Instant Korver for the win ... It's GOOD!

76ers Top Pacers 89-88 in Waning Moments  As I was saying yesterday, the Sixers finishing games in the 4th quarter is a trend we can get use to seeing. Kyle Korver takes the pass from AI, makes a move to get some space and hits the fade away jumper with 6.5 second left in the game. The Pacers failed to score and the Sixers win their fourth home game in a row.

I called Korver to task about his play in the fourth period. It seems that he's taken it to heart. Now here's a challenge for the rest of the team. There are nine more games before the All-Star break. With a nice run, we could be the front runner in the Atlantic Division. Hey I know its not much, but a play-off berth is a play-off berth!

76ers beat Mavericks without AI

Sixers 93 Mavericks 89

The Sixers pull of an improbable win against the Dallas Mavs on the road without Allen Iverson. The wounded warrior reported for the shoot around Saturday, but Coach O'Brien held him out for the 3rd straight game.
So Johnny Salmons fulfills the scoring role in the first half and Kyle Korver plays the spoiler in the decisive 4th period. Instant Korver has been very good from 3 point range and has improved his rebounding and defense to garner the starting role as of late. But I have been less than pleased with his play in the final stanza. He is much more tentative with his shot and has turned the ball over on occasion. I'm not saying the his play alone 'lost' a game, but it mirrors the team's play and has cost them a winning record at this point in the season ... It's not what winning teams do.
But they win in Dallas. That can happen on any given nite. I would have traded that win for a winning road trip. I would have preferred a win against the wizards when they started the fourth with a lead, but turned the ball over 5 times before they could score a bucket.(L 117-107 @Washington). I would have preferred a win in New Orleans instead of an O.T. loss to the worst team in the league ( L 99-95 (OT) @ New Orleans).
Still the Dallas win was characteristic of a good team on the road. The Sixers got a lead in the 1st half and kept pace for the remainder of the game. That's a trend we can get used to seeing.

Wilkens Resigns As Head Coach Of Knicks

Well that's two head coaches down this season. Amazingly the average number of new head coaching positions each year is better than 3. Who will be next? There are many who will tell you that the game had passed Lenny Wilkens by sometime ago. You have to respect his 30 plus years, NBA Championship, and Hall of Fame honors. But his last two teams were under performers. We know that personnel has a lot more to do with poor teams than is generally recognized. But the Raptors flat out stunk. The Knicks flat out stink.

I hope Lenny finally retires and learns to live the good life outside of basketball. He deserves it.

Magic Edge Out Sixers

Magic 115 76ers 111 - The Sixers fail to secure the win. This was the kind of game good teams win. They came back and lead by 6 in the final minutes. But ... a turnover here ... a missed steal (leaving everyone out of position) ... and second chance points (that rebounding thing again). I can't give Orlando any credit for winning this game. The Sixers gave it away.

What Evil Lurks out ahead in the Darkness?

Could it be labor strife for the NBA? A recent article in the Sunday paper and the frequent courtside attendance of Ed Schneider, the Chairman of the Philadelphia Flyers and Sixers, got me really thinkin' how easily the NBA could be heading for a quagmire like the National Hockey League. The NBA is far more popular than Hockey, but the fact is a new collective bargaining agreement must be negotiated (or the current CBA can be extended) and some of the same issues are the table.

I'm talking about the cap. The NBA pioneered the idea of a ceiling for how much a team can spend on players. The goal is to level the playing field and spur competition. Thus avoiding the scenarios where a large market teams with deep pockets can buy a championship (Yes were talking Yankees here). Okay everybody has heard of the salary cap. So the hockey players are saying "we don't want no stinkin' cap, ah". Why? It puts a limit on the salary pool. But does it? That depends whether you talkin' about a hard cap or a soft cap.

The NBA salary cap is $43.87 million this year. A team with say an Allen Iverson who makes $20+mill a year should be pretty strapped, right. Well not exactly. The Sixers payroll is $70 million. The Knicks payroll is $103 million (huh!). So after closer inspection we realize that the NBA has a "Soft" cap. Which means there are "exceptions" to the rule. These exceptions were designed to allow players to stay with their current team. To address the player disloyalty fact common in baseball. You can exceed the cap to sign your own players when they become free agents. The "Larry Bird" exception is a little more complicated that, but that the jest of it. There are other exceptions also and a luxury Tax. The luxury Tax allows a team to exceed the soft cap if they are willing to pay for exceeding the cap dollar for dollar.

So NBA owners can suffer the fate of the NHL and spend themselves into the poor house trying to be competitive. Houston we have a problem. But that's not my concern as a fan. The real issue that has a strangle hold on competition is the guaranteed contact. Exhibit "A" Bigg Dogg. A player that can't play or won't play or doesn't fit your team earning big bucks for several years ... Guaranteed!

The players union will covet such contracts. GM's fear it. We fans HATE IT! In a year that may find the NHL season canceled. The NBA could fall prey to the same issues.

What evil lurks on the horizon? See (NBA Salary Cap FAQ) for more info than you every want to know about the cap.

SIXERS: Jolovitz: If AI = Batman; then Robin = ?

I think Paul Jolovitz secretly reads my blog for article ideas. He's making the same point I did on Dec. 7th! Talk to me Paul!

Cheeks talks about future in coaching

Mo Cheeks is one of my favorite Sixers of all time (Its just a coincidence that all my favorite Sixers played on the '82 Championship Team). Quiet ... Steady ... played within himself and the perfect point guard mentality.
Still I had to wonder how that quiet demeanor would play as an NBA coach. 3 and half years later, Mo has a winning record, but there's grumbling in Portland. He has yet to win a playoff series with the Blazers. And this years model may not make it to the playoff. So they're talking about letting Cheeks go. I am sure Mo knows the drill to well by now. Every NBA coach gets fired. You can't fire the players. Heck you can't even trade some players! If he is fired it will hardly be his fault. He's in a pretty tough division and I am sure GM John Nash should be shouldering some of the blame. Nash, an assistant GM with the Sixers during the glory days, is clueless IMHO. The Wizards stunk when he was there and Portland seems non the better during his tenure.
Mo's contract may not get renewed at the end of the season, but that may open up a better opportunity. But it doesn't appear to be as a head coach in Philly. Despite Monday's loss to the Bad-News-Blazers, O'Brien appears to be on solid footing. How tough can it be? The division leader is only 1 game above 500.

Hey Check this out - the NBA.com Blog

Banged up Iverson watches as Sixers fall

I hadn't attended a game in about a month. Primarily because there were few home games as the Sixers west coast death march preceded the holidays. But the specter of inconsistent play was the same as the last game I attended. Are they going to start fast and drop off in the fourth period? Perhaps tonite they would play poorly for most of the game and come storming back in the end to win or at least make the final score look competitive.

It was the latter on this nite. The Sixers were down big to a team they recently beat on the road. Coach took AI out of the game. Resting his hobbled star to play another day. So as the script plays out. The Sixers make a feverish charge. But AI would not return. Coaches decision. AI made public his disappointment in not returning. What's this? AI and controversy? The media salivates. Coach has been remarkable so far in deflecting controversy in this up and down season. My guess is this will go away. Particularly if he can figure out how to make his troupe more consistent.









Banged up Iverson watches as Sixers fall (phillyBurbs.com)

Wolves Hang On to Beat Philly

Dateline: Minneapolis, St. Paul
By all accounts, a 2 point game with 25 seconds left in Minnesota, against a team that decimated them at home 119-84 is a great effort. To do it without AI certainly has to be considered a great effort! I scanned through today's NBA stats just to give you an idea of how great an effort it was. Consider this;
AI ranks #1 in Points Per Game (28.9)
AI ranks #7 in Assists Per Game (7.2)
AI ranks #4 in Steals Per Game (2.37)
AI ranks #2 in Minutes per Game (41.7)
AI ranks #5 in Free throws Attempted (302)
AI ranks #11 in Effenciency (22.53)
AI ranks #2 in Turnovers Per Game (4.27)
Okay, I know "Efficiency" is a strange one for ya. The Efficiency Formula:
((PTS + REB + AST + STL + BLK) - ((FGA - FGM) + (FTA - FTM) + TO)) / G
Where did that one come from? Hockey is my guess. The turnover stat may explain some things. Interesting enuff Kobie leads the NBA in that category.

The Sixers finish their west coast death march 5-3, 15-17 overall, 1 game in back of the Atlantic leading Knicks in a division that someone has to win (or so we are told). So all things considered a 89-84 loss to the Timberwolves ain't that bad.

NBA.com: Late Spurt Carries Sixers Past Warriors

Check out the cool Nats retro Jerseys. The colors look pretty hip for 1955. It think they took a few liberties with the retro uniform. What would Dolph Schayes think?

Here's the magic formula. Score 100 points and the 76ers win. Could it be that simple? Maybe. Case in point, the 76ers have won only 3 games when scoring less that 100. But how do you get there? (AI:35)+(???:15)+(???:15)+(All others:35). Against Golden State it was (AI:29)+(Iggy:19)+(K.Thomas:19). To eclipse the 100 point plateau, we need AI to average over 20 and 4 others averaging in double digits.

Anyhow, the 4-2 record so far on this 8 game road trip means at least .500. Which has to be considered a good trip. It would be nice to steal one in Utah or Minnesota to make up for that Denver game. Sixers 112 Warriors 104

Nuggets Snap Streak

Nuggets 97, 76ers 92 - Several streaks were broken in Denver on New Year's Eve. On the positive side, if you're a Nugget fan, it was the 6 game losing streak, the return of Carmello Anthony and the start of the Michael Cooper era. On the Negative side, if you're a Sixers fan, it was a 5 game road win streak, it was 8 games scoring over 100, it was a chance to even thier record at.500. The Sixers lost a close game that started off badly. They came roaring back to lead going into the 4th period and then gave it up to a bad team in the closing minutes. A great team would have won the game. A good team might have won it. The Sixers didn't win it. The road trip continues ...