Sixers Need To Rebound From Loss To Kings
Sixers must regroup after being outrebounded by 40 the past two games.
Sixers Need To Rebound From Loss To Kings
It is the smallest of samples - two games - but the 76ers have been destroyed on the boards and one wonders if this is reason to worry. In consecutive losses to Miami and Sacramento, the Sixers have been outrebounded by 40. First it was Miami that outrebounded the Sixers by 18 and then Sacramento by 22. That is a staggering total.
Coach Doug Collins talked after Sunday's 114-111 overtime loss to Sacramento about the Kings physical front line. It only gets more physical in the playoffs and the Sixers have to show they are up to the task. The Sixers are now 3-7 when having been out rebounded by 10 or more boards this season. The surprise is that they aren't 0-10.
The Sixers don't have great size, but rebounding is also about toughness, fighting and scrapping. None of that was evident the past two games. It must have hurt even more to see former Sixer Samuel Dalembert grab 19 rebounds, a season-high. There are other things the Sixers need to work on, such as defending the three-pointer (Sacramento was 9 for 15 from beyond the arc) but the No. 1 immediate priority is for the Sixers to re-establish themselves on the boards.
There's more analysis from Marc Narducci in the postgame video report below.
Comments (15)
The Sixers are a 6 Seed in the playoffs; the Kings are a lottery team. Why was this game even close? Because the Sixers play in an extremely watered-down Eastern Conference, they are a bit of Fools Gold. Yes they have some promise of better things in the future as long as Doug Collins is around, but enough talk about this team being a legitimate playoff caliber team.— MrPhillie
Comment removed.- It is a joke. They were injury free while other teams battled injuries all year, got a few cheap regular season wins. 2-8 vs the Celts, Bulls, Heat, the only teams that matter to them with the win vs the Bulls coming without Noah. This author and many posters have zero clue how to tell fools gold from a legitimate NBA team. — JonKap
- mrphillie, the Sixers had beaten Sac 7 straight times, so I'm not sure how you can gather all that from 1 loss.
Maybe they looked past this team and looked ahead to Chicago, but you need to win that game.— smfree31 - Having a big banger/grinder is why OKC went after Kendrick Perkins. The obvious "coulda / shoulda's" - holding on to Reggie Evans; drafting Cousins instead of Turner don't matter at this point, but one has to believe that this will now be priority #1 in the next draft.— CarpGuy
- CarpGuy: from your lips to Thorn's ears. Have to wonder why, with two expiring contracts, with Speights who never plays, with Nocioni who rarely plays, with draft picks probably in mid rounds, why the Sixers did NOT MAKE a deal at the trade deadline for a banger/grinder.— chuckw
- Tough loss - little production from bench and being out-rebounded will do it...— M60tanker
- As long as Iggy is the go-to guy in last 2 minutes this team will never win consisently. My only complaint with Collins is why he continues to use Iggy in crunch time to handle the ball -- Iggy misses so many shots (like that lay up today) and dribble into trouble and lose the ball; and to often misses free throws. I can not begin to count all the times it has happened this year. Give it too Holiday or Williams to create something or take the shot. Iggy throws the ball in --- does not give it to Williams and Holiday on their cuts -- then throws to big guy and goes to get it back way too often -- is that really what Collin's wants. Iggy just keeps trying to be the "man" -- and fails.— gba
- Well said. My sentiments exactly! He will never be the man; he doesn't have the skills. And so long as he continues playing, Evan Turner doesn't develop, although one wonders if he really deserved to be the no.2 pick. — Sixersorever
- Iggy needs to be traded for Turner to develop. They essentially play the same role and position. Iggy has reached his prime and already know what he doesn't have and can't do like handle the ball or shoot in clutch situations... at least with Turner, we can see if he can improve. — Manok
- All the more reason why we do not want to play Magic in playoffs - Howard will destroy us on the boards and their 3"s will bury us. BTW tango in Argentina is quite a scene!— davi
- Why does Iggy continue to get so many minutes if he is hurting so badly?
He did nothing offensively and his defense was brutal. Why not cut his minutes to about 24 until the playoffs. This will allow others to step up (Nocioni, Turner) and give him some rest to go harder in the playoffs.— pzales - If Elton Brand isn't going to knock down that 12-15 ft jumpshot consistently which he hasn't. Then he needs to hammer the boards on defense. People said Kevin Love was getting all those boards only because his team was losing. Well I would take that same passion on this team and have someone go after every rebound any day. If Speights had any brains in his head he would take that role so he could get on the floor. Disregard his offense and play the Love/Rodman role.— phillyinNJ
- If losing the bench battle by that wide of a margin was intentional I'll accept the loss. Otherwise it's unacceptable. If so I like the idea. Win without your bench. And winning without fastbreak points. (a few games ago). Putting an emphasis/pressure on the starting 5 to carry the scoring load and win. Those are playoff scenarios fastbreak point/ opportunities will decrease. Iguodala..... Your footwork coming off of a screen goin left needs work. Also your read/recognition. YOU ARE FLARING TO THE 3 PT LINE WHEN YOUR DEFENDER IS TRAILING YOU! When the defender trails you THATS A TIGHT CURL, BIG RIGHT STEP, fully extended, 1 LEFT HAND DRIBBLE, TO THE BASKET, DUNK! You are improving. Now you need to be refined, polished. Every step/ move has to thought out and have precision accuracy. NO WASTED MOVEMENTS! NONE! this is not a high school phys. Ed. Class just running around playing. But Collins what I do see is alot of players watching the flight of the ball not boxing out and not competing on the boards. Collins you can't be doing your film work. Because when you see a shot attempted. Jason Thompson is the LONE king in the lane and hes SURROUNDED by three (3) sixers and all 3 watches the flight no one boxed him out Thompson grabbed the board. We need a big man coach. That's why sp8ts has not gotten it. Brand needs to fill that role of big man coach. But I guess those are conflicting interests. Rick Mahorn is out there... GO GET HIM NOW!— combocancer1975
- Still leaving Meeks wide open. If he's open. Feet set. The way he's hitting from 3 has gotten crazy. Give it to him. I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND DISTRIBUTION! But I also believe in taking what the defense gives you. In this case it's a 3. The backcourt has become potent. VERY, VERY potent. Both could up their scoring 5 more points easy. 40 pts between holiday and Meeks. Iguodala brand 30 hawes 10. That's 80. Lou and Thad 30. Get kapono in for a few min. 5 3 pt attempts in 5 min. When lebron sits.. RUN, RUN, RUN!— combocancer1975
Popular Posts
About this blog
John Mitchell is in his second 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.
Classifieds:
Site Services:
Partners:
Powered By:
