Well, I said before last night's game that if the Sixers could beat the Mavericks, it'd be time to seriously consider this team a contender for a playoff spot. Not only did the Sixers win, but they put together a dominating performance in the second half that makes you wonder if maybe this team isn't further along than we all thought in the first place.
The Sixers allowed the high-powered Mavs a whopping 23 second-half points. Allow that total to sink in again. 23. Now, consider Dallas scored just 10 points in the 4th quarter. That's unheard of against any team, much less a team that can score the ball like the Mavericks. Big Dirk had just 15 points on 4-of-15 from the field. Jason Terry had seven points. No, Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse and Erick Dampier all didn't play, but this was still few thought the Sixers would win.
And in a way, this isn't about the playoffs or even this season. Most of the young players out there (Thaddeus Young, Lou William, Andre Iguodala and even Sammy Dalembert) are guys that are going to play a role in how quickly this franchise develops in the next few years. Yes, defense wins championships is a cliche, but you have to be encouraged by this group's ability to grasp the importance of defense.
Take a look at the points allowed over the last four wins: 96, 84, 80, 76. It's no coincidence those defensive outputs have coincided with this team's best stretch of basketball this season. This team doesn't have a big-time scorer (yet), instead, it has a bunch of young players capable of big nights but more prone to inconsistencies. This team can't win too many shootouts. It can win low-scoring games like last night.
What's more, this team has performed in the clutch, outscoring opponents 87-49 in the fourth quarter the last four games. Obviously, we can't look past Memphis tomorrow. This looks like a classic trap game before the the All-Star Break. But if we win that, we get to 23-3o, and .500 basketball should have us in the hunt the rest of the year. God, I love the Eastern Conference.
A lot of people (who call themselves fans) that I know aren't happy with the Sixers winning. They want a draft pick. This, to me, is a load of BS (More on this in my post tomorrow).
Finally, a note on Andre Miller. He's been absolutely fantastic, both when I've watched him and, when I haven't, in the stat sheet. He had 21 more key points last night, and to be quite honest, I couldn't fathom trading him right now. Unless Dwight Howard was involved. Then I might make an exception. Speaking of trade proposals, Inky beat writer Marc Narducci sifts through a few suggested offers here. To be honest, there's not much there that would interest me. And speaking of Miller, Daily News columnist Sam Donnellon talks about Miller's contributions here.
And that's enough for today. Big game tomorrow night. I'll have a another post hopefully by midday tomorrow, so stay tuned.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment