[外電] Sixers earning some love.

[willyt (ㄌㄔ2015 世界一流)]

Posted: Sun, May. 20, 2012, 1:42 AM

Improbable playoff run earning Sixers some love
Mike Missanelli, For the Inquirer

http://tinyurl.com/7zx4ssy


The graphic came up on the big video scoreboard, and suddenly
tension gripped the rambunctious sellout crowd at the Wells
Fargo Center.

Celtics vs. Sixers, Game Six, Wednesday. Tickets available for
purchase behind Section 122.

At the time, the score in Celtics vs. Sixers, Game Four was
88-83, and there were 33 seconds left in regulation as Jodie
Meeks stepped to the free throw line. In 33 seconds in the
NBA, you can consume a full-course meal.

Kiss of death? In Philadelphia, where so many twists and turns
have prevented the home team from winning something, this was
like a sledgehammer of death. It was like putting the bats
back in the bag before the final out. Like walking toward your
putt before it drops.

Sports gods live for those kinds of moments to tweak human
beings.

And yet, a strange thing happened. Meeks made both free throws
and the Sixers easily won another improbable game with this
improbable team in a most improbable NBA playoff run.

What the heck, the way the Sixers are going, they are
impervious to any kind of curse. The Sixers right now are
spitting into gale force winds and they get hit with nary a
splash.

I see a team that can't shoot, can't rebound, can't defend the
post - and certainly can't make free throws - playing
armadillo-ugly basketball night in and night out. And yet they
have won six games already in the playoffs, and with a win
tomorrow night in Boston would inch closer to the Eastern
Conference finals.

Have I used the word improbable yet?

Kevin Garnett killed the Sixers in Game 3 by getting deep
enough in the post that the back of his head nearly hit the
rim. So naturally, in Game 4, he was shackled by a
wet-behind-the-ears rookie from Temple named Lavoy Allen.
Allen bottled up Garnett so tightly that by the end of the
game, it looked as though KG wanted to take his ball and go
home.

Allen is the most peculiar player I've seen in a Sixers
uniform since Big Shot. He slogs around with those big feet
that make him appear as if he's going in slow motion. His lack
of an outboard motor (he obviously has an inboard) has
frustrated every coach he's ever had - most specifically Fran
Dunphy at Temple, and the well-respected high school coach
Frank Sciolla, who had Allen at Pennsbury in Lower Bucks
County. And yet Allen is always there, always in the right
position, always around the basketball, always playing within
himself.

If anybody who watched Allen at Temple could have predicted he
would play 33 minutes in a playoff game and be the key player
in a series win over Kevin Garnett and the Boston Celtics,
stand up and be counted as the biggest fibber in the
Philadelphia area.

Garnett might be the most vicious trash talker in the NBA. KG
tried all game to work Allen, and the kid never paid any
attention. He just walked to his position on the floor looking
at his shoelaces. You could almost hear Garnett saying to
himself, "I can't play against no robot."

"Nothing bothers Lavoy," Sixers coach Doug Collins after the
game. "I just wish God would give me just one Lavoy Allen day
in my life - one day where I just don't give a - about
anything."

How is this team doing this?

All right, the series win over Chicago wasn't that
spectacular. After Game 1, the Bulls were without Derrick
Rose, and then center Joakim Noah missed three.

But the Celtics have stars who are playoff-tested. They scored
the first 14 points of the game, led by 15 at halftime while
holding the Sixers to just 31 points, and stretched that lead
to 18 in the third quarter. A Celtics team hadn't lost an
18-point lead in a playoff series in eons. And the Sixers
wound up beating them by nine.

I love the Sixers, but I'm going to be brutally honest here.
There's only one player on this whole roster who's
entertaining to watch - Evan Turner. The rest of the Sixers
are Average Joes, guys who belong in the NBA but are not true
difference-makers.

Andre Iguodala can defend, run the break for a dunk, and
occasionally, like Friday night, will make a three-point shot
out of nowhere. But he can't get to the basket on the bounce.
Lou Williams has his moments, but he's a totally expendable
player. Thad Young hustles. Jrue Holiday? Eh. Spencer Hawes is
7 feet tall and 265 pounds and is unable to be physical in the
post. Elton Brand is pretty much finished.

The fact that the Sixers are tied at two games in a conference
semifinal series is a testament to the grit brought out of
this team by Collins.

The Sixers might win this series. They might even get a break
and face the Indiana Pacers for the right to play for an NBA
title. Whatever happens, it still raises the question: What
does the future hold for this franchise?

The roster next year will have to be altered. Maybe they can
work a trade of Iguodala. If Brand wants to do the right
thing, he'll retire. If not, the Sixers will have no choice
but to amnesty his contract - as per the new NBA collective
bargaining agreement that allows a team to release a player
and free up his salary from the salary cap (while still paying
him).

Brand is slated to make $18.16 million next season. The Sixers
also will be able to subtract the salary of Andres Nocioni
($6.7 million), released earlier this season. They can also
chop off Hawes (who makes $4 million). If Williams elects to
take his early termination option, that's another $6.3 million
off the books. The Sixers are about $10 million over their
cap. But with those subtractions, they would have $25.16
million to spend on free agents.

As far as the coach is concerned, Collins can have the job for
as long as he wants, for my money. But I hear whispers that
Rod Thorn may have had enough and that Collins then would be
interested in being the GM, with his protege, Michael Curry,
taking over as coach. Whether new owner Josh Harris would be
down with that remains to be seen.

In the meantime, Friday night's game produced one of the
loudest crowds that I can ever recall in a Philadelphia arena,
which means that people are having fun with this Sixers team.

Remember, just a short time ago a lot of us were hoping the
Sixers would not make the playoffs in order to get a better
lottery pick. How stupid we all were.


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◆ From: 111.243.216.211
推 hanway:原文有一行斜體字沒copy到喔 第一第二段中間
→ willyt:那行是Wells Fargo 要賣票吧？ XD
→ willyt:(我以為他是置入性行銷lol
→ hanway:這篇提醒我們 allen心理素質超強 竟然擋得住KG心理戰
※ 編輯: willyt          來自: 111.243.216.211      (05/21 00:05)
→ hanway:對啊 他真的是把大螢幕上面的賣票訊息打出來而已 XD