Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
4-1 roadtrip as this team tries to find itself despite continuing to make every mistake possible late in games.
Official Boxscore
Cisco ( C+ ) -- had almost all of his production in the first half+ of this game, as he increasingly gave way to Donte as things went along. Was putting up his standard offensive numbers, but the threes were off, and rhere was no real string of impact play. Did a solid job on Iggy though, althoguh he began racking up fouls along the way that helped limit his late minutes.
Cousins ( C- ) -- this was one of those games where DeMarcus's lack of verticality came into direct play, as the Sixers doubled him and packed the middle and for most of the game he was not showing the patience needed to counter such attacks, instead chosing various ground bound bullrushes into the teeth of things, and getting a healthy number of those shots sent back in his face despite a general lack of size along Philly's frontline. The matchup with Hawes was not as advertised either, as Hawes came up with one of his stronger more disciplined efforts, and things were even scrappy in there for a while in the early going. Now what did go well? Well the passing for one thing, as DeMarcus both racked up another 6 assists and avoided the turnovers that often go with them -- btw DeMarcus is on a dubious quest to not only lead the league in fouls in only 28min per, but also to lead the league in TOs/48, with a ridiculous 5.55/48. You want to know why we haven't won more? Its things like that -- the classic markers of youth. After a game long struggle came up big when we needed it though, coming up with a +1 to start the OT, then finding both Beno and Greene for kickout threes, and hitting a jumper wiht a minute to go to put us up 4. Now in between he also missed 4 or 5 shots and got several sent back in hs face, but still, when it mattered he was aggressive and gave us a little something -- if nothing else he hates to lose.
Dalembert ( B+ ) -- just becoming such a rock for us inside, this time deciding to up his season high for rebounding one more time to 19 (he's averaging 13.0reb over the last 8 games) and nearly completely blanking Brand on the glass -- we were largly cross matched with Daly taking Brand and rendering him impotent, while Cousins was on Hawes. On the game we crushed the Sixers 58-36 with our size, and Daly led the charge. Offensively this only average, and there were too many turnovers, but the impact was on the other side even without the block numbers to illustrate it. May have made a mistake at the end of regulation as he got caught in the scramble on the final play having to try to stop Lou Williams 35 feet from the hoop, and watched him drain the game tying three to send it to overtime. Kind of a hopeless situation for a center, but it looked like he mihgt have been abel to foul him beofre the shot, maybe. In any case got his revenge, and got to stick it a bit to the Philly fans who always gave him a hard time when he stepped to the line and hit the game sealing FTs with 12 seconds to go -- the second one being ridiculously delayed for a full minute as the teams and refs fiddled with substitutions that threatened to ice him.
Thornton ( A ) -- got off to another slow start to this one, and you were thinnkig uh oh, heck of a time to begin a slump with us just getting Reke back. Some of that may have been Iggy, who is the Sixers stopper and was seeing a lot of action against Marcus. But generally Marcus looked quicker than Iggy and was getting open for his shots, he just wasn't hitting them and finished the first half with 3pts on a single +1 play. And then the third quarter rolled around and things changed abruptly. All of a sudden it was turn the sprinklers on bombing from all points of the court as he poured in 19pts in the quarter and just kept right on firing into the 4th on his way to a torrid 29pt second half. He was doing the other stuff again too, and that's been as much a revelation as anything with him. More tough work on the boards as we dominated the glass, and in the first half while his shot was off in particular, found ways to contribute with his passing. Now on the other hand the things that made sure this was just an A and even had me looking at an A- out of the corner of my eye were a) defensively our guards did not contain their guards at all, and notably not only did Jodie Meeks go off, but once again for the second game in a row against these guys they beat us over the head badly down the stretch with Jrue Holiday; and b) that all of that explosive production came in one half, the second. There was little in the first half, and he was not a factor at all in the OT, other than drawing a lot of Sixers attention. So an A here and another huge game as he has established himself and then some -- we desperately need to resign this guy and you can only hope teams will make offers to him based on his overall numbers rathern than numbers for us -- but in the end other guys had to get us the close.
Udrih ( B- ) -- well to date Reke's return has yet to have any impact on the numbers of either Thornton or Beno, instead just cleaning up the messy scrub minutes we were always divying up betwen Pooh, Head, Taylor etc. etc. And so in this one Beno came out and again was just the normal Beno with 11pts and 5 ast in a support role. And for much of the game it was enough to largely neutralize Holiday. I was even prepared to praise Beno's hustle for most of the game, as this was one of those games where the energy and competitiveness were up, he was on the glass, and tyring on defense hard enough to actually get himself in foul trouble. After returning for Evans with 9 minutes to go in regulation however, things went sideways in much the same way they did a couple of weeks ago when we played these guys last. Basically the Sixers went to Holiday, and they went to Holiday, and they went to Holiday some more and jsut beat us over the head with him again as he poured in 14 pts down the stretch and more or less singlehandedly kept us from pulling away. And neither Beno nor Thornton nor Reke had much of anything to say about it. Hit a pair of FTs with 5 seconds ot go in regulation to give us the three point lead, and after Lou Williams capped things with the desperation game tying three at the end of regulation, Beno made a few late OT plays, inclduing knocking down a big three with a minute and a half to go that gave us the lead.
Bench
Thompson ( B+ ) -- provided us with a big lift off the bench as some more of that size we can throw out there. Two weeks ago inthis matchup Jason frankly sucked, and he got exposed around the edges by Thad Young (who is a SF actually). This time out it was Jason who dominated the matchup, knocked down is jumpers, and pounded the glass (he and Daly combined for 30rebs to the Sixers 36 as a team).
Evans ( C ) -- came into this game maybe pressing too much, and the Sixers pack the paint strategy was causing him problems with his jumper off the mark. One thing all that traffic did create though was a lot of fouls, and Reke got most of his points from the line. Was giving a good effort on defense as well through most fo the game, and came up with a great saving block from behind on the break just before leaving for the final time in this one. However down the stretch our we were having our old issues defending off picks, and Reke asn't anymore effective slowing Holiday than any of our other guards.
Greene ( B ) -- continued his late season resurgence with another solid game spotting up and playing defense. With 7 seconds to go in regulation got called for a foul trying to cut off Iggy's penetration, but luckily Iggy only split the pair. Hit a three on the kick from Cousins in the OT, but also got called for the 5 seconds violation when trying to inbound the ball with 20 seconds to go -- we are very inventive in finding ways ot screew up late in games.
Jackson ( INC ) -- just a coupe of short little first have bluurbs. Got a layup in hte last minute before half.
Jeter ( INC ) -- got into the game for the first time in the final minute of OT as for the second game in a row we brought in an extra ballhandler to try to keep from fumbling the game away. That it was not Evans was a littel eye opening, but he might have already hit his minute limit by that point.
Official Boxscore
Cisco ( C+ ) -- had almost all of his production in the first half+ of this game, as he increasingly gave way to Donte as things went along. Was putting up his standard offensive numbers, but the threes were off, and rhere was no real string of impact play. Did a solid job on Iggy though, althoguh he began racking up fouls along the way that helped limit his late minutes.
Cousins ( C- ) -- this was one of those games where DeMarcus's lack of verticality came into direct play, as the Sixers doubled him and packed the middle and for most of the game he was not showing the patience needed to counter such attacks, instead chosing various ground bound bullrushes into the teeth of things, and getting a healthy number of those shots sent back in his face despite a general lack of size along Philly's frontline. The matchup with Hawes was not as advertised either, as Hawes came up with one of his stronger more disciplined efforts, and things were even scrappy in there for a while in the early going. Now what did go well? Well the passing for one thing, as DeMarcus both racked up another 6 assists and avoided the turnovers that often go with them -- btw DeMarcus is on a dubious quest to not only lead the league in fouls in only 28min per, but also to lead the league in TOs/48, with a ridiculous 5.55/48. You want to know why we haven't won more? Its things like that -- the classic markers of youth. After a game long struggle came up big when we needed it though, coming up with a +1 to start the OT, then finding both Beno and Greene for kickout threes, and hitting a jumper wiht a minute to go to put us up 4. Now in between he also missed 4 or 5 shots and got several sent back in hs face, but still, when it mattered he was aggressive and gave us a little something -- if nothing else he hates to lose.
Dalembert ( B+ ) -- just becoming such a rock for us inside, this time deciding to up his season high for rebounding one more time to 19 (he's averaging 13.0reb over the last 8 games) and nearly completely blanking Brand on the glass -- we were largly cross matched with Daly taking Brand and rendering him impotent, while Cousins was on Hawes. On the game we crushed the Sixers 58-36 with our size, and Daly led the charge. Offensively this only average, and there were too many turnovers, but the impact was on the other side even without the block numbers to illustrate it. May have made a mistake at the end of regulation as he got caught in the scramble on the final play having to try to stop Lou Williams 35 feet from the hoop, and watched him drain the game tying three to send it to overtime. Kind of a hopeless situation for a center, but it looked like he mihgt have been abel to foul him beofre the shot, maybe. In any case got his revenge, and got to stick it a bit to the Philly fans who always gave him a hard time when he stepped to the line and hit the game sealing FTs with 12 seconds to go -- the second one being ridiculously delayed for a full minute as the teams and refs fiddled with substitutions that threatened to ice him.
Thornton ( A ) -- got off to another slow start to this one, and you were thinnkig uh oh, heck of a time to begin a slump with us just getting Reke back. Some of that may have been Iggy, who is the Sixers stopper and was seeing a lot of action against Marcus. But generally Marcus looked quicker than Iggy and was getting open for his shots, he just wasn't hitting them and finished the first half with 3pts on a single +1 play. And then the third quarter rolled around and things changed abruptly. All of a sudden it was turn the sprinklers on bombing from all points of the court as he poured in 19pts in the quarter and just kept right on firing into the 4th on his way to a torrid 29pt second half. He was doing the other stuff again too, and that's been as much a revelation as anything with him. More tough work on the boards as we dominated the glass, and in the first half while his shot was off in particular, found ways to contribute with his passing. Now on the other hand the things that made sure this was just an A and even had me looking at an A- out of the corner of my eye were a) defensively our guards did not contain their guards at all, and notably not only did Jodie Meeks go off, but once again for the second game in a row against these guys they beat us over the head badly down the stretch with Jrue Holiday; and b) that all of that explosive production came in one half, the second. There was little in the first half, and he was not a factor at all in the OT, other than drawing a lot of Sixers attention. So an A here and another huge game as he has established himself and then some -- we desperately need to resign this guy and you can only hope teams will make offers to him based on his overall numbers rathern than numbers for us -- but in the end other guys had to get us the close.
Udrih ( B- ) -- well to date Reke's return has yet to have any impact on the numbers of either Thornton or Beno, instead just cleaning up the messy scrub minutes we were always divying up betwen Pooh, Head, Taylor etc. etc. And so in this one Beno came out and again was just the normal Beno with 11pts and 5 ast in a support role. And for much of the game it was enough to largely neutralize Holiday. I was even prepared to praise Beno's hustle for most of the game, as this was one of those games where the energy and competitiveness were up, he was on the glass, and tyring on defense hard enough to actually get himself in foul trouble. After returning for Evans with 9 minutes to go in regulation however, things went sideways in much the same way they did a couple of weeks ago when we played these guys last. Basically the Sixers went to Holiday, and they went to Holiday, and they went to Holiday some more and jsut beat us over the head with him again as he poured in 14 pts down the stretch and more or less singlehandedly kept us from pulling away. And neither Beno nor Thornton nor Reke had much of anything to say about it. Hit a pair of FTs with 5 seconds ot go in regulation to give us the three point lead, and after Lou Williams capped things with the desperation game tying three at the end of regulation, Beno made a few late OT plays, inclduing knocking down a big three with a minute and a half to go that gave us the lead.
Bench
Thompson ( B+ ) -- provided us with a big lift off the bench as some more of that size we can throw out there. Two weeks ago inthis matchup Jason frankly sucked, and he got exposed around the edges by Thad Young (who is a SF actually). This time out it was Jason who dominated the matchup, knocked down is jumpers, and pounded the glass (he and Daly combined for 30rebs to the Sixers 36 as a team).
Evans ( C ) -- came into this game maybe pressing too much, and the Sixers pack the paint strategy was causing him problems with his jumper off the mark. One thing all that traffic did create though was a lot of fouls, and Reke got most of his points from the line. Was giving a good effort on defense as well through most fo the game, and came up with a great saving block from behind on the break just before leaving for the final time in this one. However down the stretch our we were having our old issues defending off picks, and Reke asn't anymore effective slowing Holiday than any of our other guards.
Greene ( B ) -- continued his late season resurgence with another solid game spotting up and playing defense. With 7 seconds to go in regulation got called for a foul trying to cut off Iggy's penetration, but luckily Iggy only split the pair. Hit a three on the kick from Cousins in the OT, but also got called for the 5 seconds violation when trying to inbound the ball with 20 seconds to go -- we are very inventive in finding ways ot screew up late in games.
Jackson ( INC ) -- just a coupe of short little first have bluurbs. Got a layup in hte last minute before half.
Jeter ( INC ) -- got into the game for the first time in the final minute of OT as for the second game in a row we brought in an extra ballhandler to try to keep from fumbling the game away. That it was not Evans was a littel eye opening, but he might have already hit his minute limit by that point.
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