Well, if you want to explain this one away, there's plenty of solid
excuses you can go with. No Spencer Hawes. Third game of a
back-to-back-to-back, fifth in six nights. Some weird calls from the
refs in the third, which jobbed the Sixers at both ends. Catching a hot
team at home whose shots were falling more than ours were. Indeed, the
Sixers' first loss in seven games was a forgivable one, one with some
legitimate positives to still be taken away from it.
But no doubt, it hurts. This would have been the best win of the Sixers'
season—finally, a winning team at full strength (well, minus Baron
Davis, but that's been true all season), and a divisoin rival no less,
for the Sixers to measure up against. We were pretty confident in their
chances, and despite being outscored 31-15 in the first, at a couple
points, it seemed like the Sixers might find a way to eke out a W in
this one anyway. But the Knicks were the stronger team tonight, and now,
the critics that never quite believed the Sixers were legit can point
to this game as evidence that the Sixers are just a pretty good team
that beats up on lackluster competition. Darn.
Ultimately, the thing that really made the difference in this game was
the Unibrow (justifiably) taking the night off for health reasons. The
Knicks already have more size than the Sixers can handle—absolutely
nobody on this team can guard Amar'e Stoudemire one-on-one—and being
down one big body really hurt, especially because Tony Battie can't
really play big minutes at this point in his career, and Nik Vucevic
looked a little out of his depth, going scoreless and getting torched on
D in what Coach Collins will invariably chalk up to being a "learning
experience" of his rookie year. Too often, the Sixers had to go small,
and the Knicks aren't really a great team to go small against.
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Of course, the lack of size wasn't the only thing we missed about
Spencer—our offense also went borderline stagnant without him. A lot of
it was probably tired legs—the team was uncharacteristically sluggish on
the break, and a lot of shots were missed short—but the team also just
wasn't moving the ball all that well in the half-court, and scored only
ten assisted field goals the whole game. And our bench, who has buoyed
the team all year, got outplayed in the first half by Knicks scrubs Josh
Harrelson and and Toney Douglas. Evan Turner ended up having a nice
night after missing his first four shots, scoring a tied-for-team-high
16 with seven boards and a couple dimes, while Thaddeus Young turned it
on in the fourth and ended with 12 points, but Lou Williams had by far
his worst game of the seasons, scoring just two points on 1-6 shooting,
without the team's best foul-drawer earning a single trip to the line.
The latter was mostly attributable to some silent referee whistles in
the third, which were accompanied by a bizarre double-tech on 'Melo and
'Dre which looked like it should have gone solely on 'Melo, and a
clear-path foul on the Knicks that was turned to a loose ball foul for
no particular reason. But the Sixers did get some generous calls in the
fourth quarter, so you can't blame this one solely on the refs. The
Knicks just hit more shots than the Sixers did over the first
three-and-a-half quarters, and though the Sixers did an admirable job of
fighting back for the last seven-eight minutes—after Collins called a
timeout when the Knicks opened their lead to 78-61, the Knicks failed to
score another field goal all game—it just wasn't their night. Tough
rim-outs for Thaddeus and Elton in the final minute secured the Knicks
victory, and now the Sixers' lead in the Atlantic division is just one
game over the 6-4 Knicks.
Well, Friday's a new game, and the Sixers get the Wiz at home in what
should be as close to a gimme game as they'll see on their schedule this
year. Can't win 'em all, but at the end of the day, the Sixers are
still 7-3, and in third place in the Eastern Conference, a position they
should hopefully be fighting for all season. The Knicks got us this
time, hopefully we'll get 'em next time, and in the meantime, we'll try
to keep piling up blowout Ws against the inferior teams while the Knicks
get caught off guard by the Raptors and Bobcats. Hey, take solace in
the little things.