11/16/12
The 76ers were coming off a dreadful performance on
Wednesday against the Pistons. They had difficulty containing the Pistons big
men. The Jazz come in as a big team with a good amount of their players over
6’8”. How would the 76ers handle a bigger team in the Jazz? Doug Collins was
quoted last night by the media calling out his 76ers for showing a “lack of
effort” on Wednesday. Will the players respond to their coach’s criticism? The
Jazz had no injuries to report. The 76ers had bad news on the injury front.
Andrew Bynum, already out with a chronic left leg injury, told the media today
that he suffered a setback and his other knee is injured too.
In the first half, the 76ers were on fire. They were energetic,
going for loose rebounds, hitting wide open shots, and making the Jazz force
turnovers. The Jazz were shooting well too. Also, they were aggressive in
driving to the basket and drawing fouls that the 76ers committed. The 76ers
were leading at halftime 52-43. Jrue Holiday was on fire shooting 8-10 scoring
18 points in the half. Jason Richardson was hot as well shooting 4-6 scoring 11
points. Al Jefferson had 11 points in the half and DeMarre Carroll had eight
points off the bench.
Would the 76ers continue with stellar shooting throughout
the second half like they did in the first? They kept that energetic play up
and shot well, but not as well as they did in the first half. The Jazz softened
up, especially on defense. Whenever the 76ers ran their pick and roll offense,
the Jazz failed to stop those kinds of plays. Also, the Jazz were terrible in
stopping the 76ers when they were cutting to the basket. Instead of the 76ers
showing lack of effort, the Jazz showed lack of effort in the second half. The
76ers kept making the game close in the end by committing dumb fouls;
unnecessary fouls like reaching in and slapping arms on the Jazz players. Evan
Turner had a terrific second half finishing with 11 points after having a quiet
first half. Thaddeus Young had 14 points and eight rebounds in the game. Nick
Young had 12 points off the bench. Lavoy Allen scored 10 points and grabbed
eight rebounds off the bench. Richardson
finished with 20 points and eight rebounds. Holiday
shot a porous 2-11 in the second half, but finished the game with 26 points,
seven assists, and six rebounds. Paul Millsap had a fantastic second half
scoring 20 of his 22 points in the second half. He also finished with seven
rebounds. Jefferson finished with 15 points
and nine rebounds. Mo Williams scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half.
The biggest surprise in the entire game was Carroll. He finished with 17 points
off the bench shooting a perfect 6-6. This was a career high for him in points
scored.
Overall, this was a game the 76ers were fired up for. They
have made the fans depressed seeing them lose their first two games of this
five game homestand. The lack of effort comments made by Doug Collins on
Wednesday sent out a strong message to his team tonight. The 76ers surprisingly
outrebounded the Jazz 43-40. I thought they would have trouble being physical
and getting tough rebounds against a bigger Jazz team, but that was not the
case. I have to give a shoutout to a guy on the 76ers that didn’t have big
numbers in the box score, but did the little things on defense. That player was
Kwame Brown. He played tough defense on Jefferson
whenever he was in the game. Hopefully the 76ers can play these kinds of games
consistently.
Could Kwame Brown
give the 76ers a boost in the frontcourt with his defensive presence? Sound off
and stay tuned for the next entry on Sunday when the 76ers host the Cleveland
Cavaliers.
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