We've been saying it all year and it continues; the Sixers settle for way too many long two-point shots and it bit them once again in a loss at home to the Dallas Mavericks.
Dirk Nowitzki scored the same amount of points in the second half as the Sixers. The Sixers took way more shots than Dirk did, many of them ill-advised and early in the shot clock. I'm disgusted with that effort. What are your immediate thoughts?
Post 'em here while I go barf.
0 recs | 121 comments
Are
you
kidding
me
PhiladelphiaEagles - February 17, 2012
Ugh.
This one hurts.
hhaidari - February 17, 2012
This was disgusting. Expect a very TAFKA-esque rant, possibly drunk, scheduled for tomorrow morning.
Michael Levin - February 17, 2012
Drunk on a saturday morning. That’s baller.
soman319 - February 17, 2012
I really want to type a cuss word right now
KJ Brophy - February 17, 2012
Granted.
Michael Levin - February 17, 2012
poop
PhiladelphiaEagles - February 17, 2012
good choice
Michael Levin - February 17, 2012
Team philosophy.
For lack of better words at the moment, I feel like this “team basketball” mentality is a gimmick.
soman319 - February 17, 2012
It works for stretches here and there, even against good teams, but when a high playoff seed decides to lock you down, you need players that can create shots at the basket.
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
I didn’t mean to sound too strong when I said that but you’re right. See the problem I have is that the team gets so lost when things aren’t working in their favor. Responsibility is deferred among multiple players. While it keeps everyone active and in the game, it also makes it hard to inspire confidence when things aren’t going so well since no one seems to step up save Lou williams now and then.
soman319 - February 17, 2012
Agreed, there isn’t (usually) one guy who consistently heats it up and inspires the team to play better. Lou can’t and shouldn’t be that guy.
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
The elephant in the room is an elite offensive option. Defense is solid but that burns me up that we don’t have it and haven’t had it since “AI” was traded. I totally agree with you!
Markeise - February 17, 2012
Turner needs jumpshot reworking or he's done
Turner finally gets his chance and he blows it bad. Pretty disappointing really, and the team also follows suit by clanging every jumper. Holiday didnt have any sweet drives the entire game. Hard to see the silVucer lining in this game.
Gosu44 - February 17, 2012
No one made jumpers tonight, for what it’s worth.
soman319 - February 17, 2012
How about Jrue Holiday? The guy has 3 points in his last 60 minutes on the court and has 8 games of five or more turnovers this year for a team that doesn’t turn the ball over. Seriously Holiday gets a free pass every time he plays awfull.
Brannigan1973 - February 17, 2012
He shoudln’t get a free pass. He played awful.
jefu - February 17, 2012
At least he played defense and got 9 boards in 22 minutes. Can’t say that for Holiday/Meeks/Lou.
Two-way sport you know?
splinter27 - February 17, 2012
Watching this made me ill. I can’t assemble my thoughts. Probably just as well.
RickoT - February 17, 2012
PhiladelphiaEagles - February 17, 2012
Good thing he added that percentage on 0-8. I don’t have my calculator on me.
Michael Levin - February 17, 2012
Didn’t even notice that lol
PhiladelphiaEagles - February 17, 2012
I just noticed it, too, lol.
jefu - February 17, 2012
Also don't forget meeks who contributed.... nothing
Gosu44 - February 17, 2012
I would’ve had more fun tonight if I pooped my pants, threw it against the wall, and watched it slide down to the base-board.
Just a disgusting game. I’m fed-up with this team.
jefu - February 17, 2012
That sounds like a real hoot!
Michael Levin - February 17, 2012
Hey Mike,
You reverting back into your pessimist (read: realist) self?
soman319 - February 17, 2012
TANK FOR THE LOTTERY!!!111ONEONEONE
- MIKAEL LEVINE
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
Accurate.
Michael Levin - February 17, 2012
No, I’ve come too far.
Michael Levin - February 17, 2012
This team needs a veteran point guard for when Jrue is going south
Jrue Holiday is killing this team. He has like 3 points in his last 60 minutes and he doesn’t know how to get his team-mates better shots. He has been a big disappointment this year. He is playing worse then he did last year which is not good. I don’t want to just single him out but this team is just listless on offense moving side and a lot of that has to go on the shoulders of the point guard.
Brannigan1973 - February 17, 2012
I actually agree with most of this. His defense is much better than last year. His offense took a dive. Part of it I think is Doug giving him a wedgie everytime he thinks about making a risky pass.
We definitely need a backup PG.
jefu - February 17, 2012
No way the Sixers should have lost tonight
Ben16 - February 17, 2012
Collins outcoached
Got to hold the coach accountable for not yelling at players for taking long contested twos. No offensive sets whatsoever.
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
He’s going to get outcoached against the better teams if he doesn’t make adjustments to the offense.
jefu - February 17, 2012
listening to his presser sounds like he won’t ever tell them to stop
Tanner Steidel - February 17, 2012
Nightmares
Ben16 - February 17, 2012
THIS
Really frustrating. “Shots come and go, I don’t care if our guys miss shots.”
WHAT.
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
He cares more about defense. This team will be a winning team with their defense. They just won’t beat the better teams.
jefu - February 17, 2012
I’m glad he cares more about defense. What you can’t do is become D’Antoni and completely forget about important aspects of fundamental basketball.
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
lawls
A Reverse D’Antoni.
soman319 - February 17, 2012
Happy Meals when the Sixers score less than 76 points
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
defense will win games. It’s the more important, underrated aspect of basketball. No flashy dunks, but teams with solid defensive fundamentals are usually winning teams.
It would be nice if the sixers could ever crack 100 again, though.
jefu - February 17, 2012
Yeah but really they have lost two games in the last week when the other team scored 79 and 82 points both games at home. No team should be that bad on offense. They need a point guard that can get into the lane and actually create close shots for everyone else. Its sad that there best play-maker is Igoudala. Jrue needs to learn how to be a point guard. If we had Andre Miller this team would be right there with the Heat and Bulls record wise. Again, I don’t want to be to hard on Jrue but we were told this guy was an up and coming star. He doesn’t know how to run a offense. Watch him when he as the ball he doesn’t know what he wants to do half the time. He shoots tons of long two’s and he goes away, not into people, on drives. For this team to be good he has to be good not ok or bad.
Brannigan1973 - February 17, 2012
The other team scoerd 79 and 82 points because the sixers have a good defensive team. This is a fact. Their offense will come around again. Dougie fresh just needs to realize this team is in a funk. Their point guard is a nonfactor on offense – both with hitting shots and setting up others, and some of the other younger guys are just going nuts with the long jumpers. It’s a rut. They’ll get out of it. At the end of the day they need to keep playing strong defense. That’s what’s important.
jefu - February 17, 2012
If he cares so much about defense…why not ever play zone? How many times does Thad need to be exposed 1-on-1 vs. Dirk before he changes who’s guarding him?
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
Thad actually did a pretty decent job on Dirk, in my opinion. Most of the shots he made were pretty high difficulty. There is really no way to defend his fall away jumper. And when he is hitting his shot, all you can do is just endure it.
soman319 - February 17, 2012
Name off how many players can affectively guard Dirk away from the basket. Ready…..GO!
jefu - February 17, 2012
Darelle Revis?
soman319 - February 17, 2012
Honestly, I don’t feel that Collins inspires that much confidence when he treats player A one way, and player B another.
soman319 - February 17, 2012
disagre due to lack of proof.
jefu - February 17, 2012
That was a tongue-in-cheek comment. lol
soman319 - February 17, 2012
Turner does look pretty bad on offense recently. He’s second-guessing and settling for really bad long twos. His jumper looks worse than Iguodala’s.
I really had high hopes for both him and Holiday this season. The defense is there, but the other half of their game has been frustrating as of late.
jefu - February 17, 2012
Remember how earlier in the season we were all excited about the whole “any given night, any given player” thing?
Not so much anymore. :(
soman319 - February 17, 2012
“we were told this guy was an up and coming star. He doesn’t know how to run a offense. Watch him when he as the ball he doesn’t know what he wants to do half the time. He shoots tons of long two’s and he goes away, not into people, on drives. For this team to be good he has to be good not ok or bad.” I couldn’t have said it better myself!
Markeise - February 17, 2012
as I said in a previous thread
maybe Jrue is what he is…a nice, defensive PG who’s hit his peak offensively. I never saw ‘star’ when I watched him play, as Barkley and others have stated. I don’t see him as a starter, rather a PG in the Mike Conley Jr. mold….not horrible, but not great, either.
YBT - February 17, 2012
If he “cared more about defense,” Lou Williams would not play the 4th quarter.
splinter27 - February 17, 2012
“I wouldn’t care if they miss because more often than not in basketball they will miss. I care when they take bad shots.”
that is what I wish he would have said.
Ben16 - February 17, 2012
Garbage, the coach isn’t out on the floor. Even at his age Doug could have played the third and scored more than 8 points.
The Players are the ones responsible for this. They stopped playing smart, they lost focus and started hocking up shots like a bad Jr. High team.
RickoT - February 17, 2012
as a coach, Doug’s job is to put his players in the best position to succeed. When things are going south, he’s supposed to design a way to turn that around. They are jacking up bad shots, he’s supposed to yell at them and tell them to try something different.
soman319 - February 17, 2012
HossBoss - February 17, 2012
PhiladelphiaEagles - February 17, 2012
Repugnant
andyreidswaistline - February 17, 2012
lmao.
soman319 - February 17, 2012
Beautiful, and accurate
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
I can’t get over how disappointing this loss is. Way to ruin my friday night, Sixers.
PhiladelphiaEagles - February 17, 2012
Way to justify ESPN/National Media/WIP, Sixers
“Can’t win without a superstar.”
Already hearing it on ESPN, all sports talk radio, and every fan leaving the WFC.
Whether it is true or not, get ready to hear it endlessly for a week or two.
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
Endlessly, forever.
Michael Levin - February 17, 2012
I actually don’t disagree with them too much.
soman319 - February 17, 2012
Interesting. I thought we would be hearing about how the knicks lost to the hornets at home with their new-found superstar collecting 9 (I believe) turnovers.
jefu - February 17, 2012
Nope, it’s all about how his teammates failed him. 26 points on 18 shots. Some talk of the turnovers, but mostly about Shumpert/Fields not being good enough. lol.
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
Yeah whenever you have NINE!!!!! turnovers that doesn’t hurt your team. He’s so awesome n’ stuffz.
jefu - February 17, 2012
It’s so sad that I’m beginning to dislike him for reasons that are not his fault. Thanks media, you’re making a villain out of another good kid.
soman319 - February 17, 2012
See you take the 26 points and subtract the nine turnovers, add 5 assists, 4 steals, and 2 rebounds, and you get 28, which is a pretty big impressive number.
TheNarrator19 - February 17, 2012
The media didn't force him to go on a date with a Kardashian
Dislike.
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
No doubt. But, this 24/7 coverage is insufferable.
soman319 - February 17, 2012
wait…don’t tell me he’s dating…that girl, ugh I can’t stand her.
YBT - February 17, 2012
true dat yo
jefu - February 17, 2012
yeah and sadly the knicks still sit only 5 games behind us which unfortunately shows how overrated the sixers are
lax10 - February 18, 2012
PhiladelphiaEagles - February 17, 2012
That was bad coaching. Always go with the hot hand.
RickoT - February 17, 2012
Except Collins, who never goes with the hot hand unless it’s Lou, and that’s only by coincidence: he’s going with Lou no matter what, and occasionally (one out of five games) he’s the hot hand.
splinter27 - February 17, 2012
Well, I just poured myself a healthy glass of bourbon. That should solve all of my problems. Right??
jefu - February 17, 2012
I want a drink too. I’m going for a White Russian in honor of Vucevic. Yeah, I know he’s not Russian.
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
Close enough. All white people look alike
TheNarrator19 - February 17, 2012
Doug on Vuce
(Paraphrasing) “Well, I wanted to get Elton in there. I don’t think that substitution lost us the game. That’s what we do, we put Elton in late.”
(Glaring grin)
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
Ha
Ben16 - February 17, 2012
Translation: “Adjustments? We ain’t got no adjustments. We don’t need no adjustments! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ adjustments!”
TheNarrator19 - February 17, 2012
Doug is starting to sound more like Andy Reid when reporters are grilling him. Not good.
PhillyWarrior - February 17, 2012
Reid has been a coach for a number of years for many reasons.
jefu - February 17, 2012
Couldn’t have played them both? I like Doug but sometimes he seems like a schmuck.
RickoT - February 17, 2012
Yeah I don’t like Doug and stunts like that is one of the main reasons.
splinter27 - February 17, 2012
He has a hard on for his veterans…even when the numbers say otherwise. ah well
YBT - February 17, 2012
I can’t believe I actually started playing Angry Birds during the third quarter.
Blunt Philly Guy - February 17, 2012 via iPhone app
I remember the first time I shot a basketball
E.T.23 - February 17, 2012
Can’t log in via FB for some reason, but I ran some numbers on the offense with and without Hawes. These are not adjusted for opponent, but the average offensive rating with Hawes is 108.91 (no games under 100, btw), and 99.03 without. Again, no adjusting for opponent defensive prowess so these might be somewhat misleading but the sixers are basically the best offense in the NBA with Hawes and 22nd without. That’s a pretty big difference.
mrprice3 - February 17, 2012
Agreed
and still makes all the sense in the world to me to pick up another big before the deadline. Kaman, Bird Anderson, someone.
RedHopeful - February 17, 2012
Keep in mind they played some pretty bad teams when Hawes was playing, so not a completely balanced comparison.
I don’t think it has been so much the loss of Hawes as it is the NBA catching up with the Sxiers.
The Sixers are basically Jeremy Lin. They took an unprepared league by storm, but are destined to regress to their true talent level. They will end up a solid playoff team this year, but their peak was back when the rest of the league was shaking off the post-lockout hangover.
tk76 - February 17, 2012
this.
soman319 - February 17, 2012
Like I said, the numbers aren’t adjusted for opponent (I am not a statistician and would have no idea how to even do this lol), but I think the numbers back up what you saw on the court.
But there is some serious regression to the mean going on with long 2s. At one point I think the sixers were #1 in the league in 16-23 fg%, now at 13th (and attempting more per game than last year by about 3).
mrprice3 - February 17, 2012
Competition has something to do with it, no doubt, but the Sixers have a losing record without Hawes, and that can’t be completely shaken by just pointing to the opponents.
splinter27 - February 17, 2012
No answer to zone defense tonight.
You can’t drive your way to a win against the zone. You need to generate open shots and hit them. the Sixers did neither.
tk76 - February 17, 2012
their best answer for the zone has a bad achilles
DirtyWaters - February 17, 2012
Their best 2 answers are Jrue and Meeks, and neither showed up for this game. So that made them turn to Boss and ET- and neither of them could do anything against a zone waiting for them to drive.
tk76 - February 17, 2012
against a zone, I think Hawes’ passing ability out of the high post is much more important than their guards
DirtyWaters - February 17, 2012
Meeks has to have better starts
I am by no means a Turner fan and I understand wanting a spot up shooter to start the game with that line-up…however…said shooter, aka Meeks, has to shoot the ball better early in games. So far this season, Jodie Meeks is shooting 33.7% (28-83) overall and 35.4% (17-48) from 3, prior to taking his first seat on the bench.
DirtyWaters - February 17, 2012
I’ve been looking for numbers like this. Where did you find them?
splinter27 - February 17, 2012
I have looked a few times for them as well, but couldn’t find them for the current season. Being that it was only 31 games, I just added it up looking at the play-by-play.
DirtyWaters - February 17, 2012
Impressive work sir. Thanks for compiling! Next time I see the “Meeks fits best with the starters” BS I will be using these stats.
splinter27 - February 17, 2012
Use these stats: Turner’s TS% the last six games – 35.1%
Meeks – 49.5%
Both below league average, but Turner’s numbers are disasterous.
jefu - February 18, 2012
also, if you want to be more fair, you’d need to get a sample of Turner’s percentages his first time off the bench to the first time he sits.
Those numbers for Meeks are in a vacuum. You should know better than that.
jefu - February 18, 2012
I’m not arguing to start Turner. I rather trade him than start him. I just think that it is important for Meeks to get off to better starts and be a little more consistent and less streaky in his role at the beginning of games.
DirtyWaters - February 18, 2012
good starts matter, but I put more weight in his overall stats.
jefu - February 18, 2012
Dirk = Life Vacuum
The building was rocking in the first half tonight, but Dirk absolutely sucked the life out of it in the first 6 minutes of the that third quarter. Seemed like every shot was in before it left his hand. It felt like we had no chance once he started making shots.
Also, I don’t think it takes an “elite, 20ppg scorer” to realize that we aren’t hitting any shots, and to get into the lane to draw a foul. A trip to the free throw line or two may have been enough to slow the momentum in that 3rd quarter.
SixersfanGSL - February 17, 2012
Lou and Jrue both drove the lane and were fouled, but in the NBA, you have to be an established star to get those calls. Or you could just do what Vince Carter does and yell as though he was fouled…that seems to work.
DirtyWaters - February 17, 2012
It appeared that we were getting some contact, but not attempting to sell it a la Vince. What they needed was the MAKE the officials call it. It seemed like we gave up once we didn’t get a few calls.
SixersfanGSL - February 18, 2012
^This. I was at the game, too, and they just let it get out of hand in the third quarter. They needed to slow the game down.
Also, I want to know when we got such an influx of Texans in the Delaware Valley in the last year or so…because I was absolutely surrounded by Mavs fans.
doubleh - February 17, 2012
As an owner of a 10-game plan, I find myself surrounded by fans of the opposing team for three-quarters of the games. My personal favorite remains the 30+ orthodox Jews who were avid OKC fans last year.
SixersfanGSL - February 18, 2012
I believe you were surrounded by bandwagon fans. There’s a difference.
jefu - February 18, 2012
I was being sarcastic. I know they were bandwagon fans. And two of them sitting in front of me were the of the particularly obnoxious sort. If they hadn’t been 12 years old, I would have told them to STFU and sit down. Even my 5 year old tired of their actions.
doubleh - February 18, 2012
just saying
I wonder what place the sixers would be in if they were playing in the west. I bet they’d be in like the 7th or 8th spot. The luxury of playing in the East lol
lax10 - February 18, 2012
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