Ah, the eternal optimism of being up 2-1 at home. One more win in front
of your home fans and the series is practically all yours—teams rarely
come back from 3-1 deficits in the post-season, especially in the NBA.
It seems simple enough, but it never quite turns out that way—at least
not for the Sixers, who have been in a similar position twice before in
recent memory, in 2008 against the Pistons and in 2009 against the
Magic. Both times, they let Game Four slip away from them at home, and
were pretty much out of the series from there, losing both series 4-2.
Are the Dre-Thad-Lou Sixers gonna go three-for-three?
Well, it's easy to
assume not, since not only is this Sixers team a little
different-looking with Jrue Holdiay and Evan Turner at the helm
(temporarily, at least), but their opponent is a little less threatening
than the full-strength '08 Pistons or '09 Magic, with not only MVP
point guard Derrick Rose gone for the entire post-season, but now big
man and defensive anchor Joakim Noah is also out, definitely for Game
Four, and possibly beyond that.
It's a depleted team, sure, but one that
should still not be under-estimated—even without Noah, they still far
outsize and out-tough the Sixers, and if they can get a little more from
their perimeter guys today (I doubt C.J. Watson will be going scoreless
again, or Luol Deng putting up just five), they can still challenge
Philly for sure.
For the Sixers, the key might be getting a little bit of consistency
from our frontcourt. If Evan and Jrue can keep up their level of play
from the first three games, and we can get something out of Elton
Brand, Thaddeus Young and/or Lavoy Allen—and/or Spencer Hawes gives us a
performance closer to his second half than his first—there's really no
reason we shouldn't be able to win this game.
Also, if you happen to see
Nik Vucevic wandering around the Wells Fargo Center promenade, could
you please return him to Coach Collins ASAP? We could actually use some
of the shooting and post play that guy could be giving us off the bench
if Collins remembers that he's on the roster.
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1:00 tip from the WFC today, and we hope you all will be watching or in
attendance. We've been burned too many times by this Sixers team to
believe it until we actually see it, but they've got a real chance to
take a commanding lead in this series, and be on their way to locking up
their first series win since 2003.
Go Ballers.