inside defense vanishes

The Sixers didn't play so bad at all against the Lakers. In fact, I think
they would have won except for one factor, namely the rotten interior
defense. Usually it is the team's perimeter defense which does them in, but
last night we saw Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom run amok inside, and that is
where the game was lost. I'm not quite sure what happened here, if it was
Sammy doing one of his occasional game-long sleepwalks, the absence of
Reggie Evans for all but around 10 minutes, or if it was just a bad decision
by Coach Cheeks to play for so long with a small lineup. If the latter,
hopefully we won't see that again against any team where more than one big
man can score. On a related note, rookie Jason Smith continued his pattern
of showing a much better offensive than defensive game in the NBA.

Another sign that the big men lost this game, the Sixers were badly
out-rebounded.

Outside of the poor play by the bigs, there was a lot to like about the
Sixers' play against the Lakers. Andre Ig did a creditable defensive job
against Kobe, basically played him even. Also a nice game from the back
court, as Andre Miller had 21points and 8 assists; Willie Green had 16
points and helped keep Bryant under control. Lou Williams was out, but it
didn't matter because Thaddeus Young and Rodney Carney stepped up and played
creditably.

Smith is a rookie and guys like Amundson and Randolph are marginal players
who don't even get off the bench. Calvin Booth does not appear able to
contribute any more. Kyle Korver plays inside defense better than he gets
credit for, but he's only 6-6. Maybe the team needs another big tough
banger to help Evans at the PF spot. I guess we'll find out soon enough if
Herbert Hill is going to help.

----- Kurt Straub