Chicago Bulls

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FinalRecap | Box Score

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Philadelphia 76ers

	Richaun Holmes, PF 28 MIN | 4-9 FG | 0-3 3FG | 3-5 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 1 TO | 11 PTS | +5 +/-Another rookie enters the first-five for the 76ers and posts a respectable performance. With his hops and quick second jump, I’d like to have seen Holmes grab a few more boards, but his energy and hustle are amazing. He is falling in love with his jumper a little too much for my tastes.
	Jerami Grant, SF 29 MIN | 4-12 FG | 0-2 3FG | 3-4 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 3 BLK | 1 TO | 11 PTS | -26 +/-Grant was very aggresssive going to the rack last night and I hope he continues to play that way this season. Grant scored 6 points in the 1st Q and I thought he was headed for a big night, but like a number of the Sixers, he went ice cold.
	Jahlil Okafor, C 31 MIN | 9-25 FG | 0-0 3FG | 3-8 FT | 15 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 1 TO | 21 PTS | -22 +/- A 2-10 start to the game di not prevent Jah for putting up a monster night (7-14 in 2nd half). Honestly, Jah got some great looks at the hoop because of his low post moves, he just couldn’t get the ball to roll in. There was a stretch in the 1st Q were on 3 consecutive trips Jah could not get lay-ins to fall. His 8 defensive rebounds in Noel’s absence were huge.
	T.J. McConnell, PG 29 MIN | 3-8 FG | 0-2 3FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 8 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 2 TO | 6 PTS | -18 +/- I know that TJ’s job in this lineup is to find open shooters and not turn the ball over, but with the Noel and Cov out last night, I’d like to have seen TJ look to score a bit more in the 1st half. Still an 8/2 assist to turnover ration is amazing and if Stauskas could shoot at all last night, TJ has double digit assists.  I thought he battled former MVP Derrick Rose to a draw last night.
	Nik Stauskas, SG 33 MIN | 2-13 FG | 1-7 3FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 2 AST | 3 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 5 PTS | -23 +/-Stauskas was 1-7 from deep last night and miss fired on a host of wide open looks. He is now hit 9 for 37 on 3-balls acorss his last 4 games. “Jesus,” Stauskas commeneted post game when informed of his recent shooting stats. My thoughts on his struggles during the game last night were significantly more volatile.

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Last Sunday, Shaq touched off a highly entertaining Instagram battle with Scottie Pippen when he wrote that the all-time Lakers squad (Shaq, Kobe Bryant, Elgin Baylor, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) would beat the best five in Bulls history (Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant and Derrick Rose)—by 50 points.

This post is not going to chose a side in that Lakers vs. Bulls debate that has lasted all week (FYI:  After 50,000 simulations by PredictionMachine.com, the Lakers were declared the better team as they won 64% of the simulated games.).  Instead, this article will strongly suggest that an All-Time 76ers team comprised of  — Allen Iverson; Julius Erving; Moses Malone; Charles Barkley and Wilt Chamberlain — would defeat both the All-Time Lakers and the All-Time Bulls teams.

But probably not by 50 points.

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The Chicago Bulls fired Tom Thibodeau with authority on Thursday, saying that a change at the head coaching position was necessary because Thibodeau was behind a “departure” from an “organizational culture” that is responsible for the Bulls success on and off the court.

Reports are that the true reason behind the firing was that Thibs did not get along Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf  and others in the front office as well as the rumor that numerous players on the Bulls were unhappy with the 2011 NBA Coach of the Year’s stern methods and hard driving ways

Whatever the reasons for his firing, after five straight playoff appearances, Thibs is no longer the hea coach of the Chicago Bulls. For us here at the Philadunkia offices the news made us think back to two posts by Philadunkia scribe Jeff McMenamin on the topic of Thibodeau and the 76ers’ head coaching position.

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Lost in the wake of all the Eagles free agency news this weekend was the fact that the 76ers went produced a 1-1 record in their last two games (Win over the depleted Atlanta Hawks) and rookie Nerlens Noel who has played extremely well since the All-Star break, simply took his game to another level this past weekend.

Since the All-Star break, Noel has played his best basketball of the season.  Since the festivities in New York City wrapped up, #4 is averaging 11.8 points, 10.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 2.9 blocks, and 2.7 steals per game.

Over the weekend, Noel averaged 10.5 ppg., 14 rpg. and 5.5 spg.  As a result of his two impressive outings, a host of “historical” references were applied to the stats Noel has been posting during this recent stretch of play and posted online.  After the jump, we’ll present a several of those references and let you decide what, if anything, these numbers exactly mean for Noel and the 76ers.

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The Sixers have been abandoned again.  It was another three seasons of wasted basketball instead of moving closer to the ultimate goal of a championship.  There were risks taken, hearts broken and blood vessels busted.

Yet, taking a trip down memory lane, what if I told you that the Sixers’ woes began way before the Andrew Bynum trade last summer?  What if I told you that if the Sixers had just taken my advice and hired Tom Thibodeau, that they’d be in the hunt for an NBA Championship right now as you’re reading this?

Without tooting my own horn too much, I’ll just let you see for yourself…
http://philadunkia.com/?p=263

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When Andre Iguodala stepped to the foul line with 2.2 seconds left last night — the Sixers trailing 78-77 and their grip on a series that seemed won just days ago slackened, if not broke entirely — he was thinking about his son.

With the Wells Fargo Center roaring — reaching, and exceeding, the sort of decibel level that makes reporters with sensitive ears wonder if cochlear implants hurt — he imagined himself, he later told the press, explaining to his boy how to shoot free throws: It’s alright son, it’s easy work.  Bend your knees, he said he hummed at the eye of the storm.

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A win tonight and the Sixers advance to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2003, where they’ll square off against one of a pair of teams they went 5-1 against in the regular season.

So that’s the good news. The bad is this: to get there, they still have to take a game from a prideful Bulls team that is, while profoundly depleted, formidable.

And to do that they’ll probably need the benefit of the continuation of some recent trends that don’t look entirely sustainable.

(Free throw shooting, Spencer Hawes eating people’s faces, terrible injuries to integral members of the Bulls; these things come to mind.)

But get excited Philadelphia. We certainly are.

Five and a half hours out from tip-off, here are some links to whet your appetites.

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Spencer Hawes giveth. Spencer Hawes taketh away.

And Spencer Hawes just gaveth the Sixers an ugly 79-74 victory to take 2-1 series lead.

Game 3 of the first round series between the Sixers and the Bulls was a perfect crystallization of a Philadelphia season that has had extreme highs and near-bottomless lows.

And right in the middle of that emotional rollercoaster was Hawes.

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My uncle spent an afternoon in the emergency room around a decade ago after his dog bit through his hand. “Denny” was a mild animal of what vets admitted was uncertain ancestry, loved and lovable, but he’d been hit by a car and so spent the last hours of his life in a terrified frenzy. He didn’t know where he was, or what he was doing. My uncle had seen him get hit—he was chasing a bird, I think, and ran right into the path of some kind of sedan—rushed to his side to comfort him, and the dog bit deep into his palm. Denny was, in those last moments, gripped by fear, capable of anything. That was how he died.

The lesson: be very weary of wounded animals, even, maybe especially, the ones you think you know.

Its corollary: be very weary of the Chicago Bulls.

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As a basketball fan, and a human being who likes to see decent, hardworking, people succeed, I’m crestfallen by the Derrick Rose injury. The NBA Playoffs is, to a unique extent, a space where the very best in the world compete. And to see that competition reduced is a loss.

In the interest of honesty though, I should also acknowledge this: I’m a Sixers fan. And the fact that this injury significantly improves my team’s odds of continuing to play on in this tournament is a silver lining I can’t help but see and feel.

So, ambivalence deep set, I turned to the Internet to help clarify my feelings on the biggest playoff injury of my lifetime.

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