Happy New Year everyone! The Sixers celebrated the New Year out west in the midst of a seven-game holiday road trip and tonight they will visit the Phoenix Suns in their sixth game of the trip. The Suns (18-16) had a six game winning streak before visiting New Orleans on Tuesday night, where they lost to the Pelicans 110-106. They then traveled to Oklahoma City and lost in overtime to the Thunder on Wednesday night 137-134, where they didn't exactly give thier best effort to contain Kevin Durant as he went off for 44 points. As for the Sixers, they are coming off one of their worst performances of the season after being annihilated by the Western Conference leading Golden State Warriors by 40 points, 126-86, on Tuesday night. But hey, that was 2014. So, brand new year, brand new Sixers? Most likely not. In fact, it should read, brand new year, same old Sixers. Hopefully 2015 can bring the Sixers a little luck tonight against Phoenix.
Alright, so Tuesday night in Golden State was embarrassing to watch. If you didn’t fall asleep during the rout, God bless you for making it through because I couldn’t. The game was over before it even started. Golden State is a fantastic team and they were my preseason pick to win the Championship this season so I wasn’t expecting much from the Sixers coming into the game, but the lack of effort they displayed did surprise me a bit. And I don’t think it’s all their fault. This team is dead tired right now. They haven’t been home in two weeks, spending the holidays away from their families, playing tough team after tough team, it has all been taking a toll on the roster. And there isn’t much Coach Brett Brown can do about it because he only has on average about nine guys a night that can suit up. Tonight, they face another team that runs up and down the floor until they eventually run you out of the gym. The roster just can’t handle this task at the moment and the poor play makes it difficult to watch. Hopefully now with a few days of rest, they’ll be able to muster together some strength but I don’t expect much from them tonight.
The Suns on the other hand are just as I said before. They run, run, and run until you drop. They also take and make the three. Phoenix is second in the NBA in attempted three-pointers (27.1 per game), tied for third in three-pointers made (10.1), and tied for fourth in three-point percentage (37.4). This doesn’t help the Sixers at all considering they’ve struggled to defend the perimeter all season and were unable to contain Portland’s deadly three-point shooting just a week ago. The Sixers give up the most three-point attempts in the league (25.5 per game) and are ranked 26th in points allowed on fastbreaks (15.5 per game). They gave up 29 fastbreak points in the blowout loss to Golden State. Transition defense has been a major liability for the Sixers all season and tonight they will face Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic, both of whom run the floor and are able to create easy buckets at all times. All signs are pointing to Phoenix in this matchup. If the Sixers want to have any chance in this game, they’ll have to get back on defense quickly and get some timely stops, along with maintaining Phoenix’s ability to shoot the three ball.
Game Notes
- The Suns have defeated the Sixers in each of their last four meetings by an average of 14.2 points.
- The Suns score the fourth most points in the league, averaging 106.5 per game.
- Noel needs to be aggressive and crash the boards down low. The Suns are 0-8 this season when they’ve been outrebounded by double-digits.
- Don’t turn the ball over. The Sixers had 28 turnovers Tuesday in Golden State and have had at least 17 turnovers in each of their past 13 games.
- MCW is now 3-27 in his last two games. When he shoots well, the Sixers are more likely to have a chance but when he shoots that ugly, that’s when they lose by forty.
Injury Report
Sixers- Luc Mbah a Moute (left calf strain, probable), Jason Richardson (right foot stress fracture, out), Hollis Thompson (upper respiratory infection) and Joel Embiid (right foot stress fracture, out).
Suns- None
Projected Starters
Sixers
PG- Michael Carter-Williams
SG- JaKarr Sampson
SF- Robert Covington
PF- Henry Sims
C- Nerlens Noel
Suns
PG- Eric Bledsoe
SG- Goran Dragic
SF- P.J. Tucker
PF- Markeiff Morris
C- Alex Len
Prediction: This one could get ugly. Like I said, the Sixers are dead tired right now and just want this road trip to be over already. The Suns are coming off a loss, they are going to be much more aggressive, meaning they should have their way with the Sixers. 112-91 Suns.
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