Posted: Wednesday, October 8, 2008, 8:15 PM | 18 comments |
 

Final: Sixers 98, Celtics 92
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Final: Sixers 98, Celtics 92

Could not keep up too much running play-by-play because of print deadline (you know, for the newspaper). Cheeks had Lou Williams, Royal Ivey, Thad Young, Reggie Evans, and Marreese Speight in at the end.

Royal Ivey hit a big 3-pointer in front of the Celtics bench with 45 seconds left to make it 93-92 Sixers. Williams made five-of-six free throws to seal the game.

With about :25 seconds left in the game, and the Celtics down three and trying to tie, a fan tossed a mini basketball onto the court. The referees had to blow the play dead. The "fan" was removed from the arena to the tune of "Hit the Road Jack."

Young finished with 21 points, Williams with 27.  

First Quarter (Celtics 30, Sixers 24): Sixers did not look strong off the tip. Four minutes into the game, the Celtics -- courtesy of a couple of Kevin Garnett mid-range jumpers and Ray Allen three-pointers -- led 16-4.

The Sixers looked stagnant on offense. Thaddeus Young hit a long two-pointer to open scoring, but it did not seem to come in the flow of a play. Miller had a nice drive to the rim, left-handed, for the Sixers second basket. Young made a 3-pointer (good shooting by Young a good sign). Dalembert hit a fade-away jumper from left baseline and an elbow jumper.

Brand hit his first bucket in a Sixers' uniform with 4:40 left in the quarter -- a turnaround in the lane.

Lou Williams came in and hit one 3-pointer and a long two.

Observations: Not much flow on offense and the Sixers did not run the ball much through Brand. No effective fastbreaking, although a bad pass disrupted one break with Williams and Green. Iguodala has done very little on either end of the court.

Substitutions: Green was first off bench for Thad Young at 5:23 left; Williams right after for Andre Miller; Reggie Evans comes in for Brand with 2:06 left in quarter; Young comes back in to replace Iguodala with :45 second left.

Scoring: Thad Young 5, Elton Brand 4, Sam Dalembert 4, Andre Miller 4, Andre Iguodala 2, Lou Williams 5.

Halftime (Celtics 54, Sixers 44):

Substitutions: Theo Ratliff started the second quarter for Dalembert (So lineup to start quarter is Lou, Willie, Young, Reggie, and Ratliff). Marreese Speights comes into the game for Evans with 8:00 left in the quarter. Ivey comes into game for Willie Green at 6:25 left in second. Andre Miller comes back in for Lou. Antywane Robinson checks in for Young (1:43 left in quarter).

Thad Young led a nice break along the left side, finishing for his sixth and seventh point of the night. First fastbreak of the night for Sixers.

Marreese Speights misses a turnaround jumper, Young keeps it alive on the o-boards, then Speights dunks it home. Decent first NBA bucket (albeit preseason). A minute or two later Speights tries an ill-advised cross-court pass (I think we'll call this a "rookie" moment).

Thaddeus Young hits another long-range shot.

Ivey doing a good job three-quarter court pressing. His energy on defense is higher than anyone else's. He was denying Pruitt sideline to sideline. But then he did airball to end the first half.

Posted by Kate Fagan @ 8:15 PM  Permalink | 18 comments
18
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:07 PM, 10/08/2008
    if you bring lil #3 back to play with this squad...
    — starbird
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:08 PM, 10/08/2008
    thanks for the updates! So basically, everyone is rusty and/or not playing hard... except for Thad?
    — Structrebc
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:26 PM, 10/08/2008
    DJ Lou has 20 right now...plus a Sixer's lead!
    — Comulles
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:19 PM, 10/08/2008
    Some observations on the game ... Nice win, even though it was decided against the Celts' reserves. Lou and Thad were able to get their points at the end playing basically 2-on-5 (w/Evans, Speights, Ivey). I wasn't impressed with Ivey, who did little positive on either end until his go-ahead jumper at the end; his worst moment was the baseline jumper that hit the side of the backboard (even WillieG isn't that bad). I didn't see that the starters got any better shots in the halfcourt offense than last year, but that's probably because the Celts could single-cover Brand with Garnett (DPOY). Brand is still getting used to Miller and Iguodala (speed and timing of passes). Thad's jumper looked good, but he needs someone else to create the shot for him. Lou just abused Eddie House (no surprise). Speights looked extremely raw but he made positive contributions (highest +/- of the night) because he's active and athletic. In the end, the game doesn't count but I'm still glad they won ...
    — Statman
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:05 PM, 10/08/2008
    saw the first half on nba tv. looked competitive,but it seemed the the celts were using rooks.still to early to tell but 6ers winand thats good.bring on the season and we'll see where it stands............Terry-D,in Clermont,Fla
    — t_darb_56
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:14 PM, 10/08/2008
    Thaddeus had great stroke tonight...he and Williams showed well. Will take time for team to be smooth...not a good start for Sam.
    — JBP
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:57 PM, 10/08/2008
    Hey Kate, Not sure who's right since i only heard the first half on NBA online radio (Celtics home station only, for some bizarre reason), but NBA.com gave Lou 27 pts. on the night, and you gave him 21. Interesting that Brand played so little. Encouraging that Thad continued his ~50% shooting percentage from last year and apparently is feeling the outside stroke. Also encouraging that Lou is still scoring at will. Was difficult to tell how the sixers were doing with the C's guys calling the game, so i don't have much more than that right now.
    — K,M
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:05 AM, 10/09/2008
    Statman: Yeah, you're right. The offense struggled because they don't have Brand flowing yet. That, and, as you pointed out, Celtics didn't have to worry because Garnett covered Brand. You have to think this will rarely be the case. Lou and Thad were impressive.
    — Kfagan
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:30 AM, 10/09/2008
    I thought the Celtics moved the ball and looked like a well oiled machine and the Sixers looked like they needed oiling. Lots of one on one offense and Brand didn't get the ball in good position as much as I thought he would. But it is the first game and they have a lot of new bodies out there...still the Sixers played hard and hung in there to win! I thought Speights looked like he can do some good things even without knowing the NBA game yet. I think it will take time for the parts of this team to start working together but it will happen! The Celts are a very good team and they just hit the ground running.
    — srvdove
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:33 AM, 10/09/2008
    Can we get lil #3 back? He would be surrounded by the weapons of mass destruction needed to win the title.
    — starman
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:42 AM, 10/09/2008
    Hey Starman, Starbird, or whatever word you want to put after star in your next post....why would you want to bring "lil #3" back? He'll never take a backseat role to anyone and that point is all moot because how would you propose we'd fit him under that cap? He ain't coming back....so put your AI bobbleheads back in the box and move on.
    — JFizzell
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:06 AM, 10/09/2008
    statman & kate: thanks for the notes & observations. judging from the write-ups both here and elsewhere, not a bad debut, still a work in progress. since our offense is primarily predicated on transition, did our pressure defense lend itself to this phase of the game? did they do a good job playing the passing lanes and rotating? as simply scoring average isn't necessarily the key but rather how efficient the oppotunities are, were young and williams as efficient as their point totals indicate? dalembert and iguodala didn't get better looks since kg could guard brand straight-up, right? thanks to those who watched and posted.
    — 127sixer59
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:53 AM, 10/09/2008
    127: I thought the Sixers had some troubles with def. rotations in the 1st quarter (Brand is a slight downgrade from Evans in terms of playing pressure D, though he did have one nice weakside block), but they were disruptive in the 3rd when they went on the key 14-0 run (against the Celtics' starters) to tie the game up. That run reminded me of the 19-0 run last year that keyed their one win against Boston. Having Thad and Iguodala in at the same time gives them two active defenders with fast hands (and when Lou joins them, it's three). To answer your question about the offense, to my recollection the only open shots in the halfcourt came when Iguodala penetrated and kicked (same as last year), but remember that Boston is the best defensive team in the league. Hopefully it will look better against teams that aren't as good defensively ...
    — Statman
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:34 PM, 10/09/2008
    statman: appreciate the further insightful comments. i know cheeks is willing to give up the 3, but was allen pretty open when he popped those early long shots (recognizing he may still have the best stroke in the game). while iguodala and young were active, it appears kate and you have different perception as to ivey's defense last nite. how was brand's defense last night (noting kg got off to a good start too). even though boston was the best d-team last year, our offense will have to figure out the half-court sets since the transition game won't automatically be there. srvdove indicated part of brand's offensive struggles were do to where he received the ball-maybe just coordination problems with miller. cheeks may now be rethinking having some plays run for young (but couldn't tell if he was serious from the quote). nice to be actually talking about games, even pre-season.
    — 127sixer59
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:55 PM, 10/09/2008
    Stat, 127: I did not think Ivey was strong on offense. I believe he disrupts the other team's offense. In simple ways, by denying his player a reversal, by slowing up the bringing of the ball. And, yes, Brand was catching the ball too far away from the basket. That threw everything out of whack.
    — Kfagan


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About John Mitchell
John Mitchell is in his first year covering the 76ers for the Inquirer after joining the paper in November 2011. He covered the Washington Wizards for the Washington Times from 1998 to 2008. He's also worked at the Philadelphia Tribune, the Wilmington News Journal, Courier-Post, Trenton Times and Elmira Star-Gazette.

Born and raised in West Philadelphia - not too far from Will Smith - he graduated from Overbrook High School the same year the 76ers won their last championship. He's a proud graduate of Howard University and the proud father of two sons, Jared and Jordan.

ABOUT MARC NARDUCCI

Marc Narducci has served in a variety of roles with the Inquirer since beginning in 1983. He has covered the 76ers as a backup and a beat writer. In addition, Narducci has covered everything from the Super Bowl to the World Series and a lot in between. Narducci also has a true passion for South Jersey scholastic sports, which he has covered for many years.

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