Official Game Thread: Nets 95 Sixers 84 Final

[rag-time4]

Swift had the worst +/- of the bench players with a -9, but seemd to have a pretty good game. Of the 76ers 15 offensive rebounds, only 2 came with Swift on the court.

[rag-time4]

Good wire to wire win.

I wasn't big at all on Frank going with Swift over Lopez towards the end and it literally almost cost us.

Was Swift doing or not doing something that you didn't like? What did he do wrong in this game? It seemed he didn't get many touches, but he was pretty effective when he got the ball and seemed to provide a presence in the paint...

[tidbit]

lpz blocked 3 and Yi blked 2.

Simmons played solid game, make 3 3pts.

VC as the captain, struggled a lot in offense, but he well organized the game.

[VCRJKidd15]

your obsession with Swift is not even funny...Are you Stromile Swift?

[DrM]

Some of LFrank's substitution does not make sense.

With 1.5 min left and we're leading by 7, why took our young guy out (in this case,Yi) in favor of Simmons? Yi has been doing a decent defensive job tonight. Leave him in to learn to play in clutch time. What do you have to gain by playing Simmons? I would complain less if LFrank put in another young guy.

Yi is taking more inside shots. But he has to use his quickness to attack the rim more, even if he's not very good at finishing around the rim yet. He doesn't get better at it without practice doing it. And he may get fouled which is fine because he's a good foul shooter (and it also gets your oppoent into foul trouble). He is starting to let to game come to him and not pressing. His turnover is low and his shot selection is steadily getting better. His shooting percentage has been good so his overage shooting average is steadily climbing. Likewise for his defense in the zone. (Although there were 3+ times a Phily slipped through the zone and the team collectively missed covering the backdoor guy.)

[Da big3]

why don't we have a chatroom during games instead of posting like this?

http://www.lhcw.net/RealGM

I just set one up temporarily, I think this is a good idea during game nights. Faster responses and can follow the game/chat better.

ok im down with this...

[NetsForce]

I'm really surprised at how bad Dalembert is now. It seems like a lot of players have inexplicably regressed this season, Dalembert, Tyson Chandler (although he better pick it up since I traded for him in fantasy), etc.

[etopn23]

No one would of expected us to beat Philly before the season started. My how times have changed 8D.

[gamer4Life]

Yi played as a C in the 4th quarter.
and in the last 2Mins, Net put 5 guards on the court...

what's Frank thinking?

Good free throw shooting and dribbling away from fouls.

[vincecarter4pres]

Good wire to wire win.

I wasn't big at all on Frank going with Swift over Lopez towards the end and it literally almost cost us.

Was Swift doing or not doing something that you didn't like? What did he do wrong in this game? It seemed he didn't get many touches, but he was pretty effective when he got the ball and seemed to provide a presence in the paint...

Well the 1st time Frank put him in, he was solid.
Played good defense and didn't force anything on offense.
He had a dunk, off I believe a VC alley oop.
Actually reposted once and kicked one out of the post for a three.(I don't remember if the shooter made it)
But towards the end, in the late 4th, Opie had him back in and he played some terrible man D on one posession and then played horrific help-side D on 2 other possesions.
The one where he played man on man, he gave up an easy score.
The 2 that he came on helpside were bad as well.
I believe it was VC that purposely funneled Andre Miller into Swift, with Swift coming over on time and well aware what was going on, force the shorter guard into a difficult if not blocked shot by forcing him to try a hard layup over a supposedly good weak-side shot blocker.
What did Swift do?
Intentionally fouled Miller, not even any true effort to defend or block the shot. Nope. Just jumped up and grabbed him.
The second time(well actually the 1st, but the 2nd one I am explaining)He did basically the same thing, but instead of at least fouling and making him earn it at the stripe, he literally just watched him lay it in(although I want to say it was Iggy on that one). I believe after this bucket is when they literally started going at Swift.
The game was still very close at this point and was definitley not a Nets win at this point.
I want to say he missed a layup off an offensive rebound as well, right during this time frame.

[rag-time4]

Good wire to wire win.

I wasn't big at all on Frank going with Swift over Lopez towards the end and it literally almost cost us.

Was Swift doing or not doing something that you didn't like? What did he do wrong in this game? It seemed he didn't get many touches, but he was pretty effective when he got the ball and seemed to provide a presence in the paint...

Well the 1st time Frank put him in, he was solid.
Played good defense and didn't force anything on offense.
He had a dunk, off I believe a VC alley oop.
Actually reposted once and kicked one out of the post for a three.(I don't remember if the shooter made it)
But towards the end, in the late 4th, Opie had him back in and he played some terrible man D on one posession and then played horrific help-side D on 2 other possesions.
The one where he played man on man, he gave up an easy score.
The 2 that he came on helpside were bad as well.
I believe it was VC that purposely funneled Andre Miller into Swift, with Swift coming over on time and well aware what was going on, force the shorter guard into a difficult if not blocked shot by forcing him to try a hard layup over a supposedly good weak-side shot blocker.
What did Swift do?
Intentionally fouled Miller, not even any true effort to defend or block the shot. Nope. Just jumped up and grabbed him.
The second time(well actually the 1st, but the 2nd one I am explaining)He did basically the same thing, but instead of at least fouling and making him earn it at the stripe, he literally just watched him lay it in(although I want to say it was Iggy on that one). I believe after this bucket is when they literally started going at Swift.
The game was still very close at this point and was definitley not a Nets win at this point.
I want to say he missed a layup off an offensive rebound as well, right during this time frame.

That's crazy if that's what happened. Wonder what that's all about (with regard to those two defensive plays)

As for the missed layup, the gamechannel on yahoo says he missed a tip in and a follow up layup on the same sequence, which were his only missed shots of the game.

[tidbit]

Swift had a sparkle on his pan at the beginning.
But he is a role player, with a FT less than 60%.
it's coach's right to put somebody on or off the court.

[rag-time4]

Swift had a sparkle on his pan at the beginning.
But he is a role player, with a FT less than 60%.
it's coach's right to put somebody on or off the court.

Swift's career FT percentage is 70%, the same as Scottie Pippen

he's been missing 1 a game this season but he's still getting into the flow.

[pennyliu123]

I've seen Swift playing in Houston for a season, he is just not a very good player, he can dunk, but dunking is his only stable scoring method, he doesn't shoot, rebound, or defend well, or I should say his basketball IQ is very fair...but he can be a bench player, as he is in the Nets.

[Adam1221]

Nice nice win (not using sexy anymore because it did indeed got old).
Harris is an all star, if he misses the game this year the league should be ashamed of itself.
Vince is a leader, even when he doesnt score he still lead's by example he did an excellent job on the boards and had some beutiful assits.
Yi can be sooooo good really this kid has sooo much talent, Im very optimistic with this guy.

Dear god this team has surprised just about everyone, no one in their right mind would have predicted that we'll be here talking about how we beat the 76ers after we already beat the Suns,Jazz,Pistons and the Hawks (twice) and how we're 3 games above 500 as a fan I cannot be happier this really feels like a weird dream.

Its soo much nicer to have a redicolously overacheiving mediocre team than to have a team that's supposed to be title contenders but are in reality nothing more than big under-acheiver's.

[Birth of the Cool]

I'm getting less moments of frustration when watching this team. They are either getting better or Wolves / Sixers are just getting worse.

There seems to be less 'panic' (not sure if that's the right word in this context) when the game gets tight. The players seem to still play really cool under these circumstances lately (at least that's the impression I get).

Vince was really passive on looking for his own scoring opportunities & had one perplexing super long distance 3 shot attempt (pretty sure shotclock wasn't winding down...hrm) and has looked for the 3 a bit too much the last few games but he still almost had triple double & continues to show he has the best passing instincts/vision on this team, game in/game out finding excellent scoring opportunities for his teammates. He also has the most active defensive hands on this team.

Devin being Devin. Flu like symptoms...no problem. Only Nets who consistently gets to the line & racks up fouls on opposing players.

Throwing the ball more into the post lately for Lopez which is great. They need to have more balance in their offense and they have been heading in that direction.

They threw the ball into Yi a few times in the post too which is great. He has a traditional game in the post which I guess is Ok to develop but with his shooting ability, dribbling & speed (for a big) he could make it so much more difficult for defenses if he played like Bosh & immediately faced up his man once he gets the ball in the low block - defender will have to make bad/difficult decisions then.
Not sure which was prettier, Yi's putback dunk or the Swift alley-oop - but yeah...nice.

Simmons is starting to find his groove. Really all he has to do is play good D & hit those open corner perimeter shots, anything else is gravy. If he gets into a rhythm out there this could be lights out for opposing defenses.

I have no idea how Anderson get's those 3's in...the shooting form almost looks like he's pushing the ball towards the rim but hey it's working.

Nets now 6th in the Eastern Conference. They have the 4th best record in the East the last 10 games (only expected heavyweights Boston, Cleveland & Orlando have a better record last 10 games).
Nets have the 2nd best road record in the East (behind Boston). 2nd in the Atlantic.

Miami too is a surprise for me. I knew Wade would have monster #'s this year but they are playing better as of late.

Only negative I take out of this game is the Nets are starting to settle for the 3's last few games. It's great they are knocking them down & this team does have shooters all over the place and Devin/VC are creating open looks (guess that's the key) but I think they need to mix it up more but right now it's a small complaint since many of the looks are open one's...

EDIT: for Boxing fans - Pacquiao destroyed De La Hoya. While I was for Pac-Man I have watched DLH for years (since Ike fight) and don't really understand the 'hate' for the guy. He's done a lot for boxing & the last few rounds I was cringing for him having to take this punishment & humiliation - respect to both fighters but one is in his prime and p4p best & most exciting in the game (which boxing desperately needs) & the other has had his best days behind him but they were great days.

[TheGrowth]

The Nets are currently 5th in the East btw

[rag-time4]

I've seen Swift playing in Houston for a season, he is just not a very good player, he can dunk, but dunking is his only stable scoring method, he doesn't shoot, rebound, or defend well, or I should say his basketball IQ is very fair...but he can be a bench player, as he is in the Nets.

I saw Swift in Houston too, and I thought he was a perfect complement to Yao on both ends of the court. Unlike Juwan Howard, Swift was able to help Yao play defense in the paint. Swift had a down year in blocking shots, but a big part of that was due to the Rocket's terrible perimeter defense. David Wesley and Luther Head got big minutes at SG, but were too small to play any kind of effective defense and often surrendered high shooting percentages as opposing guards easily shot right over them.

Remember that during that season, Yao, Mutombo, and McGrady all missed significant time, and Swift himself missed nearly 20 games. The Rockets leaders in minutes played that season were Juwan Howard, Rafer Alston, Davis Wesley, and Luther Head. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2006.html

As far as his scoring methods go.... He has the moves of a SF but is often used as a post up player against bigger defenders, which doesn't play to his strengths. When he's matched up with equal or smaller sized opponents, he can be dominant in the post, but this is usually not the case because he's usually smaller than the guy he's matched up with. One move that Swift is very consistent with is his stepback jumper, which is a move that big men can't usually do.

[pennyliu123]

I've seen Swift playing in Houston for a season, he is just not a very good player, he can dunk, but dunking is his only stable scoring method, he doesn't shoot, rebound, or defend well, or I should say his basketball IQ is very fair...but he can be a bench player, as he is in the Nets.

I saw Swift in Houston too, and I thought he was a perfect complement to Yao on both ends of the court. Unlike Juwan Howard, Swift was able to help Yao play defense in the paint. Swift had a down year in blocking shots, but a big part of that was due to the Rocket's terrible perimeter defense. David Wesley and Luther Head got big minutes at SG, but were too small to play any kind of effective defense and often surrendered high shooting percentages as opposing guards easily shot right over them.

Remember that during that season, Yao, Mutombo, and McGrady all missed significant time, and Swift himself missed nearly 20 games. The Rockets leaders in minutes played that season were Juwan Howard, Rafer Alston, Davis Wesley, and Luther Head. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2006.html

As far as his scoring methods go.... He has the moves of a SF but is often used as a post up player against bigger defenders, which doesn't play to his strengths. When he's matched up with equal or smaller sized opponents, he can be dominant in the post, but this is usually not the case because he's usually smaller than the guy he's matched up with. One move that Swift is very consistent with is his stepback jumper, which is a move that big men can't usually do.

Hmm... if Swift is so good, he will not be traded back to Memphis, and then to the Nets(am I correct? ), and now very likely to be traded again, I think, he is just not so good as a starter, but he can be a bench player, that's why he is always being traded...

Anyway, I can see that you like him very much, that's your opinion, and I respect it.

[G_MoNeY]

Swift > Sean Williams

Granted Swift has been playing longer, but he just has more to his game thus far. Williams isn't even making an impact defensively when he's on the court and he's turning the ball over frequently. I actually think Swift could be a nice role player off the bench for us this season, but he'll likely be traded at the deadline because of his expiring.

Swift has better hands, more of an offensive game, better rebounder, and probably even a better shot blocker when it comes to consistency. Williams just looks lost out there, whether it be the system or his IQ. Swift deserves the playing time right now.