everything philadelphia sports: 2010-01-10

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Friday, January 15, 2010

The Sixers welcomed the Sacramento Kings and local product Tyreke Evans to the Wachovia center tonight. The last time these two teams met at Sacremento the Kings were without ,the sensational rookie, Evans and the Sixers amped up the defense and won easily. Tonight even with Evans back in the lineup, it was more of the same for the home team, as the Sixer's put together perhaps their best defensive effort of the season thus far. They held the Kings to just 37% shooting from the field, forced them into 19 turnovers, and did a very good job not allowing Evans the opportunity to take the game over. In fact he spent most of the night frustrated by the Sixer's defense and yet somehow, mostly from the free throw line, still scored 14 which just shows how good he is. I think most importantly for the Sixer's defense, though was the final tally of points for the Sacramento, which just 86. Yes that's right the Sixers actually held a team under 90 for the just 4th time this season. For a team that's been struggling to hold leads, ratcheting up the defense down the stretch is certainly one obvious remedy to their problems and I would like to see more of it please. Owing to their solid defense the Sixers led virtually the entire game, 7 after the 1st quarter, 2 at the half, and 3 heading into the 4th quarter. Normally that's where things would have gone horribly wrong. Not this time. The Kings did come back to tie the game, but there was no panic in the Sixer's on this night. Thanks to clutch shooting by Elton Brand, and clutch rebounding by the still heavy hearted Sammy Dalembert, the Sixers built their lead back up and ran away from the frustrated Kings in the final 5 minutes of the game to win by 12, 98-86.

Although Eddie Jordan later complained about the lack of it, the Sixer's scoring was about as solid as their D tonight. Sure they only put up 98, which is a little under what they are capable of, but they still had 6 players score in double figures, with Thad Young's 20 leading the way. Moreover, points generally go down for a team when they start focusing more on the defensive end, so for me the fact that they only scored 98 would be a good sign. They'll need to maintain the focus they had on D tonight for the remainder of the season if they plan to go anywhere this year. Anyway, besides Young, the other Sixers in double digits, were AI with 17, Sammy D with 17 and 12 rebounds, Andre Iguodala with 12 and 10 rebounds, Lou Williams with 11, and Elton Brand with 14 off the bench. So as it's been for the Sixer's lately, it was a team effort and the kind of effort they need more of from here on out.

This was the 4th straight game in which the Sixers held their opponents under 100 points and they won 3 of the 4. Coincidence? I think not. This was also as mentioned, just the 4th time this season they held a team under 90 points. They won all 4 of those. Coincidence, obviously not. Eddie Jordan keeps talking about how hard they have been working on their defense in practice, and it seems now it is finally paying off. With his 17 and 12 tonight, Sammy D now has a double double in 3 of the Sixer's last 5 games, and at least 10 rebounds or 10 points in 5 straight games. The Sixer's won three of those 5. Coincidence? maybe, but again I think not. This is now the 2nd game Sammy D has played since an earthquake laid waste to much of his home country, Haiti , and yet despite the pain he must be carrying, he has looked better than ever. I cannot imagine what it must me be like to see your homeland destroyed and not be able to do anything about it except send money for relief, that is, over $100,000 at this point. I commend him on the tremendous focus he has shown these last 2 games, because I know would have not had the strength to play as he has. There should be more people in the world, especially in the NBA, like Sammy. Go to Sammy's website, http://www.dalembertfoundation.org/ or text Haiti to 90999 to donate to the earthquake relief efforts.