GM 30: RAPID REACTS

Posted by: C. Smith
02/16/12 9:35 am EST

Philadelphia 76ers

103

Orlando Magic

	Elton Brand, PF 26 MIN \| 6-10 FG \| 1-1 FT \| 2 REB \| 1 AST \| 13 PTS \| -13 Only his solid run of play to open the 3rd kept Brand from getting a terrible grade. In the 3rd EB had a couple steals, a 3-point play, then scored 4 straight at one point and did a solid job guarding D12 for a stretch (although not as good of a job as he did on Jan. 30th). That stretch of solid play helped the Sixers cut the lead to 5, but Brand and the Sixers could not sustain that high level of play and the Magic pulled away again. Where has the EB of 2010-11 gone?
	Andre Iguodala, SF 35 MIN \| 6-14 FG \| 2-3 FT \| 5 REB \| 4 AST \| 15 PTS \| -13 Dre was invisible (4 pts.) during the 1st half and the Sixers can not afford for him to disappear in big games against superior opponents (on paper). Collins must have said the right things at half ’cause Dre cam out like gang busters and scored the 76ers first six points and 8 of their first 10. But that was it. He only scored 3 points the rest of the way. At what point will Dre — the leader of this team — learn that he can not simply “play well” for a small stretch in big games if the Sixers are to grab a win.
	Lavoy Allen, PF 13 MIN \| 1-3 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 5 REB \| 0 AST \| 2 PTS \| -9 Except for his solid defense on Howard for a brief period in the 3rd Q, he was a non-factor
	Jodie Meeks, G 26 MIN \| 2-7 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 3 REB \| 1 AST \| 5 PTS \| -13 The awful version of Capt. Streaky made the trip to Orlando. How much more proof do we need that Meeks is not a starting NBA two-guard?
	Jrue Holiday, PG 25 MIN \| 1-8 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 3 REB \| 5 AST \| 3 PTS \| -17 Arguably Jrue’s worst game of the year. Maybe in two years. Not only couldn’t he get it going offensively, Jrue also couldn’t come close to slowing down Jameer Nelson.
	Lou Williams, PG 32 MIN \| 7-13 FG \| 5-6 FT \| 4 REB \| 7 AST \| 21 PTS \| 0 Louis was Louis, but his shot selection killed us a couple time in this game. With Jrue strapped to the bench, LW’s inability to guard anyone on the Magic really came to the surface last night. However Louis was one of the few Sixers who showed up ready to play and his 11 first half points kept the Sixers alive in this one.
	Thaddeus Young, F 35 MIN \| 6-13 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 4 REB \| 3 AST \| 12 PTS \| -7 An overall solid game by Thad. Still, except for the series in the 3rd where he blocked D12′s shot and then streaked down the court for a lay-in at the other end, it was the quietest night Thad’s had in a while.
	Evan Turner, SG 26 MIN \| 2-7 FG \| 1-2 FT \| 8 REB \| 6 AST \| 6 PTS \| -5 Considering how deep in Doug’s doghouse ET has been of late, this was a solid outing for Turner. Although 2-7 on FGAs is not good. ET appeared to be looking for and avoiding D12 on every move he made to the basket.
	Nikola Vucevic, C 22 MIN \| 5-10 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 5 REB \| 0 AST \| 10 PTS \| -3 Big Nik came to play last night. In the first half he got off to a strong start by scoring 4 straight at one point and it should have been at least 6 as he was fouled on a dunk attempt and got no call. Along with Dre’s hot start, his solid second half was the only reason the Sixers managed to keep this one respectable. He showed some nice offensive moves overall. He also showed the ability to adjust in-game as Vuc did a much better job of guarding D12 in the 3rd and 4th quarters and even grabbed a couple steals from Superman.

JUST ANOTHER WIN ??

Posted by: Jerry Scherwin
02/01/12 9:35 am EST

Was the win over the lowly Orlando Magic the most unconvincing, convincing win ever?

As far as this season goes, it was.

It finally takes away the withstanding asterisks next to those quality blow outs. It eliminates all complaining that Collins can’t win the close ones. It hopefully prevents the meat heads from BEGGING for a quality opponent as a measuring stick. And with any luck, keeps the Sixers under the radar to their upcoming opponents.

That win, to me, handled and dismantled all of that.

In all seriousness, the Sixers just choked out the Orlando Magic offense with its usual strong defensive grasp; holding on to their first place rank in points allowed per game at 86.1. They’ve done it to the bottom feeders consistently and they just did it to an Eastern Conference playoff mainstay. Even in this drowned out and ludicrous season forOrlando, they are still a playoff team. Period. And that beat down just happened.

THE BIG WHIZ WITHOUT

Posted by: Kevin Jones
06/07/11 8:43 am EST

The first NBA player, no actually the first athlete I ever fell in love with was Shaquille O’Neal. Charismatic, powerful, goofy, entertaining and exuberant, Shaq’s image started to become imprinted into the brains of sports fans and then in time, the world. At first it was Kazam, then it was hilarious bleeped out locker room interviews and ultimately the image of O’Neal screaming “Can you dig it?!” during championship parades in L.A.

His thundering style of play around the basket was something the NBA needed to fill the void of Moses Malone, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. Shaq was something you couldn’t stop watching. We here at Philadunkia tip our caps to Shaq on what is no doubt a Hall of Fame career. He is a true original on and off the court.

Yet, as amazing has his career ended up being, Shaquille O’Neal was bested by our 76ers a fair share of times. And since this is still a very dedicated and loyal 76ers site, we’re going to honor Shaq’s career as only we could.

After hitting the books on some NBA history we came up with the top five moments in which the Sixers got the best of the NBA’s original “Superman”.

FO’ with the FOES: MILWAUKEE BUCKS

Posted by: Philadunkia
03/24/10 6:37 pm EST

This mid-week edition of “Fo’ with the Foes” — Philadunkia’s advanced scouting series which with the help of an accomplished journalist from around the NBA beat or blog world, previews upcoming 76ers opponents — features tonight’s opponent the Milwaukee Bucks.

We’re going to keep this one brief as we are focused on the NBA Lottery in June and not what’s happening on the court with the 76ers. Philadunkia’s home team will be hard pressed to win this game tonight and here’s why: Milwaukee is one of the hottest teams in the NBA having won three straight and 9 of their last 10; the Sixers play horrific defense and thus will not be able to stop any of the Bucks big scorers — Brandon Jennings, Andrew Bogut or John Salmons; Thad and Louis stayed home on this trip; and in general the Sixers stopped caring a while ago.

For a little more insight into the Bucks team the Sixers face tonight, we turn to our man Jeremy Schmidt from bucksketball.com to answer two questions on Milwaukee from us here at Philadunkia as well as provide us with two points of analysis on this Bucks squad from an insider’s perspective.

GM 54 & 55 RECAP: TYPICAL SIXERS

Posted by: Philadunkia
02/21/10 4:34 pm EST

One of the things that will go down as a trademark of the 2009-10 season for the Philadelphia 76ers (21-34) is how wildly inconsistent this team has been all year. We can provide no better example of the roller coaster ride we have taken with the Sixers this season then the back-to-back games from this weekend.

First there was the Friday night thrashing of a very good San Antonio Spurs team down at the Wachovia Center. Then on Saturday night the Sixers soiled the bed in Chicago during an embarrassing loss against an improving, but still very beatable Bulls team.

Here’s a look at the ying and the yang; the ups and the downs; the terrific and the horrific of the Sixers efforts over the weekend against San Antonio and Chicago…

WKND RECAP: SIGNS OF HOPE & ONE BIG ISSUE

Posted by: Philadunkia
11/02/09 4:33 pm EST

91026175DD001_WIZARDS_SIXERS Over the weekend the 76ers collected wins against the Milwaukee Bucks and the New York Knicks. The Bucks and Knicks are two teams the Sixers are better then on paper and should beat handily in real life, so it was nice to see the home team handle their business against two inferior Eastern Conference foes.

However, the roller coaster ride that marked the Sixers level of play on the offensive end of the floor in the preseason has now extended through the first three games of the regular season. When the Sixers are rolling like they were during the first three quarters vs. the Knicks, they’re going to be tough to beat. But when they’re flat as they were in the 2^ndquarter vs. the Magic, the Sixers are simply ugly offensively and easily defeated.

Obviously the offensive inconsistencies are of some concern for us here at Philadunkia. But there were enough positives surrounding the Sixers offense this weekend that we gained some faiththat with or without the Princeton offense, the ability to score buckets will not be what holds the Sixers back this year.

No, as we sit just three games into the 2009-10 season what’s most concerning in our minds is that the 76ers team defense continues to be borderline non-existent and that is what could keep this team from reaching the post season again this season.

TrueHoop Network 2009-10 Season Preview: Philadelphia 76ers

Posted by: Philadunkia
10/26/09 10:42 am EST

76ERSkicks There are just two-days remaining before the start of the 2009-10 NBA season for our Philadelphia 76ers and after all the changes that went on with the squad this past summer and a preseason filled with unbelieveable highs and disturbing lows, we’re sure a lot of you out there in Philadunkia nation have no idea what to expect from the Sixers this season.

Over the next couple of days we’re going to try and provide some clearity for you on this Sixers team by previewing the upcoming season in muliple formats. We’ll start by presenting the 2009-10 TrueHoop Network Season Preview of the 76ers, which we assembled with some help from our friends in the distinguished THN family. We believe you’ll find the unique format of this preview entertaining and most importantly very informative.

NOTES, LINKS & TWEETS

Posted by: Philadunkia
08/21/09 9:39 am EST

thadyoga Jameer Nelson and a number of other Orlando Magic players — including Vince, Rashard & JJ Redick — were in Philly this week for their annual “summer bonding camp” which is hosted by Nelson who as we all know is a Chester native. Some of the Sixers have been taking part in the conditioning workouts over at Summit Sports Training in Bryn Mawr with Nelson and his Orlando teammates. At left is a picture of Thaddeus Young gettin’ his yoga on with Nelson and the O-town crew.

In addition to the conditioning workouts this week, Louis Williams, Jason Smith and Thad have been teaming up with a host of other area NBA ballers (Hakim Warrick and Kyle Lowery to name two) and scrimmaging daily over at Haverford College vs. the Magic players in town for Nelson’s week long event. Another pic after the jump.

I STREAM, USTREAM, SIXERS STREAM

Posted by: Jeff McMenamin
08/19/09 10:34 am EST

iggytwit-copyII The newest generation of basketball players is in and to go along with their blogs and twitter feeds is now UStream. UStream is a site just like Skype that is used for video chats, but it is becoming hotter by the day among young NBA players. Kevin Durant, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Jason Thompson, Stephon Marbury, J.R. Smith, and Eddy Curry have all been users of the site as well as two very familiar faces to Philadunkia nation: Andre Iguodala and Lou Williams. I caught up with Andre Iguodala and Lou on their UStream broadcasts a couple nights ago. It was pretty entertaining and they were able to answer most of their fans questions as well as mine that were fed through the chat section of the video stream.

HOLY CHRISTMAS, PHI / NJ NOW 0-3

Posted by: Philadunkia
07/08/09 11:03 pm EST

speightssummerleague1 Despite 18 points from former Temple star Dionte Christmas, the 76ers and Nets combination team fell to 0-3 Wednesday night at the Orlando Pro Summer League after losing to the host Orlando Magic 108-86. The 108 points the Magic put up is an OPSL scoring record.

When talking about the lopsided loss and the giving up the OPSL scoring record the 76ers Marreese Speights commented, “We’re getting good work in. All we can do is come out tomorrow and get a win.”

A win sure would help to ease the painful memory of this embarrassing debacle.

	Elton Brand, PF 26 MIN \| 6-10 FG \| 1-1 FT \| 2 REB \| 1 AST \| 13 PTS \| -13 Only his solid run of play to open the 3rd kept Brand from getting a terrible grade. In the 3rd EB had a couple steals, a 3-point play, then scored 4 straight at one point and did a solid job guarding D12 for a stretch (although not as good of a job as he did on Jan. 30th). That stretch of solid play helped the Sixers cut the lead to 5, but Brand and the Sixers could not sustain that high level of play and the Magic pulled away again. Where has the EB of 2010-11 gone?
	Andre Iguodala, SF 35 MIN \| 6-14 FG \| 2-3 FT \| 5 REB \| 4 AST \| 15 PTS \| -13 Dre was invisible (4 pts.) during the 1st half and the Sixers can not afford for him to disappear in big games against superior opponents (on paper). Collins must have said the right things at half ’cause Dre cam out like gang busters and scored the 76ers first six points and 8 of their first 10. But that was it. He only scored 3 points the rest of the way. At what point will Dre — the leader of this team — learn that he can not simply “play well” for a small stretch in big games if the Sixers are to grab a win.
	Lavoy Allen, PF 13 MIN \| 1-3 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 5 REB \| 0 AST \| 2 PTS \| -9 Except for his solid defense on Howard for a brief period in the 3rd Q, he was a non-factor
	Jodie Meeks, G 26 MIN \| 2-7 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 3 REB \| 1 AST \| 5 PTS \| -13 The awful version of Capt. Streaky made the trip to Orlando. How much more proof do we need that Meeks is not a starting NBA two-guard?
	Jrue Holiday, PG 25 MIN \| 1-8 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 3 REB \| 5 AST \| 3 PTS \| -17 Arguably Jrue’s worst game of the year. Maybe in two years. Not only couldn’t he get it going offensively, Jrue also couldn’t come close to slowing down Jameer Nelson.
	Lou Williams, PG 32 MIN \| 7-13 FG \| 5-6 FT \| 4 REB \| 7 AST \| 21 PTS \| 0 Louis was Louis, but his shot selection killed us a couple time in this game. With Jrue strapped to the bench, LW’s inability to guard anyone on the Magic really came to the surface last night. However Louis was one of the few Sixers who showed up ready to play and his 11 first half points kept the Sixers alive in this one.
	Thaddeus Young, F 35 MIN \| 6-13 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 4 REB \| 3 AST \| 12 PTS \| -7 An overall solid game by Thad. Still, except for the series in the 3rd where he blocked D12′s shot and then streaked down the court for a lay-in at the other end, it was the quietest night Thad’s had in a while.
	Evan Turner, SG 26 MIN \| 2-7 FG \| 1-2 FT \| 8 REB \| 6 AST \| 6 PTS \| -5 Considering how deep in Doug’s doghouse ET has been of late, this was a solid outing for Turner. Although 2-7 on FGAs is not good. ET appeared to be looking for and avoiding D12 on every move he made to the basket.
	Nikola Vucevic, C 22 MIN \| 5-10 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 5 REB \| 0 AST \| 10 PTS \| -3 Big Nik came to play last night. In the first half he got off to a strong start by scoring 4 straight at one point and it should have been at least 6 as he was fouled on a dunk attempt and got no call. Along with Dre’s hot start, his solid second half was the only reason the Sixers managed to keep this one respectable. He showed some nice offensive moves overall. He also showed the ability to adjust in-game as Vuc did a much better job of guarding D12 in the 3rd and 4th quarters and even grabbed a couple steals from Superman.