Sixers Train on Track...Not at Destination

After watching the Sixers lose to the Knicks last night 85-79 at that hole in the wall known as Madison Square Garden, we learned a couple things about this young up and coming team. We learned that Spencer Hawes may be a bigger part of this team than previously thought, we learned that this team, as good as they have been, is still going to have to get used to playing in the spotlight, and we learned a good hard lesson that this is a league of Superstars and unless you have one, you may be out of luck.

You look up to a higher power, but we in Philadelphia look up to only one man... #00

The first one may have been the most obvious here, but the offense looked pretty disappointing without Spencer on the floor. The constant movement, pick and rolls and fluency of the offense just seemed to become null and void. I know you wouldn’t normally associate movement and fluency with the 7 ft Spencer Hawes, but he actually makes a big difference. His skill set allows him to set numerous screens, roll to the basket, or pop out for the open jump shot. He also makes a big difference on the boards. A couple more rebounds here and there, a couple more second chance point opportunities and possibly 6 or 8 more points that could have been possible. It also threw off our substitution rotation that had been working so well. Without Spencer, Battie had more minutes than he was used to, Vucevic was relied on too heavily, and we were forced to go to a lot of smaller lineups because we were tired. Hawes could have made a big difference.

The new 76ers may not be ready for the spotlight quite yet, but talk about a team that took advantage. (We really just needed Matt Geiger in a picture on the blog)

The second truth that we learned was that this was the biggest game of our early season, and we weren’t ready to show up. We looked nervous early and often which lead to a big first half deficit that we had to work too hard to pull ourselves out of. Even small things like our free throws were off last night. Usually, we hit FTs at a 72.4% clip, but last night we only hit 66.7%. We know that could be a lot of things including just a bad night or the wrong guys getting fouled, but it still bears repeating. We also did not have a field goal for almost the last half of the first quarter and Nikola Vucevic, a kid who has looked great in the early season, scored 0 points in 12 minutes off the bench. Vucevic has played so well for him to not score one bucket shows a lack of the offense and a lack of confidence in the big lights. These little things, to us, were a sign of nervousness in a young team who is still getting used to receiving some attention.

Now, before we start our rant on this last topic, we need to admit some things. Carmelo Anthony had a very good game. He took over in the second half, and after his jawing with Iguodala, was motivated and hit some big time shots with defense in his face. The other point we would like to admit is that we are not saying the Sixers cannot win without a superstar. We believe the team atmosphere can work and will work over time with this young team that is molding together. The only thing that will become evident is that it helps to have a superstar on your team.

They get the calls.

We have been civil and admitted some truths, and now it is time for the rant.

One of the major reasons that this team did not win last night was that the NBA is a league of Superstars, and Superstars get all the calls. Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire will be playing the role of our “superstars” in this rant. The superstars constantly got the 50/50 calls and that gave the Knicks the advantage they needed. Even on the technical foul, where Carmelo Anthony was acting like a baby because he did not get his normal foul call under the basket, he got bailed out by the official calling a DOUBLE TECHNICAL. WHAT DID ANDRE IGUODALA DO TO DESERVE A TECHNICAL? The last time we checked, you had every right to take a ball from the out of bounds position to check it in. However, the referees felt inclined to call a double technical because poor little Carmelo Anthony at his home in MSG couldn’t dare have acted alone. HE WAS PROVOKED. We also missed the new rule where you are allowed to be falling out of bounds and still call a timeout. Doug Collins and our new favorite color analyst, Malik Rose, were livid about this and for good reason.  The refs bailed out the Knicks (yet again) late in the game when they needed another possession. Oh and has anyone ever heard of a clear path foul? Oh, you have? WELL IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN CALLED LAST NIGHT. As Malik said, “They must have a different camera angle than we have.” The call was so obvious and the refls blew it. I mean, we probably would have missed one of the foul shots anyway, but you never know. Amare… well we actually like Amare Stoudemire and his wonderful frames, but on numerous occasions it was blatantly obvious that when he goes to the rack and gets bumped is much different than when Brand goes to the rim and gets pumped, or Vucevic, or Battie, it’s just different.  It is a league of superstars and of course they are going to get the extra calls, but when it happens to your team, it puts salt in the wounds. That is why we say that without a true superstar on the floor, the court will always be tilted in favor of the superstar.

Our new favorite thing. Thaddeus is the Janitor or as Malik's Niece pointed out... "Custodian"

Now a couple of good things to leave on.

1.     If it wasn’t for the surprise of the evening, Josh Harrellson, and his completely out of the ordinary 13 points, the Knicks wouldn’t have won. He has blown up on three occasions this season, but most of the games, his point total has ranged between 0-3 points.

2.     Lou Williams had an off night. Now this isn’t a good thing, but when was the last time our beloved LOUUUUU only dropped two points? Expect better from him in future match ups.

3.     No matter how much we scored, we still held the Knicks to 85 points. That is amazing. For a team of SUPERSTARS who average 95 points per game, consider that a big win for the team, regardless of it being a win or loss.

No matter what, in our eyes, relevancy in Sixers’ basketball is back, and it is exciting.