NBA Playoffs: Sixers and Utah Will Be Quick First Round Outs
April 14, 2009 by dwil
The Philadelphia 76ers gave us a preview of their playoff fate Tuesday night against Boston at the Wachovia Center. Boston played without Kevin Garnett yet defeated the Sixers 100-98 to fall to 40-41 and seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings. Chicago must lose at home tomorrow and Philly must travel to Cleveland and defeat the Cavaliers for the 76 to finish sixth.
Philadelphia had a chokehold on sixth place on April 5 and then proceeded to lose six games in a row. They managed to lose at badly at New Jersey (96-67), Charlotte, and Chicago in successive games. Returning home Philly lost to Cleveland, then traveled to Toronto only to lose another winnable road game.
Tony DiLeo’s team has a major problem: a lack of overall talent. Beyond capable point guard Andre Miller and sometimes prolific scorer Andre Iguodala, finding points is difficult for the Sixers. With Elton Brand out for the season and third-leading scorer Thaddeus Young (15.2 ppg) sidelined with a sprained right ankle, each Sixers halfcourt offense foray is a potential exercise in futility. Guard Louis Williams (12.7) remains too inconsistent to be relied upon in tight playoff situations.
With their length, athletic ability, and Samuel Dalembert patrolling the interior Sixers can and more often than not do play staunch defense, allowing only 97.2 ppg. Unfortunately, without a reliable third scorer too many well-executed defensive game plans have gone to waste this season.
Whether they finish seventh or eighth, Philadelphia will be lucky to win a game in the playoffs against either Cleveland or Boston.
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This season’s version of the Utah Jazz have allowed 100.6 points per game and allowed teams to shoot 46.3% both the worst defensive statistics for a Jazz team since the 1192-1993 season. Additionally, Utah is 3-9 away from home n the month of March (15-25 overall). These numbers, according to former head coach Doug Collins, these stats are a sign of team-wide distrust. During Tuesday night’s TNT contest against the Los Angeles Lakers Collins sensed that something is amiss in the Utah locker room. Though Utah put forth a more inspired effort than they had recently on the road, the Jazz continued to miss defensive rotations and continued to show-help on screened players as they had most of last month.
Though Utah faced a less-than inspired Lakers team, they seemed content with running up and down the court with LA. As with Philadelphia, even with a chance to escape the Western Conference cellar, the only player who seemed to care about the contest was point guard Deron Williams. Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur both can opt out of their contracts next season; Boozer announced as much.
Despite their overall talent Utah seems pre-occupied with ending the season. Williams is a stellar point guard who can score almost at will. With his shooting range, Mehmet Okur is a matchup nightmare for most teams. Boozer is great on the block but has range to about 18 feet. Ronnie Brewer has become a capable three-point shooter and slasher. Andrei Kirileko is a menace on defense, can shoot the three, and gets more than his share of garbage points.
So why is Jerry Sloan’s team no threat to upset the Lakers in the first round of he playoffs? The Jazz are missing something essential that good teams possess – will. Perhaps there are too many players wanting out of Utah. Perhaps, as Collins said, there is team-wide distrust. Perhaps Sloan’s message and coaching methods are wearing thin on this group of Jazz players. Perhaps all of the aforemetioned are contributing factors to Utah’s failings.
Whatever their problems, the Jazz have a long offseason to deal with their issues because they won’t do much against LA in the playoffs.
Dwil – I noticed the same thing with the jazz last night. Can’t remember the last time I saw a jazz team play with so lil’ emotion. Good for the Lakers but it will be interesting to see where that team goes. Sloan isn’t going anywhere (at least I can’t see it). but you have to wonder how much longer he will put up with his current roster.
Also, as a Jayhawk, how long you gonna keep me hanging with the john wall scoop. I heard he might qualify for the draft. Would much rather see him in the pros than another school
Utah might get swept this time. This just isn’t the same kind of Jazz team we’re used to seeing. There isn’t that precision in the offense that Sloan’s teams usually have. The Lakers are way too good for this year’s Jazz. The pieces are there, but as stated before, they just don’t seem together for whatever reason. Guess they’ll all go their separate ways when they go fishing for the summer.
Philly will finish in the 6th or 7th spot depending on if the Bulls win tonite. If the Bulls win, they are 6th. If the Bulls lose, and Philly wins, Philly gets the tie-breaker. 6th place means Orlando, 7th place means the Celtics. With Orlando reeling lately, Philly might have a better chance against the Magic. If KG doesn’t come back right, and Philly ends up playing them, they might have a good chance at a couple of wins. Either way, I don’t see them getting past either team. Philly goes down in 6 against either team.
the jazz have been terrible on the road all season and have needed some referee bail-outs at home on more than a few occasions to get some wins. but before boozer came back they seemed to be playing with more intensity and they seemed to have a bit more swagger. paul millsap especially was playing out of his head in some sense. kirilenko was all over the place and deron williams had that scoring run and the jazz seemed to be running on most cylinders. they’ve deflated since boozer came back and it may have something to do with his stating that he’s a starter and also that he plans on opting out. maybe the team-wide distrust stems from some players thinking that millsap earned a starting spot while boozer sat out injured. but whatever it is, they’ve got no will to win games. they collapse every 4th quarter and i don’t see them turning around against a lakers team that is way too good for them. like dwil said, it’s kind of a shame to see all that potential waste away because they don’t seem to care at all whether they win or lose.
The second best player on the Jazz is a dog. They need to let Boozer walk, resign Millsap, and pray that somebody is stupid enought to take on AK47 horrible contract. That’s going to take some serious prayers, but that’s all they got.
Sorry to jack this thread, but I just heard that Kevin Garnett is out for the entire playoffs.
So why is Jerry Sloan’s team no threat to upset the Lakers in the first round of he playoffs?
The Jazz have no interior defense, and they cannot deny the entry pass into the post, advantage Lakers. On the offensive end the Jazz tallest player is camped out at the 3 point stripe, advantage Lakers.
Grand – yeah. KG looks to be done for the year. Huge blow to the Celtics and it definitely puts a damper on what looked to be another great series between them and the Cavs.
Yeah hate to hear KG is done. If this is true the cavs will play the lakers in the finals. Cavs should beat the Celtics in 7 games in the ECF. This reminds me of the season that bird was hurt and the pistons beat the celtics.
Lakers over cavs in 6. Can’t wait to see how the media spins this postseason. Will it be how Marbury is a cancer win the celtics lose in the ECF. Or how lebron is a choke artist when he loses to the lakers in the finals (even though the lakers are a better team). Or how Kobe career compares to MJ.
I say all three above.
Guess Fat unicron whitlocks theory will go down the drain, that Highschool kids can’t lead a team to a championship. We are going to have 2 dudes who have never went to college lead their team to the finals and one will win a championship.
Anyway I wanted to see Celts vs lakers in the finals again.
Well it still helps the league we can have the lakers win it this year and the celtics and lakers play in the finals next year.
Oh and that scream for joy out west that you just heard was brotha kevdog jumping for joy….LOL!!!
Another thing poor Ainge even he has health issues.