Toronto at Philadelphia

[Real Deal]

TIME: 8:00 PM ET

TV: NBALP

[Built Ford Tough]

Going to a hockey game tonight so I'll be watching this one LP when I get home.

 

Should be a fun one, even if I fully expect the Sixers to dominate.

 

Hopefully DeRozan bounces back from his putrid game last night.

[Check my Stats]

Good lord.

[Built Ford Tough]

Should be a fun one

 

Scratch that.

 

This game was BRUTAL

[Need4Sheed]

6ers looking awesome this year so far.

[Real Deal]

PHILADELPHIA -- Doug Collins had seen enough. The Philadelphia 76ers missed three shots, turned the ball over and had their lead cut to three in the opening minutes of the second half, causing their coach to call time out and remind them they were a better team than that.

 

"I think the pulse beat of the team needed a little dose of, `Let's go,"' Collins said.

 

And off they went.

 

Andre Iguodala had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Jrue Holiday also scored 14 points to lead the Sixers to their fourth straight win, 97-62 over the Toronto Raptors on Saturday night.

 

Lou Williams scored 13 points, and rookie Nikola Vucevic had nine points and 10 rebounds for the Sixers. A year after starting 3-13, the Sixers are 5-2 and the early leaders in the Atlantic Division.

 

The Sixers blew the game open in the third quarter, using a 30-8 run to build a 25-point lead. The Sixers won their fourth game already by 20-plus points and allowed the second-fewest points by an opponnent since the start of the 1985-86 season. They held Portland to 60 in 2003.

 

"It's just the nature of an NBA team to go on runs," Iguodala said. "Out of the timeout, we set something up, got a good luck and then kind of settled down and got some stops on defense. The defense just settled in and we got our adjustment on right out of the gate. We just got to running."

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20120107_TOR@PHI

 

Tore them up.

[Phightins]

That was fantastic. Held Toronto to the lowest single game point total in WFC history. Vucevic looked very good. Was also cool to see Lavoy Allen get some minutes at the end.

[Built Ford Tough]

Watching how easily Iguodala made DeRozan a non-factor in the game last night (pretty much all of his offense came in transition) made me realize just how easy it is to take him out of a game. I understand that Iggy is an absolutely awesome defender, but still, DeRozan was made a non-factor way too easily.

 

His handles are way too weak to be able to become a reliable 2nd option (which is his ceiling) in this league. It is great that he made huge strides in his jumper since coming into the league, both from mid range and from three, but he really, really needs to work on being able to create his own offense at least on a semi-regular basis. He can't do anything without having somebody spoon feed him a lob, getting an off-ball screen to free him up or him being able to get out in the open floor.

 

It doesn't help that Casey is somewhat offensively challenged as a coach (at least without having a lot of time to really implement his offense) other than drawing up some basic plays and getting Bargnani some good looks, which is likely from his time working with Dirk. He doesn't really get any real set plays ran for him and is used more as a safety net at the end of clock scenarios or as a spot up shooter, but even when he gets the ball with time to make a move, he is simply unable to really create for himself.

 

I'm not saying that he is terrible or anything like that, just that he really needs to develop his handles if he is going to be anything more than a 3rd/4th option who lives off of the play of his teammates.

 

He is getting much more defensive attention this season and is no longer sneaking up on teams like he did last season and defenses are really focusing in on stopping Bargnani and DeRozan while giving little to no respect for any other Raptor player. It is on him to make the necessary adjustments because he is a talented player.