixers are still the worst 3pt defending team in the league (they were the worst last year too).  I lost track of how many 3s we took where there wasn't a defender within 3 yards of us.  That won't happen against even a mediocre team.

2.  Another good game by Zeller.  He is really a good PnR player.  He sets solid picks which forces defenders to commit.  After a rocky first few games he is rounding into quite an asset.

3.  Evan Turner had hometown blues (or, at least, "previous team blues").  He couldn't throw the ball in the hoop.  He had 10 assists but also had 8 TOs.

4.  Speaking of TOs, we had 22.  We will lose A LOT of games like that.  The 26-win season being projected by ESPN may be optimistic if we don't cut our TOs way down.

5.  If there was a justified point of pride last night (clubbing a baby harp seal like the Sixers is not a "point of pride") it was that we had 34 assists on 42fgm.  That's an astonishing 81% and is further evidence of just how bad the Sixers defense is.  The army of Genghis Khan marched through a gate in the Great Wall smaller than the holes in the Sixers' defenses.

6.  Going up against future HOFer (time to wake up and smell the sarcasm) Henry Sims, Kelly actually looked like a real NBA center.  14 points on 6-11, including 2-5 from 3, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks and only 1 TO.  I will say one thing, and I'm not being snarky about this, Kelly made an absolutely beautiful touch pass to Zeller who had cut down the lane.  That was, actually, quite a pro play.  If we weren't playing a CYO team that play might have made Sportcenter.

7.  Bradley had 20 points in the first half and then took the 2nd half off.  Well, he played more, he just didn't do more.

8.  They had 23 fast break points.  23.  Have we had 23 fast break points total, all pre-season?  Our transition D leaves much to be desired, and this is not the first game to show that.

9.  The Sixers offense picked up in the 2nd half.  It had to, there was nowhere to go except up.  At halftime they had more TOs (16) than FGM (15).  I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around play that bad.


I can't remember ever being this disillusioned after a win this big.  Sixers head coach Brett Brown and Luc Mbah a Moute weren't even at the game, instead spending it with Joel Embiid, who had just found out his younger brother died in Cameroon.  My sincere condolences to Embiid and his family, it is a tragedy for anybody that young to pass away, but Brown and Moute's absence only serve to accent my disappointment in us.

Crap.



bob



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tjmakz wrote:In two years a front line of Saric, Noel and Embiid could be pretty awesome.
Philly is terrible right now.
It looks like one more very high draft pick will be made by Philly next summer...

TJ,

They are 2 years away from being 2 years away.



bob



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