Well, home-court advantage didn't make much of a difference in this
one—probably partly because half the fans in attendance were NY
boosters, with Philly fans evidently too enthralled with the prospect of
watching Michael Vick throwing pick-sixes on TV to come out in force
for the Atlantic division battle. Regardless, a couple extra Philly fans
in the seats would likely have helped little, as the Sixers again
proved out-manned and out-played by the New York Knicks, who moved to
3-0 with their dissection of the 76ers tonight.
The
much-heralded (by me anyway, sorta) insertion of Kwame Brown into the
team's starting lineup proved unsurprisingly inconsequential, as Kwame
mustered four points, three rebounds, and largely indifferent defense in
ten minutes of game action, before apparently re-aggravating his calf
strain and leaving the game. In his stead, we got a resounding six
points and ten rebounds from the pivot combo of Lavoy Allen and Spencer
Hawes, with Knicks center Tyson Chandler basically stomping over both of
them, and backup Rasheed "Human Victory Blunt" Wallace hitting them for 10 points in the second half, somehow.
The
Sixers didn't fare much better anywhere else on the court. Dorell
Wright, Nick Young and Evan Turner, the three wings that I said would
have to step up to help Jrue Holiday out (especially in starting SG
Jason Richardson's absence) combined to shoot 11-38, while Jrue himself
struggled from the floor with 4-12 shooting, though he hit threes and
got to the line enough that his over all line (17 points, eight assists)
wasn't all that bad. Jrue's real issues came on defense, where he was
torched repeatedly by Knicks point Raymond Felton—a teamwide struggle,
as the Knicks again shot the lights out from behind the arc, hitting 13
of 32.
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Not a whole lot of positive to take from this one, though
first-round pick Arnett Moultrie did get his first bucket as a Sixer,
slamming home a putback in garbage time. (Hopefully Moultrie eventually
sees consequential rotation minutes, unlike the last late-first-rounder
we traded for, Craig Brackins.) Also, I continue to be unduly fascinated
by Evan Turner's suddenly immaculate free-throw shooting—the guy shot
under 68% from the line last year and seemed to split just about every
time up, but he's 12-12 from the stripe so far this season. Hey, when
you get blown out by a division rival twice in two days, you take solace
in the little things. The really, really little things.
After
the game, Collins gave all credit to the Knicks, said that his team was
still trying to figure each other out, and adamantly refused to
overreact to a bad two-game stretch against a really good team. It's
fair enough, and I do think the Knicks made us look worse than we are,
but it's still pretty discouraging to see your team get outplayed this
badly in two consecutive contests.
The Sixers next face the
Hornets this Wednesday, a similarly young team, but one that's proven to
be a very professional outfit, going 2-1 (against strong competition)
largely without the help from their two injured young stars, Eric Gordon
and Anthony Davis. If they make it three no-shows in a row for the
Sixers, we might be in for a long season, putting undue pressure on
Andrew Bynum to save the team with his return, still scheduled for
who-knows-when. Trying times for Philadelphia sports fans, for sure.