Some post-game thoughts (Sixers edition)

And the injury-depleted Blazers come crashing down to earth . . .

• If one stat encapsulates the night, it's this: the Sixers had 60 points in the paint; the Blazers had 40.  That's actually better than normal for Portland.  But it's virtually impossible to win a game when you give up 60 points in the paint.  The Blazers lack of size and depth in the frontcourt was really exposed tonight.  With no Oden or Przybilla, the Blazers were absolutely destroyed by the Sixers post players.  Elton Brand looked like the guy he was 2 years ago, with 25 points (on 11 for 16 shooting) and 9 boards.  Sammy Delambert had 14 points and 8 boards.  And Marreese Speights added 14 points.  Thanks to all the close-range shots, the Sixers shot an amazing 57.7% on the night.


• Despite the poor defensive showing, the Blazers were actually up by 10 early in the third quarter of this game.  But then the offensive just stopped.  No one could hit anything, even foul shots (Roy was 3-7 from the free throw line and Aldridge was 3-6).  Other than their foul shooting woes, however, both Roy and Aldridge had respectable nights.  Roy finished with 24 points.  Aldridge had 17 points and 12 boards.  Both again played long minutes (Roy 42, Aldridge 44).


• Jerryd Bayless had his worst game of the year, going 0-7 from the field and playing just 16 minutes.  He did have 4 assists and made both of his foul shots.  


• Steve Blake had a quiet night, get 10 points on 4-10 shooting and 3 assists.  Several of his makes came in the 4th, after the game was effectively over.


• Miller won the point guard derby for the second game in a row.   He had 11 points (on 4-7 shooting) and 7 assists, including several amazing feeds for easy buckets under the hoop.  As the Sixers pulled away in the fourth quarter, I kept wondering why Miller wasn't in the game.  He deserved to be.  By the time he was put back in it was too late. 


• Jeff Pendergraph played his best minutes to date, scoring 11 points and pulling down 5 boards in 19 minutes of play.  Dante Cunningham also had a decent appearance, though brief.  He had 6 points and 2 boards in 7 minutes of play. 


• Juwan Howard had a very quiet night, getting 6 points and 2 boards in 20 minutes of play.  My sense, though, which seems to be backed up by the plus/minus numbers, is that Howard was playing better team defense than Pendergraph.  He finished the night with a +1, while Pendergraph had a -10.  


• The Sixers tonight were a much better team than their record indicates.  Elton Brand is finally starting to play like Elton Brand.  Iverson returned and had a decent night.  The team that played tonight, if it can stay healthy, is at least a .500 team in the East.  


• That said, this is not a team that a healthy Blazer squad should lose to at home.  The Blazers lost tonight because their weaknesses were finally exploited.  Their lack of front-court size and depth was finally exposed.  The question going forward will be whether the Blazers can come up with a defensive strategy to compensate for what happened tonight.  If they don't, there will be a lot of nights like tonight.  The next might be on Wednesday, when the Clippers and Chris Kaman come to town.