Sixers Turning It Around?

It’s hard to judge a team on two games, especially a game against the Nets, who were down Gerald Wallace and have every reason as an organization to want to lose games and try to retain their draft pick (it was traded to Portland, but is top three protected), or a game against the lowly Toronto Raptors.  I have to admit though, that after me throwing him under the bus just a couple of days ago, Collins seemingly made some very shrewd and difficult lineup changes prior to Tuesday’s tilt against the Nets.

Prior to the game, I was convinced that Doug would bench either Jrue or Evan for Jodie Meeks, but I never would’ve thought to bench Spencer.  It seemed like Spencer was such a vital component of their early season success.  His shotblocking, his rebounding, his great high post passing, and his ability to sink the face up jumper all seemed like critical components to the way the Sixers ran their offense, and neither Vucevic nor Lavoy was ever stellar as a starter in his place.  What I failed to take into account, is we’d never really seen Hawes play with the second unit, get the opportunity to dominate backup frontcourt players.  It’s okay if Vucevic just holds his own with that first unit, hits a few open shots, and holds his own on the boards and plays decent defense.  Spencer wasn’t doing a great deal more than that lately, and often he seemed to be doing less.  It also adds a much needed body to Collins’ rotation, which had been at just 8 players throughout the four game losing streak.  That had to be a factor in a season where guys are already worn out.

Sixers Hit Rock Bottom – Why and What Remains?

If you haven’t read Kate Fagan’s recent take on the trials and tribulations of the Sixers it’s definitely worth a read.  Kate was always the most plugged-in reporter on the Sixers beat and it makes sense that she would be the one to break this story.  Even if a bit of it may be conjecture, its clear that her words are informed by legitimate information from the Sixers players she developed relationships with while working with the team.  The blowout loss to the Wizards, the blowout loss to the Raptors, and the back-to-back losses to Magic and Celtics all make a lot of sense within the context of the notion that the players have hit the wall with Doug Collins.  His history with teams speaks for itself, and many of us who have written about him with the Sixers have ignored it because we were so pleased with the results he brought in his first season and a half with the Sixers.  Maybe we also wanted to give the guy the benefit of the doubt that he had changed his approach and learned from his mistakes in the over half a decade he took away from the bench.  Sixers fans inherently want to believe in Doug for other reasons:

Falling Down – Sixers Lose to Dysfunctional Magic

In the last eight days the Sixers have been blown out by the Wizards, won an extremely promising tough game against the Hawks, and followed that up with a heartbreaking 6 point loss in Miami, a head scratching blowout loss to the lowly Raptors, and blew a 10 point lead to the most dysfunctional team in the league – the soap operian Orlando Magic.  The Magic, who were down two starters (Hedo & Ryan Anderson) and have been an unenviable saga of dysfunction recently, had a lot of trouble with the Sixers in the first half.  In the second half though, the Sixers ultimately couldn’t contain either Big Baby Davis or JJ Redick.  In the third straight game where Doug Collins has played almost entirely an 8 man rotation (Battie got a few spot minutes), the Sixers lost their third straight.  While Collins is certainly reaching for different things to get the team going at this point in the season, one has to question whether Lavoy Allen or Nik Vucevic might have been able to help provide a defensive and rebounding presence against the likes of Howard and Davis.  Clearly Thad Young was the Sixers most potent offensive weapon tonight, so it makes sense that he got good minutes, but the Sixers were beaten up inside as Howard and Davis combined for 34 rebounds, 14 of them on the offensive end, and the entire Sixers roster had just 41 boards, and just 9 on the offensive end (Hawes and Brand combined for only 17).