Saturday, March 26, 2011
Posted: 5:37 p.m.
By John R. Finger
CSNPhilly.com
The Sixers had a light workout at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine on Saturday morning, just a few hours after returning from a tough loss in Miami on Friday night. With another game looming against Sacramento at noon on Sunday, a light walkthrough made perfect sense.
What wed normally do at Wells Fargo before the game tomorrow is what we did today, coach Doug Collins said after Saturdays brisk shoot around. We just wanted to get our guys up and moving and now we need rest because right after the game we fly to Chicago.
With a tough slate of games coming up this week that includes a pair of home-and-away back-to-backs (Sacramento at home on Sunday and to Chicago on Monday, followed by home games on Wednesday against Houston and Friday vs. New Jersey before heading to Milwaukee on Saturday), an easy one was needed. After all, not only is Andre Iguodala fighting knee tendinitis and Elton Brand playing with a dislocated finger, the team was licking their wounds after Friday nights fourth quarter.
It was that final quarter where the Heat erased an eight-point deficit with eight minutes to go and beat the Sixers by 12. Essentially, the Sixers were in control against the Heat until Dwyane Wade decided he didnt want them to be anymore.
Though Wades 39 points and 11 rebounds was the exclamation point, it was hardly the game-changer according to Collins. No, thats not taking anything away from Wade or the Heat. On the contrary, the Heat forced the Sixers out of their game plan.
NBA
The only thing I talked to the players about after the game was our goal and that was we wanted them to play in the yard, and that is not in the paint and not beyond the three-point arc, Collins explained. Last night they had 30 field goals in the paint for 60 points and they had seven three-pointers, so thats 81 points and they had 41 field goals. That means they had four field goals in the yard and thats what we talked about. We wanted them to play in the yard last night, we didnt get it done.
Of course the Heat have Lebron James and Chris Bosh to compliment Wade, which created matchup issues for the Sixers considering that trio scored 91 of Miamis 111 points.
Regardless, the two keys to the loss to Miami came during two specific points of the game where the Sixers were holding a solid lead. One of those came in the fourth quarter after the Sixers pushed their lead to eight points. With 9:33 to go, the Heats Mike Miller missed a jumper, grabbed his own rebound and fed it to Wade for a three-pointer.
A similar scenario happened with 8:41 to go when James Jones missed a long jumper, Bosh rebounded and tossed it to Eddie House for another three.
That was the beginning of the end.
The difference was when we went up eight, they got back-to-back three-pointers off offensive rebounds. That put them into a tie and then they made their push, Collins said. We did a lot of great things and when all was said and done when there was a minute to go, it was a five-point game.
The other part of the game that stuck out to Collins might have been missed unless someone was really looking for it because it came when the Sixers built a 16-point lead during the second quarter. At that point Collins says he was guilty of sticking with Brand and his starters for a little too long.
I played Elton too many minutes, I played him about 39. I probably should have gotten Tony Battie out there and got him some more minutes early, Collins admitted. What ended up happening was we got up 42-26 and when it was 42-28, I called timeout and told them they are probably going to go on a run and they did, and I didnt sub. I probably should have subbed, but when they were running at us I wanted our key people on the floor, so that was my mistake.
It certainly didnt seem like a mistake until after the game when the box score read, DNP-CD, next to Batties name. Meanwhile, Andres Nocioni and Evan Turner combined to play just 13 minutes, which means Collins essentially used just a seven-man rotation against the Heat. Thats fine if its a playoff game, but with Brand and Iguodala fighting through injuries, hindsight appears to be 20-20.
You worry and you hope theres no fatigue, Collins said. With the way we defend we put a lot of pressure on our big guys because we ask them to move around a lot.
Almost there
With 10 games remaining in the season, the Sixers magic number to clinch a playoff berth is four. That means any combination of Sixers wins and losses by the Bucks or Bobcats totaling four and the Sixers are in.
E-mail John R. Finger at jfinger@comcastsportsnet.com
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