Tag Archive: #showyaluv

Bring the King. It’s a Great Day in Philly.

April 24, 2011 Randy Neil

Man it feels good to be writing this post. The Philadelphia Phillies swept the San Diego Padres in 4 games. The Flyers somehow brought the Sabres to OT and won, forcing a game 7. Aaaaaand….

After 7 very long, very strenuous games with the Miami Heat this season, the Philadelphia 76ers have finally walked away with a victory. Every game was within reach and followed the exact same pattern, except this one.

Typically, the 76ers start the game off well and outscore the Heat. Then, through fouls and amazing shots, the Heat climb back in and make a final push in the 4th quarter. Every game it seemed like the “Big 3” were demoralizing the efforts of our younger players and it was keeping the game out of reach. It would happen on cue with about 5 minutes left in the game. You could set your watch to it.

Here’s some of the differences I saw in this game :

1) Altercations. For 6 games you could see the Sixers deflate after Lebron James and Dwayne Wade put on a spectacle. For game 4 of this playoff series, you finally saw the 76ers show some teeth. Thaddeus Young and Evan Turner both got in the face of Jones in the 2nd quarter, and it had to be broken up. Spencer Hawes wrapped up Lebron James during a drive and he was livid. And Spencer Hawes got right back at him. You could finally see some anger when we used to just see despair. It showed resilience.

2) Fouls and points in the paint. We all know the insane amount of calls the Heat were getting nearly every time they drove in the paint. The Sixers weren’t getting those calls, but that’s mostly due to the fact that they weren’t even driving to the basket. Lou Williams, Evan Turner, and Jrue Holiday all drove in the paint consistently in the 4th and kept pushing to keep the intensity up. Yes, most of those got blocked, but it’s more the principle at that point. For the previous 3 games in this series when the lead would get out of hand, the Sixers fell back on making poor jumpers from outside, and a miss would result in an immediate rebound and score for the Heat. Driving helped keep the rebounds alive for us and established some presence where it hadn’t been before.

3) Miracles. Two back to back 3-pointers in the final 40 seconds of the game really made the difference. We finished the game 10-0 which is an absurd stat. The end-of-game stats were also much more favorable for the 76ers (which means they were actually even.) Team fouls were practically tied at 17 (MIA) and 18 (PHI.) Offensive rebounds, the stat that destroyed the Sixers, were dead even at 9 a piece. We actually out-rebounded them as a whole 18-16.

Even if we lost this game, I still would walk away with a great sense of accomplishment. We had 14 more wins than last year. We have a solid young core of great basketball players led by an amazing coach. The upcoming years in Philadelphia are going to be great.

It’s a great day to be in Philly. Happy Easter everybody.

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It All Looks Downhill From Here

April 5, 2011 Randy Neil

Ugh. My first pessimistic 76ers post in 4 months. It’s right before playoff time and things could possibly be in turmoil. Lou Williams, arguably the heart and soul of the Sixers locker room, is out for the foreseeable future with a hamstring injury. After an MRI on Sunday, it was reported that his injury was more serious than initially assessed and no one has given a time frame for his return.

In response to the injury, the 76ers signed this guy, Antonio Daniels. Don’t know who he is? Most people don’t. But he’s been an NBA player on 7 teams for a 13-year career, winning 1 NBA Championship with the San Antonio Spurs. He’s been to the play offs 10 times. That was the good part of the story. The bad part is he played only 4 games the entire 99′ Spurs Championship play off run. Daniels has spent the last 10 years being traded from team to team as a ‘average’ bench player and played last year in the NBA D-League after his contract was bought out by the Timberwolves because he wasn’t getting any minutes.

The Sixers signed Daniels to a 10-day contract to finish out the rest of the season without Lou, with a chance to extend it for the playoffs pending Williams’ injury.

We play the Celtics tonight in Boston and I’m not going to even watch it. I’ll be at a Rick Ross concert because I enjoy paying a rich person to tell me how much better their life is than mine through music. The next day we play a home game against the Knicks.

It’s 3 more games after that and then we hit the playoffs. Most likely, it’s still going to be the Miami Heat, a team we just recently lost a heart-wrenching game to. With Lou Williams I would think our team could have a shot. Without, I don’t have any hope.

It’s been a great year watching the 76ers. This season has been a drastic improvement from last years and I walk away from this certainly feeling more satisfied than I would have guessed. I want to end it now, on a good note, rather than at the hands of Lebron James and the Heatles.

We upset the #1 team in the West. We upset the #1 and #2 team in the East. We finished above .500 with the 6th seed in the East. It’s a year to be proud of. I will be buying a Spencer Hawes jersey. Lol.

Here’s to the year. It’s been a good one. #showyaluv

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