will the real Sixers please stand up

Are you the awful bunch who stunk up the joint against the Wiz, whiffed on a
beatable Piston team, and choked against the Warriors? Or are you the team
that made the stunning comeback against the Blazers and then last night ran
a good Bucks team out of their own building?

Surely it helped having Kyle Korver healthy and back in the lineup, but that
can't be the only difference.

Last night Willie Green made half his shots and stuck to Michael Redd so
diligently, the guy only got 10 shots off. Where has that Willie Green been
the rest of the year? Hope this new guy makes an appearance again some
time.

Suddenly Andre Miller is close to a triple-double. Like Green it was his
best game of the year. If by chance they had dinner together earlier in the
day, Coach Cheeks ought to find out what it was and make everyone eat it.

Perhaps the most incredible line was posted by Dalembert. Let's see, 37
minutes, only three fouls???? Was that our Sammy? Seems questionable, as
the guy on the court shot 8-10 on free throws. Even Andre Ig had an
unusually good night, not only made better than 50% of his shots, passed off
for 11 assists and only turned the ball over twice. All this against a
fairly good team, on their court no less. Well, let's see if this was truly
a mirage, or if KK, WG, Andre Ig, Sammy and Miller can do it again tonight
against Utah. That might make a believer out of me.

The Bucks win had to be the team's best game of the year. The five
performaces mentioned above were all fantastic.

Of the starters, only Reggie Evans was a bit off his game. Williams and
Smith both played well off the bench. Lou had 6 assists in only 24 minutes.
This was the first time I ever thought he looked like a real point guard who
knew what he was doing. Jason Smith continues to surprise and impress.

No Young or Carney until garbage time. Those guys better do something
noticeable, quick, or they may get bumped out of the rotation for the rest
of the year.

---- Kurt Straub

Kurt Straub wrote:
> Are you the awful bunch who stunk up the joint against the Wiz, whiffed on a
> beatable Piston team, and choked against the Warriors? Or are you the team
> that made the stunning comeback against the Blazers and then last night ran
> a good Bucks team out of their own building?

> Last night Willie Green made half his shots and stuck to Michael Redd so
> diligently, the guy only got 10 shots off. Where has that Willie Green been
> the rest of the year? Hope this new guy makes an appearance again some
> time.

Well, I think Green answered you pretty solidly with a typical 2-10
shooting night for him. The thing is he's been doing this his whole
career--every 6th or 7th game he'll actually shoot well and look like
he knows what he's doing--then the rest of the time he'll put up 30%
shooting games and do nothing else of any note either (against Jazz, 0
reb, 2 ast in 29 min.) Moreover, I think the Bucks game in general
was just a result of quite out-of-character, for this team, great
shooting: 52.6% overall. Korver was a huge plus for the game as well,
hitting 4-5 threes and opening up the floor--unfortunately he's been
about as consistent with his shooting as Green this year. Still, Redd
may have only got 10 shots off but he made 6 of them, and overall the
Bucks themselves shot a great 49.3%, so the Sixers weren't exactly
being stoppers. Great game and all but not something to expect on a
usual basis.

> Lou had 6 assists in only 24 minutes.
> This was the first time I ever thought he looked like a real point guard who
> knew what he was doing.

I think I'm fully ready to see Williams given the starting job.
Against the Jazz he picked up another 6 assists, only 1 turnover, 13
points (50% shooting), and 6 boards(!) in only 22 minutes. That's
compared to Miller--who I still think is ironically the one shooting
way too much--who had only 4 ast, 3 to, 16 points (7-16), and 3 boards
in 38 minutes. In any case, assuming the team can manage to land a
marquee free-agent and hopefully another plum rookie next year, it
would be great to have Williams fully ready to go for next year when
they could then have enough talent to really compete.


>
> No Young or Carney until garbage time. Those guys better do something
> noticeable, quick, or they may get bumped out of the rotation for the rest

It's too bad that Young is back to total garbage time again after
those couple of decent games he got last week. It's looking though
like he won't be getting much unless someone gets injured or Miller is
traded and he ends up getting Williams' current bench time (I guess
with Green, Iguodala, or even Ollie playing PG when Williams would be
on the bench).

--IK

>
>
> ---- Kurt Straub