1/9/13
The 76ers are back playing on their home court as they
finally concluded their west coast road trip three days ago. They finished 2-6
on their disastrous road trip and sorely needed to return home. The Nets have
been in complete disarray this season. They were hyped up to be a threat in the
Eastern Conference in the preseason picks because they acquired a top scorer in
Joe Johnson. That preseason chatter flew south. Avery Johnson got fired as
coach of the Nets and their interim coach is P.J. Carlesimo. Carlesimo has made
the Nets look as good as advertised. Coming into this game, the Nets record
under Carlesimo was 5-1. The Nets had a change in the starting lineup. Kris
Humphries, dealing with a sore ankle, played sparingly off the bench while
Reggie Evans got to start at power forward. Both Jerry Stackhouse for the Nets
and Kwame Brown for the 76ers were not with their teams due to personal
matters.
The first half was close. The 76ers were shooting well in
general, but two things stood out for me this half that the Nets were better at
than the 76ers. The Nets rebounded better, particularly from Evans, who grabbed
the second most rebounds ever in the history of the NBA in a half with 16. The
most rebounds ever recorded in a half in a single game were 17. The other thing
the Nets were better at was getting to the free throw line. They went to the
line seven more times than the 76ers did and made all but one of their free throws
going 12-13. The 76ers at least attempted to run plays towards the basket, but
they didn’t get the calls that the Nets were getting. At halftime, the Nets led
48-47. Jrue Holiday and Spencer Hawes both led the 76ers with 12 points each in
the half. Deron Williams led the Nets with 13 points.
The second half…you can forget about it. The Nets went on a
gigantic run and blew the 76ers away. The big storyline of this half was when
the Nets outscored the 76ers 35-14 in the third quarter. That’s a season high for
the Nets in points scored in the third quarter because they usually struggle in
the third quarter. The Nets were hitting their shots and rebounded the ball
while the 76ers looked disinterested. They let the Nets get easy shots at the
basket. The 76ers also looked stagnant on offense. They didn’t run any plays
that cut towards the basket. Instead, they ran plays at the three point line
and settled for midrange two point shots. The Nets won this game easily 109-89.
Williams finished with 22 points. Andray Blatche, hours after being questioned
by police in an investigation in which he was involved in a sexual assault
case, dropped 20 points coming off the bench. Joe Johnson collected 15 points.
Brook Lopez scored 13 points. Gerald Wallace finished with 11 points. Evans had
a career high in rebounds. He secured 23 rebounds in the game. For the 76ers, Holiday finished with 19 points and eight assists. Hawes
had 14 points in the game and Nick Young scored 11 points coming off the bench.
Overall, the 76ers have to find a way to get to the free
throw line. Going to the free throw line 10 times in a game is unacceptable. I
don’t know what they have to do to get calls from the refs to go to the free
throw line, but something has to be done. They should continue to run plays
that involve cutting to the basket for layups and not avoid contact with the
other team. The 76ers also have to learn to play a full 48 minutes of
basketball. They have one bad quarter and it bites them in the butt for the
rest of the game. Jason Richardson is making the shooting slump contagious
because Evan Turner has now joined the group of shooters in a slump. I don’t
know what they should do. Perhaps they should run more shooting drills in
practice, but I don’t know if those drills can translate into real life game
situations. Time will tell…
What do the 76ers
have to do to get on a winning streak? Sound off and stay tuned until next
time…
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