Last night was supposed to be another win for the Sixers this time against the Sacramento Kings who had yet to win a game on the road. Well, the Knigs had other ideas, and once they got Dalembert and Evans to sit, they started to have their way inside, with Brad Miller and Mikki Moore putting in layup after dunk after layup, and getting second-chance shots on the ones their teamates missed.
My problem with this whole thing is that Cheeks put out a small lineup and had Kyle Korver guarding Mikki Moore. Mikki is 7' and Kyle is all of 6'6". IT IS OBVIOUS THAT KORVER CANNOT GUARD MOORE, or BLOCK HIM OUT.
So why would Cheeks allow Korver to play extended minutes against Moore?
This all started with the Sixers down 5 and about 6 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Evans picks up a foul, and Cheeks decided to play small ball against the Kings. Predictably the Kings pound the ball inside going right after this matchup. Now, the Sixers can't go anything right and go down by 9 on a Moore dunk. Cheeks calls a timeout, and and then takes Dalembert out with a bloody nose.
With 2 min. left in the quarter the Kings are up by 16 and the Sixers are done.
Nothing is worse than a coach not giving his players a chance by putting the right people on the floor. Where was Calvin Booth? Where was Shavlik Randolph? I can't blame Cheeks for putting in a player that isn't there, but what was so goddamn important that they had to trade away Steven Hunter and leave the team without a viable back-up as Center? I can't say that Hunter was a great player or anything, but I know that Cheeks wouldn't have hesitated to put him in in that situation. He obviously doesn't have confidence in his other bigs, but going small against a team that is outrebounding you and getting to the basket without any problem is just STUPID!
