12/6/12
Well, last night I was excited to be in the stands watching
the 76ers live. Unfortunately, the game
was not very exciting. In fact, it was
downright nauseating. The 76ers were coming off a tough loss to the Chicago
Bulls on Saturday and had a few days to get ready to play the Timberwolves. The
Timberwolves are a young team starred by Kevin Love, and has youthful
supporting cast with a few veterans around him. The Timberwolves are not known
as an offensive team, but known for their pestering defense and rebounding. The
Timberwolves had a sleuth of injuries while the 76ers had one injury. Nick
Young for the 76ers still sat out with a hyperextended great left toe. Chase
Budinger, Andrei Kirilenko, Brandon Roy, and Ricky Rubio were all not playing
for the Timberwolves. Budinger is having surgery on his knee. Kirilenko has
back spasms. Roy has grade three arthritis in
his knee and Rubio is recovering from a torn ACL he suffered last year.
The first half was nauseating for the 76ers. They couldn’t
make a shot if their life depended on it and couldn’t stop anyone on defense.
The 76ers were very flat and the players all guarded the painted area and left
the shooters wide open at the three point line. The worst part was that the
Timberwolves made all of their shots when they were wide open. The Timberwolves
made 60% of their shots in the first half. The 76ers may have shot 44% in the
half, but they shot an abysmal 3-13 (23%) from three point range. The
Timberwolves led at halftime 65-47. Josh Howard scored 10 of his 16 points in
the half and Alexey Shved led the Timberwolves with 11 of his 17 points off the
bench at the break. Jrue Holiday had 11 of his 13 points in the first half and
Jason Richardson scored 10 of his 14 points in the half. Evan Turner led the
76ers with 12 of his 19 points at the break.
The second half was just as pathetic and nauseating as the
first half was. The Timberwolves didn’t shoot as well as they did in the
previous half, but they kept the lead they created. They made sure the 76ers
did not come back with that tough defense the Timberwolves have. The starters
for both teams didn’t play as much this half because the game was out of hand
midway through the third quarter. The Timberwolves won the game 105-88. Dante
Cunningham, former Villanova graduate, led the Timberwolves in the second half
with 11 points. The Timberwolves had seven players score 10 points or more in
the game. Thaddeus Young led the team with nine of his 13 points in the second
half. Holiday dished nine assists to go along
with his 13 point performance.
Overall, the 76ers need to forget about this game and move
on to the next game. A flat performance like the one they displayed tonight should
not be remembered. They should clear their mind and come into practice the next
day ready to play the Boston Celtics on Friday. I have said this in previous
blog entries, but when the 76ers can’t make shots, they lose. This is what
happened last night along with terrible defense. The 76ers allowed the
Timberwolves to score a season-high 65 points at halftime, and make a
season-high 13 three pointers in the game. Mind you this is a Timberwolves team
that is just as bad on offense as the 76ers are. The 76ers fell to 10-8 in the
standings while the Timberwolves improved to 8-8.
Can it get any worse
for the 76ers? Sound off and stay tuned for my next entry on Friday when the
76ers host the Boston Celtics.
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