Coming off an exciting overtime win Tuesday night over the Bulls, the Sixers had a chance last night to make a statement at home against the Lakers, one of the NBA's elite. Unfortunately, the only statement they made was that they are not yet ready for prime time. This followed by less than a week a bad loss to the other half of the league's elite, the Celtics. When the Sixers lose to struggling teams like the Timberwolves and Bobcats, it is explained as a tendency to play down to the competition, but apparently the converse is not true. They have no such tendency to play up to the competition. Make no mistake. The Lakers are a very good team with a true superstar but except for a few fleeting moments, they were never seriously threatened by the home team.
Elton Brand has had a series of very solid games but last night was unquestionably his worst game of the year. He was so ineffective that it's probably not worth even analyzing his effort. Just one of those nights. But if he brings anything to the table, the game would figure to be much more competitive. The Lakers' dual seven-footers did pose match-up problems for the Sixer defense as evidenced by the 114 points allowed. But a porous Sixer defense has been a recurrent issue. Once again, there was a lack of defensive intensity and much confusion on switching.
On the positive side, the Sixers were able to generate some fast break baskets with Andre Miller, Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young running the floor. And Louis Williams shot very well from long range in the second half which is hopefully a sign of things to come. Normally, if the team scores more than 100 points, the game should at least be on the line in the last two minutes.
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