Philly’s Playoff Run: This ain’t over
Michael Tillery sees it going to a game 7…
The Sixers are playing once again with their Philly soul against the wall. No one outside of Pennsylvania gave them a shot to do anything this season–including me. They were horrible early in the season but after Ed Stefanski replaced Billy King, things began to change.
Yeah they lost last night 98-81 in Game 5, but trust me this is going seven even though the entire sports world thinks differently.
Chauncey had his best game of the series and put up a double double with 21 and 12. Sheed had 19, 6 rips and 6 blocks. Rip had his usual night and threw in 20 and Tayshaun had a respectable 17.
The Sixers were led by Dre Iguodala with 21 and Lou Williams with 16. Andre Miller didn’t hit double figures until the third quarter and finished with 13 on 5-17 shooting. The traps set for Iguodala the entire series focused on Miller and many of his shots were put back by Roscoe.
Sammy Dalembert is going to catch mad wreck here for the mohawk he rocked. Willie Green’s barber is responsible for the damage. “LJ” was cut into one side and “SD” into the other. He says “LJ” was for a loved one and “SD” was for strong defense.
Speaking of strong defense…
I think the matchup between Willie Green and Richard Hamilton is the key. Willie has to somehow cancel out Rip by holding him to 15 while also getting 15 of his own. Hamilton is running him all over and through screens that normally cripple guards by the time the fourth quarter comes around. I’m sure that’ll be something Cheeks will stress.
Roscoe says it best here when talking about the fight in the Sixers and Game 6: “The two games we’ve lost they played harder than us and in the three games we’ve won, I think it was a matter of us playing harder than them. It’s gonna be a lot of pushing and shoving…elbows being thrown and all that stuff.”
“(In the three wins) We’ve slowed our offense down–not rushing it. Before we would make one pass and then shot. We just run our offense looking at our options; getting options. We might run the same play two or three times in a row. We might have Rip…Chauncey might feed Rip going to the hole, so it’s nothing fancy. We have business to handle, but we still do our little side jokes out there or whatever. We’ve been in situations like this before so it’s not a lot of pressure and our booty holes aren’t tight.”
Sheed doesn’t speak much but when he does he damn sure makes it memorable.
Watching the presser last night, it seemed the tenor of the questions were resolute this was all but over and Cheeks was almost lulled to sleep because of the sentiment. It was almost as if a switch flipped in Mo’s head to snap out of it. I noticed he was mentally searching to say something his young team could grab on to continue to fight and somehow pull out a victory in Game 6.
Mo Cheeks has been preaching 4 wins the entire series. It’s something Billy Cunningham passed down while he was playing. You could see him telling the notorious hecklers court side in the palace “We’ll be back.”
He didn’t finish fourth in the Coach of the Year voting for nothing. He’s been here before.
He also has given Detroit is proper respect when having to reference the Pistons after questions. This is a team looking to advance in the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season. They’ve played so many games these last five years and still won 59 during the regular season, so Cheeks knows what he’s up against.
I’ve personally learned a lot from Mo these last couple of months. He will not make any excuses when his team loses. They’ve exhibited some ridiculous resilience since February and have to be one of the most unique teams this decade because of their youthful but unmitigated competitiveness.
He’s been cool and logically collected when a lot of coaches would have been happy with the modicum of success they’ve achieved.
It’s crazy, but covering a team I grew up watching–and loving–this season has been surreal. If you remember Mo lead the Sixers to three Finals here, so he remembers the highs, the lows and cognizant of how the story must not go as it is presently being written. If the Sixers lose tomorrow, it will be something everyone expected. If they win hee has a chance to speed up his squads development and galvanize this city.
During his playing days, his teams battled the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks (a team that in my opinion resembles this Pistons team) for the right to ultimately play the Lakers.
They became the legend with their play and the city wrote it down as fact.
After some bad times, the team and the city are hungry for a new legend. The practices are hungry. The ushers are hungry. He hasn’t stopped coaching and he’s probably hungrier than anyone. This is his chance to put a stamp on not only the history of the city, but the league. He’ll tell you he doesn’t care about that stuff, but if Mo Cheeks does his job, the Sixers have about as good a chance as any.
Will the ghosts of Doc, Moses, Andrew Toney and Dave Zinkoff fall from the rafters Thursday and push this new flavor of Sixers into a new age of success?
We shall see, but don’t count Philly out, for they aren’t built that way.
46 Responses to “Philly’s Playoff Run: This ain’t over”
Apr.30 at 10:09 am
Ron says:
“Run With Us”- Let’s Go Sixers!
Apr.30 at 10:23 am
TADOne says:
Mizzo, love the column. These young Sixers have surprised everyone and have a good, young nucleus to build off of. It was fun to watch them switch gears mid-season when Stefanski came aboard and realized the strength of the Sixers was to run, and then run some more. Iggy finally broke out of his Tayshaun induced slump and put in 21 last night, which was positive for Philly. All that being said, the Pistons will close this out in Philly. Billups finally broke out of his slump and realized what works and doesn’t work against Miller, and he is the Pistons engine. Good job by Flip (I cannot believe I just typed that) in recognizing this and having Billups play more off the ball and letting Tay bring the ball up and then let Billups set the offense. Detroit will win by 10 in Philly.
Apr.30 at 10:46 am
Michael Tillery says:
Honestly, I would have thought the same thing Tad, but the Sixers are becoming the Eagles in that they win the games you think them not to win. The Sixers don’t want to lose. The season has been too good to them. The young cats reminisce like old heads when speaking on their progress and it starts up top with Cheeks. He is the determining factor in all of this. It’s funny, but sometimes when I ask him questions in press conferences, he almost scolds me just to temper what might be misconstrued as overconfidence that might be brewing among the press.
Apr.30 at 10:46 am
d.Y. says:
This goes 7. Why couldn’t AI win with these kids?
Apr.30 at 11:03 am
Michael Tillery says:
Because everyone deferred to him. An example was last night when Dre Iguodala had his best game of the series and they still lost. This team, like the Hawks, is forming a bond that will definitely pay dividends as soon as next year…but not yet.
Apr.30 at 11:28 am
Co Co says:
I’m pulling for the Sixers Mike!!
Apr.30 at 11:38 am
Michael Tillery says:
Whassup with Rev Fox? What does he think
Apr.30 at 11:46 am
Khalid Salaam says:
Mike T you are being greedy. Lets focus on the draft.
Apr.30 at 11:56 am
Michael Tillery says:
I can’t do it brotha. You know it just as well to be true that this team needs to win now or the city will lose faith in the franchise. The two games here weren’t sellouts. I covered the Soulja Boy game and DC’s White Out was light bright compared to Philly’s cricket night.
We need an infusion of hyped up blood now. Beasley is living here until the draft. He’d look nice on the block here. I know…just a dream.
Apr.30 at 11:57 am
AG. says:
All I am saying is Tayshaun Prince.
Apr.30 at 12:05 pm
d.Y. says:
Awww c’mon Khalid, it feels like most of my life as a Sixers fan has been about next year’s draft. I often adopt WC playoff teams to root for because … well, Philly’s already gone. Can we just be glad to be here for once?
Apr.30 at 12:07 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
people are catching on but sixers fans don’t drink the kool-aid. its obvious that this team is a long way from being legit. time to focus on the draft. we need a lot. preferably a pf and also a sg. i would be willing to trade iguodala to get these things, do you agree with me?
Apr.30 at 12:20 pm
d.Y. says:
We also need to start grooming a replacement for Miller, the catalyst for all this. No dis, I love what he’s done, but I’d trade him if it could net the right guy. Otherwise, when he retires or leaves, we’ll float between 6th and 10th place for the next 5 years (like the last 5 years).
Apr.30 at 12:55 pm
TADOne says:
Khalid: I agree with you about trading Iggy. He wants a max contract, or he at least wants more than what the Sixers offered him already, and while I like him, I don’t think he is worth it. I’m quite sure you can find a bundle of sign-and-trade partners for him. But what exactly would you want in return?
Apr.30 at 1:22 pm
Michael Tillery says:
Philly is not going to acquire a difference maker that puts them into at least the conference finals–even if they traded Dre. There’s four teams ahead of them with ATL potentially an equal as well. I think they can build this team as it is. I can’t believe I’m saying that, but I like the chemistry going on here. I’m definitely not getting rid of Miller. Dude is as sick as Holly is in the Post Up.
Apr.30 at 1:23 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
We desperately need a post presense. we need someone to run the offense out of. a post presence will allow players like thad and carney to use their athleticism. it will also open up the 3 point game because in theory, that post guy will have to get dbl-teamed sometimes. is that in the draft? free agency? i don’t know.
Apr.30 at 1:25 pm
Michael Tillery says:
I totally agree. Josh Smith’s contract is up. Could he be the answer?
Apr.30 at 1:27 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
d.y, i am never ever just happy to be there.
Apr.30 at 1:30 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
josh smith? the problem is, he isn’t consistent enough nor savyy enough to be a number 1 option. if he came to the sixers wouldn’t he be? plus where would he play? he plays pf but he’s not really a pf. he’s not a post player. he’s an athlete, which we have in thad. we need a basketball player not an athlete
Apr.30 at 1:35 pm
Michael Tillery says:
Who do you have in mind then brothaman. The cupboard is bare.
Apr.30 at 1:48 pm
Co Co says:
Khalid hates the Sixers.
Apr.30 at 1:51 pm
Michael Tillery says:
Co Co when are you going on with the Rev again? That was straight entertainment.
Apr.30 at 1:56 pm
TADOne says:
Is Iggy a restricted free-agent?
Apr.30 at 1:58 pm
Co Co says:
I dunno Mike, prolly next month sometime. I’ll let you know!
Apr.30 at 2:07 pm
Michael Tillery says:
Nice! I can’t wait to hear him say skuuul lol
Dre is a restricted free agent. So the Sixers can match. He’ll command at least what Al Jefferson got with Minny–5 years, 65 million. That 2004 class is due to get paid. Andre turned down a 5 years and 57 million extension in earlier this season that many players were talking about.
Apr.30 at 2:45 pm
Michael Tillery says:
Avery Johnson fired.
Apr.30 at 4:08 pm
TADOne says:
Iggy does NOT deserve what Jefferson got, although he probably will get it.
Apr.30 at 4:30 pm
Michael Tillery says:
Really? Why do you say? What has Jefferson done?
Apr.30 at 5:39 pm
Myles Brown says:
What has Jefferson done? 21 & 11. Something only three other guys did this year, if that many. He’s a proven post player, which is a rarity and we still havent seen his ceiling yet.
Apr.30 at 6:21 pm
TADOne says:
What Myles said.
Apr.30 at 6:29 pm
The Promise says:
Detroit does this every year…they play with the smaller opponents head by losing a time or two and then clobbering them before they knew what hit them. that being said, Pistond take it in Philly and march on to face Orlando. And you can bet they will be ready.
Apr.30 at 6:30 pm
The Promise says:
Pistons*
Apr.30 at 8:29 pm
Michael Tillery says:
So he made sixty-five million dollars padding stats…on an abysmal team…for one year?
Apr.30 at 9:38 pm
Myles Brown says:
I sat there and watched this dude pick apart the best post players in basketball all year. And they all had to give him his props. Its not like hes the third option every night, or like he has any help, he was the one the opposition was game planning for every night. He earned every bucket-and dollar-he got, but Ill get back to you on this after next year, when he does the damn thing again on a much improved team. By the way, must be nice to be in the Eastern Conference.
Apr.30 at 10:39 pm
Jason says:
Philly won’t win another game in this series. But it is cool that they overachieved this year and are fighting.
Apr.30 at 10:46 pm
Jason says:
d.y: Iverson had almost that same roster of players (only they were younger and not as experienced) and led them to a better record and the playoffs the season before he got traded. And all people did was complain. They didn’t even have a real PG then either. But I agree with Michael that it would have been better if they would have gotten everyone involved instead of just depending on Iverson to do it all.
Apr.30 at 11:44 pm
Michael Tillery says:
I have to say Myles that all this criticism of the Eastern Conference is not all it’s cracked up to be. Philly was running through the Western Conference–on the road–in February. I think we’ve seen that Denver, Phoenix and Dallas were not all that so…
May.1 at 5:53 am
KA says:
kinda makes you wonder why the blazers sucked with cheeks.
May.1 at 7:05 am
Michael Tillery says:
He’s learned a lot from those days.
May.1 at 9:05 am
TADOne says:
You forget that Jefferson was doing his thing in Boston before Ainge decided to trade him. Now, McHale is a horrible GM, but Al Jefferson is good and will tidy up his image some, if that is even possible.
May.1 at 10:22 am
Michael Tillery says:
There’s no dispute that Jefferson is a beast, but I’d say Iggy has had a better career up to this point.
May.1 at 11:10 am
Kevin says:
i’m pullin for the Sixers for sure..
May.1 at 1:30 pm
Darksaber says:
Both teams played hard…. Damn Roscoe is so cool.
May.1 at 1:53 pm
ronglov72 says:
I believe it’s going seven, I just keep replaying Sunday’s game in my head. And I’ll say this the $57 million that Iggy shot down is going to be around $40-45 million. He’s proved in this series that he’s better riding shotgun than driving.
May.1 at 4:56 pm
Harlem_World says:
Mike, first of all, this series is over but major props to Philly for at least making it interesting and overachieving since the ASG. On the Jefferson/Iggy deal - I’d rather build around Jefferson than Iggy. Jefferson can be that double teamable 22/11 guy, Iggy never will be. Iggy will be one of the best second or third option guys in the league, but never that franchise guy you build the team around. He should have taken the money while it was on the table. Him, Deng and Gordon all made mistakes on that one.
May.2 at 2:04 am
Harlem_World says:
Hate to tell you I told you so - but I will. Philly can hold their heads high as this seasons surprise team of the year. Right now y’all look like the Spurs looking at your team from a New York state of mind.