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…

 
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Last night’s loss at Toronto was one hell of a roller coaster ride for the 76ers (full game recap coming) and no player better exemplified the drastic up and down night it was for Philadunkia’s home team then Louis Williams. 

Louis scored 26 points against the Raptors last night on 9-13 shooting.  Twenty -two of those points came in the second half and were key to the Sixers ability to comeback from a 23 point deficit and tie the game at 93-93.  At one point in the 3rd Q, Louis scored 10 straight points for the Sixers.  Amazingly enough, he accomplished the same scoring feat in the 4th quarter. 

But as we said above, along with the high moments Louis displayed last night there also came so lows.  Unfortunately for the Sixers those ill-advised plays by Louis came with less the two minutes to play in a close game; a.k.a. ”clutch time”.  Well some Sixers fans didn’t take to kindly to Louis’ decision making down the stretch and hit Twitter to express their frustrations.  As everyone in Philadunkia nation knows, #23 is an avid Twitter fan, and Louis fired back through his TeamLou23 account.

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This snow bound Wednesday 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 Toronto Raptors (28-23) who having won 7 of their last 8, are just as hot as the 76ers right now. 

Thanks to their five game winning streak the Sixers are riding so high right now that they probably could have flown to Toronto on Tuesday night after their rout of Minnesota without a plane.  But make no mistake, the Raptors are not the Minnesota Timberwolves.  In fact if we’re totally honest, we unfortunately have to admit that the Sixers have only a slim chance to win this game tonight and extend their streak to six games.  Here’s why… 

Forget for a second that the Raptors are on a hot streak right now and playing some of their best ball of the year.  If you break this game down by personnel, Toronto presents some serious match-up problems for the Sixers.  With Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani they have bigs that are tough to handle from multiple locations on the floor.  CB4 (29, 9 & 6) and Bargnani (23 & 6) absolutely crushed the Sixers back in early January.  As a bonus, Bosh has been virtually unstoppable of late.  Over the past six games, the All-Star is averaging 28 points and 14 rebounds per run. Our old nemesis Hedo Turkoglu will be raining threes.  Jose Calderon and Jarrett Jack provide a nice 1-2 punch at the point and they will shred the ole’ defense of Louis and Willie Green.  Rookie DeMar DeRozen is a sick athlete who can get up and down the floor with Calderon or Jack to finish on the break.  Last but not least, the Raptors bench is solid and when they’re on, they can be almost dangerous. 

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That’s right the 76ers (18-31) have won three straight for the first time during the 2009-10 season.  We’d be happier about the W if it weren’t for two things: The first is that the Hornets were missing two starters last night (Chris Paul & Marcus Thornton).  The second is the idea that this win streak will probably save Eddie Jordan’s job.  Still a win is a win as they say, and with all the trade rumors circulating around Philadunkia’s home team right now it’s good to see that the Sixers players are still focused on playing hard and winning. 

Credit this win to the 76ers bench.  Led by Thaddeus Young’s 19 points, the Sixers reserves provided a significant boost last night after the first-five seemed to be lacking some energy and their shooting touch.  Starters Elton Brand (5-13 on FGA; 6 TOs), Andre Iguodala (6-15 on FGA) and Sammy Dalembert (2-6 on FGA) all struggled out of the gate, so the bench received extended minutes early on last night and the result was 30 points in the first half (50 points overall) from the Sixers reserves.  On paper should have been a blow out win by the Sixers, and basically the subs bailed out the starters and the head coach in this one.

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Philadunkia nation, that’s not a misprint.  Former 76ers point man Andre Miller lit up the Dallas Mavericks for 52 points last night and led the Portland Trailblazers to a 114-112 win in Dallas.  Miller who missed his first shot of the night was 22 of 31 from the floor and 7 out of 8 from the charity stripe.  Nearly half (25 points) of Miller’s scoring out-burst came during the fourth quarter and overtime periods.  ‘Dre scored the Blazers last nine points in regulation including the game tying bucket, a floating hook shot, with 14 ticks left.

As we all remember, 76ers GM Ed Stefanski decided against resigning Miller in July 2009 and cited the fact that he didn’t want to commit the years and money Miller was looking for on a soon to be 33-year old point guard.  Stefanski also noted that the organization felt it was time to give Sixer combo-guard Louis Williams a chance to start for the team at the point.  The Blazers gave Miller a 3-year, $21 million deal in which the first two years are guaranteed.  For Portland that was money well spent as Miller is averaging 13 points and 5 dimes a night and has been key in directing a team filled with young talent. 

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We have to give the 76ers (15-31) credit, for the most part, they played decently and hung tough last night against the defending World Champions and that was something we did not expect.  In fact we dare to say that if the Sixers could have taken better care of the rock (20 turnovers) and gotten a few more stops on the defensive end down the stretch, that they could have pulled off a major upset in front of the packed house down at the Wachovia Center.

But the reality is that the Sixers could not get those key stops especially against Kobe in the 3^rd quarter and that was enough to lead the seemingly disinterested Lakers to a 99-91 W last night.  Kobe who only had two points after two quarters of play was simply amazing to watch after halftime.  “The Black Mamba” went bananas in the 3^rd quarter (14 points), scored 22 total in the second half and threw in some lock-down defense as well to secure the victory for LA.

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Obviously there are numerous trade rumors floating around the NBA involving just about everyone on the Sixers roster.  That’s how it goes in the NBA when you are a seriously underachieving team.  Now Ed Stefanski has publicly stated there are, “no untouchables” on the Sixers roster.

Dei Lynam at csnphilly.com writes that so many changes — trades, coaching move, a new GM — could hapeen with the Sixers in the next couple of weeks, that it’s hard to see what the future holds for the 76ers.

Kate Fagan of the Inqy, the only mainstream writer who has been critical of Eddie Jordan and the 76ers this season notes that based on the body actions and facial expressions she observed in the latest Sixers loss, that the team mentally “checked out” during the Milwaukee game.

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When you look at the list of issues the 76ers (15-30) had to overcome last night to have a chance at tying their game vs. Milwaukee with :08 left on the clock, you’ll realize it’s a stinking miracle they were able to stay in the game that long. 

Despite a very sloppy 1^st quarter, questionable personnel decisions by Eddie Jordan, a poor shooting night by Andre Iguodala (4-11; 1-5 on 3PA) and Allen Iverson (3-10), Jrue Holiday’s first bad night in forever, 18 turnovers and horrid three point shooting (2-14 for 14.3%); the Sixers somehow managed to keep this game close and had a chance to tie or win on their final possession.  That’s when the final knockout blow was delivered to the Sixers hopes of winning this game and it came in the form of an Elton Brand missed bunny.  

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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 improving Milwaukee Bucks who recently signed former Sixer Jerry Stackhouse. 

We’re not really sure what to say about the 76ers game against the Milwaukee Bucks (18-25) tonight.  On one hand, the Sixers recently beat a very good, but road weary Dallas Mavericks squad.  On the other hand, one could argue that the Sixers last two loses — @ Minnesota and vs. Indiana — were the two most disturbing Ls of the 2009-10 season. 

In addition to the Sixers inconsistent play, Milwaukee is a much different team since we beat them 99-86 back in October.  Obviously All-Star Michael Redd is out for the season now, but thanks to the play of Rookie of the Year candidate Brandon Jennings and big man Andrew Bogut, who has been playing out of his mind of late, the Bucks have not fallen off.  In fact during the month of January the Bucks have been playing some of their best ball and it’s come against the NBA’s elite teams.  The problem for MIL is that because of the recent level of competition they have faced, the improved play still has produced mostly gut wrenching loses.     

So the Sixers play continues to be inconsistent, they should be pissed-off about Monday’s terrible L to Indiana and they’ve had a day off.  Mean while the Bucks are an improving team, but one that suffered a heartbreaking loss at Dallas last night and should be tired. Vegas has installed the Bucks as a 3.5 point favorite which means this is an even match-up if the game was played on a neutral floor.  We’re looking at a coin toss here…Sixers.  One last point, if Jrue Holiday does not guard Brandon Jennings for the bulk of the night, Jennings puts up 40.   

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. 

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We stated in our “Fo’ with the Foes” preview of last night’s game against Indiana that even if the 76ers were to defeat the Pacers and thus grab their first 3-game winning streak of the season, we still were not going to believe that this team had changed and was finally set to turn this season around.  So the fact that the Sixers lost Monday night to an absolutely terrible Pacers team and did so in ways that have plagued them all year, only further proved that we were correct in raising the white flag on the 2009-10 season last week.

The 76ers blew an 11-point second quarter lead and suffered just an inexcusable loss (Their second in the last four games by the way.) thanks to the usual suspects – horrific defense, questionable coaching decisions and poor shot selection / shooting.

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