Sixers Forget How to Play D, Fall to Suns

Our man Saul Zebovitz gives us his thoughts on last night's loss.

Let me begin by just saying that last night was an awful, awful game that Sixers could have and should have won... but played like they wanted to lose. And lose they did. The biggest problem in this game was that no one played defense. We all came into the game knowing that the Suns don't play D, but I expected the Sixers to be able to run just as well as Phoenix, but also to play defense. They didn't.

There were long stretches in the second, third, and fourth quarters when it almost looked like the All-Star game: easy layups and dunks for everybody. There was no protection of the rim whatsoever. And that's not a good way to win against a team that excels at ball movement and at getting to the basket. They got open shots, it seems, almost every time down the floor, and the Sixers just didn't hit enough shots of their own. A missed three here and a blocked layup there, even if you're getting lots of other shots to fall, will quickly turn into a 5- or 10-point deficit. And, frankly, that's exactly what happened.

The Sixers weren't exactly run out of the building; both teams got about the same opportunities, although the Suns had ten more shot attempts. The Sixers fought to a draw from downtown by shooting a very un-Sixer-like 47% from three-point land (helped in large part, for the third straight game, by Donyell Marshall). But they couldn't make their free throws: the missed nine. If the Sixers had simply matched the Suns in FT shooting last night, it might have been a very different game. So in the final estimation, both teams had plenty of opportunities to score, and as a 116-126 final would indicate, they both took advantage of a lot of them. But the Sixers let the Suns take advantage of a few more, and it cost them the game.

To revisit the predictions I made in the preview yesterday, they were mostly (surprisingly) right on. Even the predicted final score was almost exactly right, although I had the wrong team winning. But let's look at some of the stuff in a little more detail: 1. I mentioned that Andre Miller would have his way with Steve Nash. Indeed he did: Miller had 23 points and 8 assists, and successfully posted up Nash several times. Barbosa, who I predicted would be trouble for Miller and the Sixers, left with a hyperextended knee after playing just two minutes. So while I'll never say it's good that someone got hurt, that injury may have kept this game from getting any worse than it did.

2. I mentioned that Richardson would ideally be held to 15-18 points. He scored 25, and many of them came on easy layups or dunks (or open threes). Again, the defense there was lacking. Williams did have a good time offensively, though, scoring 23 despite not shooting terribly well. Many of those came on free throws; he leads all non-starters in the NBA in getting to the line, and that was on display tonight. He had several aggressive drives, and finished with 11 foul-shot attempts.

3. Matt Barnes, as I predicted, was pretty quiet. But I was WAY off on Iguodala. I predicted he'd have 30 or more; he finished with a quiet 11. However, it seems to be that I just guessed wrong about which young Sixer would benefit most from the fast pace; Thaddeus Young, who's has been scorching hot lately, co-led the Sixers (alongside Miller) with 23 points. He had a variety of pretty moves close to the hoop, clean jumpers, and open threes. In one memorable sequence, however, he was completely stuffed by Shaq twice in a row.

4. Suns starting PF Grant Hill was the x-factor last night that I did not see coming. He killed the Sixers, scoring 21 on 10-of-13 shooting. He was consistently open, and it seemed like the Sixers expected as little out of him as I did. But he's a veteran; he'll take advantage of any opportunity you give him. Speights, however, was awful for the second straight night. His jumper was off, and wasn't playing a lick of defense. It seems, unfortunately, that he may be hitting the rookie wall rather hard. He only played 4 minutes, despite torching the Suns for a career-high 24 points last time the teams played.

5. Shaq, as I mentioned he might, absolutely destroyed the Sixers. He was a beast around the hoop. I mentioned that Dalembert's main job was to hassle Shaq and, most importantly, keep him off of the offensive boards. Here, he failed epically. Shaq had six offensive rebounds, and despite getting away with a few walks, I don't think he failed to put back a single one. He indeed had that bad game that he was due for: 4 points, 6 rebounds, and just one block. He challenged Shaq quite well in the first quarter, but afterwards no combination of Sammy, Theo Ratliff, Speights, Reggie Evans, or Donyell Marshall had any answer for him whatsoever. He led the Suns with 26. Perhaps more than anything else, his post play was the reason the Sixers lost this game.

So: The Sixers simply played sloppy, lazy basketball for large portions of this game. Fortunately, the Suns did too, but the Suns capitalized a little bit more. In an ugly, not-well-played game, the Sixers let the Suns come out on top.