The honeymoon on the 06-07 season was over more quickly then a Hollywood marriage. Quality wins over Orlando and Miami dissipated into a half-court defenseless night as the 76ers dropped their third game in a row to the winless Denver Nuggets. This was the Kenyon Martin-less Nuggets as well, his injury forced George Karl to play Eduardo Najera 27 minutes. Still the Sixers could not pull out a win. So far this season has been a tale of two teams. Allen Iverson is the only player at this point giving consistent performances game in and game out, while everyone else seems to want to take some games off. Which is understandable, it is a long season they have every right to put out more effort some night and less effort others. If the sarcasm is not emanating off the page, it should be.
The problem is these players are so hard to figure out. Andre Iguodala is aggressive, getting shots and getting to the foul line one night and others looks like he barely wants to shoot. Samuel Dalembert some nights looks like he is poised to break out and become the player that everyone watching knows he is. Then other nights he is slow on defensive rotations, gets himself out of position, then commits quick fouls and ends up on the bench for most of the game. When Dalembert is on the floor for 35 minutes he puts up 17 points, 6 boards and 2 blocks. This also gives Cheeks the option of having Stephen Hunter and Dalembert on the floor at the same time. Having a pair of athletic 7 footers on the court together is a nice change of pace, and keeps opposing teams out of the lane. With both out there, any defensive rotation from either side of the lane is done by a legitimate shot blocker. This makes teams one-dimensional.
The past three games this was not the case. All three games looked eerily similar to all of last season. Indiana, Toronto and Denver ran when they wanted and scored, they scored out of half-court sets. None of this was the case in the first three wins. They dominated Atlanta from the opening tip and the week was capped off by a spirited, bench led comeback over the reigning NBA champs. There was not a basketball mind around who thought this streak was going to last, but no one envisioned the drubbing that Indiana gave them. OK, we will give them the Indiana loss, they needed to fall back to Earth, but not that bad, but it is what it is, so everything was still ok.
Then off to Toronto, where playing the second night in the row on the road following a punishing team like Indiana with a speedy and fast-break minded Toronto Raptors. No one can begrudge them that loss, second night in a row on the road against a quick team like the Raptors, especially when Chris Bosh hits a prayer 3-pointer after a nice defensive series. That was an understandable loss.
So now the Sixers are home and have the night off with the winless Denver Nuggets in town the next night. Thought was, we pick up a win here before going on a 3-game west coast trip. But no, the Sixers let ‘Melo and company hang 108 points on them. Even though they had a spirited comeback with time running out in the fourth, the effort was too little too late in this one.
So now the boys have four days off before heading out west for three games in four nights against Seattle, Phoenix and Los Angeles. Cheeks needs to get these defensive issues solved on this mini-break or they will get run off the court out west, and end up back home 3-6 looking up at the division once again.