how to lose a game you should win

A very efficient way to do this is to come out cold and fall behind right
away. That did it for the Sixers against the Bucks. They played decently
after falling behind, but never took control of the game again. The Bucks
are not a good team to start with, and they were playing without their best
player, Redd, and another starter, Desmond Mason. Against this team, at
home, the Sixers should have won and won big. It was a very disappointing
loss.

Willie Green played about as badly as an NBA starter can play. His defense
was nonexistent, and allowed a journeyman, Charlie Bell, to shoot like a
superstar. On offense, Willie missed a lot of open, clutch shots. Overall,
he was 4-15 from the floor. It was bad enough that I'm ready to see Lou
Williams start as shooting guard. I'm under no illusions that this will
cause an improvement. Sweet Lou is still playing out of control for long
stretches of the game, and his ability to guard other "2's" is suspect at
best. However, Lou might yet get better by playing more; I don't think
that's in the cards for Willie Green. Lou didn't shoot any better this
game--- he was 5-16. Lou is not ready to play the point, and Andre Miller
has become the second best player on the team. Still I think it is time to
start Williams and see what he can do playing 30+ minutes a game for at
least a month or so.

The team as a whole was 0-13 from the three point line, equal blame for
bricks going to Williams, Green and Andre Ig.

In the post-game show, Nash said (diplomatically) that the Sixers just
assumed they were going to win, and didn't give good effort. Sadly, he was
absolutely right. One exception might be Dalembert, who hustled his way to
16 points and 16 boards.

----- Kurt Straub