Magic @ Sixers 2/1/08

[tk76]

At fault or not- I'm sure this will stick in Ed's mind if he is on the fence about keeping Mo.

Two timeouts and you can't even free up someone- and only 2 players were even moving to get open?

[Wildfire]

Horrible drawn up play and horrible mistake by Miller to throw it into Dalembert.

I'd rather have Young take the shot than him.

Other than that it was a great game, Thad shows me something different every game (but his defense, especially on Turk, was extremely lackluster, he gets beat off of screens way too easily).

Nice to see Lou getting back on track as well.

[ryst]

and again , great play by Mo coming out of the time out

one would think that by the 756 time this season Mo will come out with a play that works for a change...but no

[dbodner]

Nice game by Thad, but we need him to grab more than 3 rebounds in 34 minutes. Really like his mid range game, though.

[tk76]

Sam- Decent game. Way to at least make Howard work for it.

Dala- Worst game in a while. His defensive foul trouble combined with bad jump shooting. You have to be able to blow by Hedo. Shooting pull ups against the taller, slower player plays into their hands.

Young- Way to handle heavy starters (34+) minutes. Very cool and productive in the clutch. Didn't exactly produce on the boards like a PF (really played like a 2nd SF)

Williams- Hopefully welcome back. Of course he got most of his pts blowing by a gimpy Jameer.

Miller- Fantastic game until two late misses and the inability to get the ball in.

Evans- 5/6 FTs'. Almost a double double in 20 min.

WG- Horrible shot selection returns- a contested pull up 22 ft jumper? Limitted minutes, good on drives/ back doors

[The Guilty Party]

This was the first time in a long time where I was upset that we lost. I miss feeling this way and long for the days when I can't stop thinking about draft position.

Yesterday I was saying I was cool with Mo getting an extension... tonight... I'm not cool with it.

The last two possessions by the Sixers were TERRIBLE and the fault solely goes on Mo.

The next to last possession we had, Mo called for Lou to iso at the top and go one on one. Lou did a decent job and got to within 12 feet of the rim but his shot was a fallaway runner which wasn't a great attempt. Why not give the ball to Miller and run an actual play rather than play streetball?

The last possession was an in-bounds play with just over 2 seconds left. He had Miller inbound the ball which Andre couldn't do on the first try and a timeout was used. After the timeout, Miller still couldn't find an open body and the Sixers never gained possesion from the pass hence we never even had a shot go up. By the way, if you re-watch this play, Dwight Howard gets the ball with a little over a second left and starts walking around with the ball as though the game was over. Where was the traveling call??? I think everyone was in shock but it was still a travel.

Mo does a great job of getting these guys to play hard but he really would be better served as an assistant coach than a head coach. The "ra ra" stuff is cool for now when we don't care about winning but these sorts of things are going to be crucial in the coming years when we are playing for something.

[The Sixer Fixer]

By the way, if you re-watch this play, Dwight Howard gets the ball with a little over a second left and starts walking around with the ball as though the game was over. Where was the traveling call??? I think everyone was in shock but it was still a travel.

Funny you mentioned that. When I saw it live, I too thought it was a travel. Then I went back to the replay and did slow motion on it and it was actually a clean play. He got the ball, took 1 dribble, then took two steps and you could see the shot clock in the background and it went to zero just before he took that 3rd step. It was a legit play. Even though it wasn't his intent - clearly he thought the clock had expired before he picked up the ball - it was still a good call. I watched it a few times.

Also, I blame the inability to get the ball in on the 4 guys on the court. No one was making any hard cuts or trying to use a screen or anything. Miller had a change to get it to Iguodala and passed that up too. I can't imagine Mo said "ok, everyone stand around and don't really try to get open..." I put the blame of that on the players...especially after they didn't look like they tried to get open on the first attempt either. Maybe the call in the huddle was...turn it over, we can't risk winning this game...

[The Guilty Party]

Wait, doesn't the two step rule only apply if he is driving to the basket and not just walking and dribbling? Am I wrong here on this basic rule??

I agree that the 4 guys didn't do a great job of getting open but isn't that on Mo for not having an in-bounds play that frees someone up?? Obviously Mo can call the play and if it's not executed properly it's not his fault but Mo knew the team was having problems getting open since Miller had to call a 20 second timeout just before the final play.

I don't know... it's a frustrating loss.

[The Sixer Fixer]

I don't know... it's a frustrating loss.

I think the 2 step rule applys under any situation. Once you pick up the dribble you get 2 steps no matter where you are. at that point, you either need to shoot or pass....since the clock ran out after the 2nd step, it was irrelevant. At least that's how I saw it.

Personally, I wasn't real unhappy with the loss. Since we are playing for the lottery (i don't want the 8th seed), I would rather see the loss. Honestly, I saw this game as a win anyhow. We showed we can hang with one of the better teams in the East. Even though it's not a win in the standing, it's a win to me in that it shows the competitiveness of this team. I really think if we had a real good PF (I know that's not easy to find), this team could be good enough for about the 4 seed in the East

[The Guilty Party]

I appreciate that Memphis' GM has at least shown his fanbase what this season is all about: playing the young guys, freeing up cap space, and getting the best pick possible in the draft.

Billy King didn't seem to have a direction since he not only wanted us to play the young guys but he wanted to keep Andre Miller and remain competitive. Stefanski said all of the right things when he was hired but now seems to be falling into the same trap that King did and for that, we may now enter the off-season with decent cap space but max contract type money and we may once again end up at the bottom of the lottery.

[SOUL]

By the way, I think your team is on the rise. Lou Williams is gonna be a great player, Andre is very solid and you guys seem to play hard each night.. a great player isn't guaranteed in the draft (and if they are good, it may take a while) just my 2 cents, I think you guys can make the playoffs this year or next year and it'll be a good experience.

[SendEm]

Iggy coming up small against the major competition in the league at his position looks like his MO. He got into foul trouble at the beginning of this game just like against Lebron. Iggy could not guard Hedo nor score on him. Iggy lost us this game by coming up so small and sending Hedo to the free throw line when the game was tied. Please Stephanski do not lock us into this player for major money, no more than $8 million average.

[tk76]

Iguodala had a game that was well below the standards of his recent games. The rest of the team picked him up and played well. He needs to learn to be more effective against Hedo.

I was happy to see Lou a bit more effective at drawing contact and finishing inside- even against a team with a shotblocker like Howard.

Overall, an extremely entertaining 47:30. Its hard to shake off that last 30 sec.