Thad had the tough task of guarding either Josh Smith or Al Horford all game and was still able to score an efficient 16 points on 8-of-11 from the field and pull down six rebounds.  I don’t understand why Collins decided to give him just 26 minutes.  Maybe he was noticeably tired or his hammy was bothering him.

This was one of Turner’s worst games of the year.  He hit a jumper to cap off a Sixers 8-0 run to start the game (I’ll get to that after the jump) and then went on to miss his next six FG’s and completely disappear.  What happened to this guy?  He’s clearly given up on the Sixers, coach Collins, the fans and maybe even himself.

Hawes had a big third quarter which helped cut the Hawks’ lead to just three after they had led by as many as 19 before the end of the first half.  Hawes scored six points and pulled down six of his team-high 11 rebounds in the quarter as well.  Overall it was a decent effort from Hawes.  It could’ve been inspired by his uncle Steve Hawes, who played for the Hawks for seven seasons from 1976-1983.

This was yet another “Poison Ivey” effort from Royal.  He nearly fouled out of the game in 13 minutes, committing five fouls in that span on the court.  He’s simply been awful the past two games and for tanking purposes, maybe that’s a good thing?

“The Jruth” had a rough night shooting the ball and apparently took a slight beating physically in the game as well.  Jrue was seen with his wrist wrapped with ice in the locker room postgame and he admittedly rolled his ankle pretty badly towards the end of the first half.  Shooting 3-of-12 from the field is unacceptable, but it did seem like something was off all night in Jrue’s game.  Defensively he was also unable to contain Jeff Teague who had a career night, scoring 27 while dishing 11 assists.  The A+ is for playing hurt and going hard all game — that’s called leadership.  Bynum could learn something from Holiday.  Holiday had these comments in the locker room post game.

Yes!!! Maybe Doug Collins is starting to read this blog, rejoice!!  Other than sluggish defense on Anthony Tolliver all night, Moultrie continued to impress scoring eight points and more importantly grabbing seven rebounds in 27 minutes of tick.  He makes the Sixers exciting to watch when he’s on the court and he’s already dunked the ball with authority more times than Spencer Hawes, Lavoy Allen and Kwame Brown had all season.  Here’s some examples of Moultrie attacking the rim…

It wasn’t done efficiently, but 20 points and nine rebounds is a super performance from Wright. Wright hadn’t scored 20 in a game since the Sixers road win over the Memphis Grizzlies back on December 26th.  His nine rebounds also ties his season high.  Getting things done DWRIGHTWAY will hopefully get him further away from the Do(u)g house.

Jenkins went from receiving a DNP against Boston, to playing an absurd 29 minutes the very next game. Jenkins had seven points, two rebounds and two assists in his first 13 minutes of action, but the next 16 minutes were unnecessary.  I don’t know what Jenkins did to get on Collins’ good side, but his minutes from one game to the next were an example of classic Doug.

Really Doug? Why????  Ivey and Jenkins have no business receiving the minutes that should’ve been Pargo’s in the past two games.  Pargo is being underutilized and should start at the point guard spot for the Sixers while letting Jrue Holiday off-the-ball for open looks.  Pargo’s quick, he has size, he takes the ball strong to the tin and he has good passing instinct.

DAM-I-EN, DAM-I-EN, DAM-I-EN…The man was possessed against his Uncle Dominique’s former team. He hit for 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting and even grabbed six boards and got to the FT line a couple times. In the past seven games he’s scored double-digits in three of them.  The last time he scored twenty in a game goes all the way back to a game against the Hawks in Atlanta as well on November 16, 2007 where he scored 41.  To state just how long ago that was, Damien Wilkins was a member of the Seattle Supersonics at the time…Someone on Twitter even suggested he should’ve done the Michael Jordan shoulder shrug after hitting a deep three to give him his 21st point in the 4th.  I couldn’t agree more.

It’s about time!!! Kick back and watch some Temple basketball in March Lavoy, because you have no reason to get any more playing time for the foreseeable future.  I’ve never seen a player as soft and mellow quite like yourself.  You broke the boring scale months ago.

In the last 28 Sixers games, Kwame Brown has played in just five.  Money well spent.

Overall Doug has his team competing again which is something to be proud of.  He’s also given more playing time to Moultrie and less to the likes of Hawes and Lavoy.  All good things.  Next he has to start Pargo and Wright at the point guard and small forward positions.  It’s the only way to make Evan Turner wake up right now.

IMO it was a quiet and interesting double-double for Thad. He played with his usual energy and intensity, but his scoring came in odd bursts. His 6 point run during the second half of the 3rd Q helped the Sixers claw back into this one, so that way key. However, if you look a the game closely you’ll see that another 6 of Thad’s point came after the 1:32 mark of the 4th Q when this game was already over.

Turner played a lot of PG last night and the result was…Too many 3PAs by ET…Too many FGAs by ET and not enough ball movement.  He did a nice job of getting into the lane for buckets or trips to the FT line.  Still, at the 4:50 mark of the 4th he threw up two wild shots and missed a lay-in and I chucked the remote across the room.

Let me say that Hawes played decently last night on the offensive end.  However KG simply owns this guy and it’s sad to watch.  In this game Spence caught and alley-oop and blocked one by BOS.  I have no stats to back this up, but a I believe that’s the first time Hawes has pulled off that combo.  My favorite play was when KG pinned (it was goal tending, but still) Spence’s shot from behind because Hawes decide to lay-in a bunny rather then slamming it home.

A third straight start for Ivey (Sixers are now 1-2 in those games) and now that he has some confidence, Ivey is hurting this team.  I know he has been hot from behind the arc this year, but seven 3PAs is too many for this career journeyman.  He also was not much help slowing down Bradley.

A wildly inconsistent night from Jrue.  He did a great job of getting to the rim, but didn’t score efficiently.  He handed out 10 dimes, but he turned the ball over too many times.  He has moments of great defense and lapses of simply awful defensive play.

12-12 from the field in his last 4 games and as a bonus, Moultrie is exciting to watch.

Wright has one job — hit open jumpers. Last night he did not do that for the Sixers

So Allen has had decent success guarding KG in the past, but he only gets 3 mins. of run vs. BOS.

Moving on…

Does anyone know what the Sixers record for DNP-CDs is in one season?

I liked that DC played Jrue off the ball for most of the time that Avery Bradley was in the game.  It was a smart way to get Jrue some easier looks.  I liked that he played Moultrie early, but the red hot Moultrie should have played even more.  KG kills Hawes.  Allen gives KG problems.  Yet Hawes played 28 ticks and Allen only 3.  That’s a head scratcher.  I also don’t like that he has buried Pargo.  I would like to have seen Pargo at the point with Holiday at the SG for stretches of this game.  Also why was Holiday on the bench for a large stretch to open the 4th Q?  Finally, DC has to come up with a solution for the Sixers terrible 3rd Q starts.  A quick 6-2 run by the C’s out of the half killed the 7-6 in this one.

After grabbing a career high 16 rips vs. GSW, Thad was MIA on the boards down in DC.  However, he provided a nice offensive spark in the 3rd Q where he scored 8 points and he did have 3 steals.

A double-double for Turner can not make up for the disappointment I am feeling in “The Enigma”. Having his shot blocked by Wall at the end of the game was simply icing on this cake.

A nice recovery by Hawes from the debacle he had against GSW, but I still want his minutes to go to Moultrie for the rest of the season.

Did you think that his stellar play from Saturday night was going to make the train ride down to Washington, D.C? C’mon

I would love to discuss with DC why this guy is not playing more minutes.

A very solid game by wright was destroyed for me on two plays…(1) He gave Wall too much space on the final possession for the Wiz and (2) Four seconds is an eternity.  So there was plenty of time on that last play by the Sixers for Wright to catch the inbound, throw a pump fake (and watch the defender fly by), then set his feet and shoot.  Instead he threw up a prayer while falling out of bounds.

The idea that we have to sit and watch this guy float in and out of games for one more year after this season is mind blowing to me.

DC has moved on from Pargo so I guess we should too…

Wilkins had a nice little stretch of play during the early 2nd Q and provided so much needed bench help on the second night of a home, then road B2B set.

Do you think the train conductor let him blow the whistle on the way down to DC?

Outside of Hawes, Collins absolutely rode his starters to a W on Saturday night, so on the second night of a home, the road B2B it makes no sense to me that Collins played Pargo for a total of 3 minutes and the emerging Moultrie for 6.  Way to manage those rotations coach.

A career high 16 boards was the major highlight in a very good night for Thad (double-double).  His 4 straight points during the Sixers run in the 2nd Q were big and he had a huge garbage play – layin during the 4th Q.

One of ET’s best games of the year — near triple-double.  I especially like that he did not pound the ball into the floor on any trips tonight. I wonder if saw the Kenny Smith piece on TNT the other night?  In the 3rd Q Turner had 10 pts. as well as a great pick-n-roll alley-oop to Moultrie.  He came up even bigger in the 4th — 6 pts; 2 fantastic assists and a big steal.  Still, his FT shooting is killing me.

A 0-4 1st Q began a simply awful night for Hawes.

Ivey got the start and he responded with 8 pts. in the 1st Q on his way to his best game this season.  Ivey’s shooting was on fire tonight.  I also thought he did a solid job on Curry in the 2nd half and slowed Steph down somewhat.  But those late missed FTs nearly killed me.

Holiday had 11 points in the 1st half, but it was his play in the 4th Q and especially the closing minutes that will have everyone talking. He scored 12 points in the final Q including 5 straight to close out the game.  That’s how an all-star closes a game!  However, 8 turnovers is unacceptable from your all-star PG.  My only other knock was that Curry gave him fits at the other end, but Curry does that to most foes.

Lavoy drifts in and out of games so much it’s scary, but Fran Dunphy told us that for years.

If all of the Sixers bigs could learn to cut / dive / run to the rim like the rookie, we’d score a lot more easy buckets.  He had a beautiful catch and slam on an alley-oop from Turner.

Wirght played like a man with a chip on his shoulder against his former team.  His 11 points in the 1st half helped keep the Sixers in this one.  The hustle play he made to cover the length of the floor and block a Curry lay-up was simply incredible.

Nothing wrong with his night, but I had bigger expectations when we signed this guy.  Of course it’s tough to do a lot in only 8 ticks.

I heard he grabbed like 3 boxes of Wilt bobble heads.

DC pushed the right button in starting Ivey tonight.  I liked that he got Turner the ball closer to the hoop in the second half where he could score quickly (I assume that was by design).  I thought he stuck with Hawes too long and Moultrie did not get enough burn.

I hope that last night’s shooting woes were just a matter of Thad still getting himself back into game shape. Thad was also noticeably late on several weak-side rotations.

I honestly don’t know what to write about “The Enigma” anymore. Turner comes out on fire — 5-7 in the 1st Q and then outside of a nice alley-oop to Moultrie in the 2nd Q, he just disappears. He continues to pound the ball into the floor until late in the shot clock (more on this later).  One sequence in the 4th drove me nuts…After jacking and missing a wing 3PA, the Bulls grabbed the rebound and set up their half court offense down the other end.  Long story short, Turner is late on a rotation and then weakly fouls Noah on a lay-in for an AND 1.  At the time of the ill-advised 3PA, the Sixers had a chance to cut the Bulls lead to 6 or 7 and instead ended up down 12 after Noah’s FT.

Hawes recovered from a horrible start offensively to post a double-double.  Still he got absolutely worked by Noah at both ends and that’s all I or anyone else will remember from this game.

Jrue’s scoring outburst in the 2nd Q (7 points) kept the Sixers in this game. He also had 7 points in the 3rd Q that helped the Sixers claw back into this one after falling behind by 16.  So he had the offense going last night.  However I thought he had some trouble guarding Hinrich at times and that hurt the Sixers.

Nick is 2-16 in his last 3 games.  Where is the Swaggy P fan club now?

4 points in 6+ mins during the 1st half and DC can’t find any burn for this kid in the 2nd half.  Simply stupid Doug.

If Wright could have knocked home his FTs, he would have gotten a better grade.  I’m ready to try this guy in the first-five again as it is obvious Nick’s hot streak is over.

What the hell has happened to this guy since putting on a Sixers uniform?

I guess DC’s big, physical presence couldn’t have gone into this game and attempted to keep Noah off the glass?  Money well spent…

I’m still recovering from the post game meltdown DC had the other night, so I’m going to leave this one alone except to say this…Perhaps no team has had more injury issues then the Bulls this year (Rose, Hamilton, Gibson, etc.) and yet Thibs has figured out a way to win and has never given the ‘woe is me’ comments like Collins has done this year.

How does a guy who just missed 3 weeks of action and is still rounding into “game shape” turn out to be the second best player on the floor for the Sixers?  It’s Thad…that’s how.

After a six game stretch of decent play, the enigma that is ET took a nose dive tonight.  I did like that he got to the FT line 10 times, but Herb Magee should be embarrassed that Turner is one of his projects.

Remind me why didn’t we trade this stiff at the deadline?  1 rebound…ONE

Jrue nearly posted a double-double tonight, but he did not seem like himself.  I didn’t see that ORL did anything special to take Holiday out of the game but Jrue didn’t score his 1st bucket until the 1st Q buzzer and he really never got going tonight.  Still, 10 dimes and only 1 turnover has a nice ring to it

Swaggy P has left the building…

He scored 2 straight buckets for the Sixers to open the 3rd Q and that was his night.  On defense he provided nothing.

In 6 mins he grabbed the same number of rebounds as Hawes.  So by Sixers standards, Moultrie should get an extension right now.

I’m still waiting for this “sharpshooter” to get on track from deep.

Hello, nice to meet you

His defense was suspect but outside of that I have no issues with the way Pargo played tonight.

Okay…Ivey earned his paycheck tonight

Wilkins was one of the few Sixers who brought the energy and effort tonight.  DW looked like a true Wilkins family member with the FB dunk he threw down and then the alley-oop he caught in the 1st half.

How about the mad dash DC made to the locker room before the final horn even sounded!?!  Way to stand by your guys coach.  In the post game presser he cited that he didn’t know there was going to be a shot clock violation called on ORL at the end of the game as the reason for his early exit.  BS. What the hell is he saying at half that the Sixers start the 3rd Qs so poorly.

After a stellar 1st Q in which he scored, rebounded, dropped a dime or two and set some nice picks, Lavoy disappeared.  What remains most disturbing for me is that he defense has not gotten any better since he entered the NBA.

Another roller coaster night from the enigma that is Evan Turner.  He came out of the gates fast going by going to the rim and hitting 3-3 in the 1st Q. He then missed his next 4 FGAs in the 1st half.  ET was also part of curious “small lineup” in the 2nd Q that provided little resistance for the Heat.  In the 2nd half ET started 2-2 on FGAs and then proceeded to go 2-5.  FYI…ET is now 0-for-his-last-12 on 3PAs

Moving on…

A very good night for Jrue that included only 2 TOs against one of the better defensive teams in the NBA.  It was odd to me that he did not attempt a FG until 1:47 remained in the 1st Q, but I especially liked the way he attacked the rim from that point on.  Holiday’s effort inspired this ohh so true quote from Lebron, “”Holiday is a great player, but he needs help.”

Yes he scored 19 points, but 12 of those came in the 1st Q and he had 14 at halftime.  Like a lot of the Sixers, Swaggy didn’t have what it takes to hang with the Heat in the 2nd half.

So in 2 games since the ASB, Doug has given Moultrie a total of 7 minutes.  That’s a joke.

Dorell was determined to get his against the team that drafted him straight out of high school.  Some of the 3PAs he hoisted up last night were more then ill-advised, but he managed to shoot 50% so I guess we can’t be too critical.

Why bother signing this guy for the remainder of the season if you are not going to use him properly?

For me this was 8 minutes too many.  Give those ticks to the new guy Charles Jenkins or Pargo.

Garbage time…

Do you think Kwame works out or gets some shots up after each DNP-CD?  Me neither.

Sorry kid…Welcome to DC’s bench

I’m not sure there was anything Doug could have done to stop last night’s lopsided loss, so I can’t blame much of this one on him.  But I am having major issues with his management of minutes. Hawes was awful last night, but Moultrie doesn’t get in until garbage time?  Same with Lavoy.  He limited Pargo to 22 mins. as well.  I also did not like the Ivey/Turner/Pargo/Wright/Allen lineup that he trotted out there in the 2nd Q.  The results for that lineup weren’t pretty.  And whatever speech he gave in in the locker room at halftime needs to be thrown out and never used again.

Lavoy just struggles so badly to guard / hedge on the pick-n-roll that I can’t comment on anything else he did last night.

Another roller coaster game for ET.  He came out of the gate and threw up an ill-advised shot and had a bad TO.  For that DC gave him the quick hook. When he was sent back in during the 1st Q he committed 2 more TOs and went 1-3 from the field.  ET did rally in the 2nd half and had some solid drives to the tin.  However when he was at the point in the 3rd Q he failed on several pick-n-roll ops to hit Moultrie as dove to the rim .  Of course his driving lay up to get the 7-6 within 1 point during the closing seconds was very nice.  Anyone else have motion sickness?

If Spence could learn to provide any resistance at all on the defensive end, he could be a solid reserve in this League.  He simply carried the Sixers on offense during the 4th Q (10 pts.) and the Sixers needed that badly.  Still he doesn’t go to the bucket with authority and that soft finger roll he missed in the early 4th was just another example of that fact.

Jrue recorded yet another double-double last night, but some questionable shot selection in the 4th Q and a costly TO caused me to hit him with the “B”.  He did a nice job of finding Moultrie on the pick-n-roll and also took the ball to the basket frequently.  Two other things I noticed…Jrue can not get a foul call from the refs & Jrue will always have trouble guarding smaller-quicker guards (CP3, Jennings, etc.).  He’s 6-4 and nearly 200 lbs., so we’re going to have to live with the fact that some of the slighter point men in the League will give him fits.  Lastly, the dribble-drive, ball fake, lay-in move he made in the 2nd Q was fantastic.

Swaggy started out on fire as he was 4-4 on FGAs in the 1st Q and then thanks to fouls and DC’s quick hook, NY cooled off from there.  I really liked that he got to the FT line and made the freebies.

He needs to work on his FTs and I’d like to see him make a few more of his FGAs, but another solid night from Arnett.  It blows me away that in the 1st Q after two FGM on the pick-n-roll and a couple of boards that DC yanks him and he just sits on the bench for what seemed like an eternity

4 points in 7 ticks and 2-2 on FTs.  Not bad for a guy who is in the Do(u)g-house.

Pargo seemed a little off last night, but I like when he is playing point with Jrue on the floor.  I think more of that last night would have been a good move by DC.

The 3PA he hit in the late 3rd Q was huge for the Sixers, but other then that it was a quiet night for Ivey.  Ohh yeah until the final ticks…he needed to call a TO after the jump ball in the final seconds fell into his hands.  Turning the ball over there with a bad pass is simply a ridiculous mistake for a veteran.

5 mins…1 bucket…well done

Hey, did you hear the one about the big guy who sat around doing nothing and got paid $2 million?

I loved that he yanked ET early on, but I didn’t like that he pulled Swaggy in the 1st when he picked up his second foul.  Swaggy was on fire at that point and you have to let the guy play it out.  I continue to hate that he lets ET run the point for large stretches.  Moultrie deserved more minutes.  And I am starting to wonder why the Sixers can’t get a call — is it possibly a DC thing?