IS GETTING ITS DRAFT BOARD READY
Sixerville MASTER POST to COPY
If you're a Sixers fan, it has to be maddening watching the team allow good three-point shooting teams stand behind the arc and many times let fly without much pressure.
Monday night, Phoenix entered the game shooting 46.5 percent from beyond the arc. That all starts with point guard Steve Nash, who still, at 36, is one of the best point guards in the league. Still, adjustments have to be made, and Eddie Jordan's team doesn't seem to be doing it all that well.
Against Orlando on opening night, the Sixers allowed the Magic to drill 16 treys, in 29 attempts. Then in a 31-point loss to Boston, the Celtics made 14-of-20 and Monday Phoenix made 15-of-30. Jordan and some of the players have said that they are helping too much on defense and not getting back to the shooters. Fair enough, that is the way you're taught defense at an early age. But when good three-point shooting teams are on the floor with you, the priority has to be to stay on the shooters.
The Sixers did show some good signs last night, particularly staying close to a team that is in the upper echelon in the league. They got good minutes from rookie Jrue Holiday and Marreese Speights (20 points) again had a solid game.
Questions still surround this team. The coach and the players say it is a long process before it will all come together. Basically, Sixers fans, they are asking for your patience, which we all know isn't exactly a virtue Philly fans own.
Phil Jasner joined the staff of the Daily News in 1972. He has covered the 76ers and the NBA on a full-time basis since 1981. He won the 2004 Curt Gowdy Media Award, presented by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for outstanding contributions to the sport during his career; he was a finalist for the award in 2001, when he also received a lifetime achievement award from the Professional Basketball Writers Association during the NBA Finals. He is a past president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association and the Philadelphia College Basketball Writers Association. Along the way, he has covered high school sports, the Big 5, the Eagles and the NFL, the World Football League, the North American Soccer League and what was then the Major Indoor Soccer League. He is a proud graduate of Temple University, and spent his early professional days at the Pottstown (Pa.) Mercury, Montgomery Newspapers (Fort Washington, Pa.), the Norristown (Pa.) Times-Herald and the Trentonian.
Bob Cooney has been at the Daily News for almost 20 years, working in the sports department the past 12 years. This is his first season on the Sixers beat. He has covered just about everything, but mostly college basketball, where he has been the La Salle beat writer for the past six seasons.
