This is the most important thing to understand about the Sixers- their half-court offense sucks. It cannot withstand much pressure at all without cracking. Even a bad defensive team like the Mavericks can stop them cold and go on a 10-0 run. No team can win consistently playing like this. When a team looses chronically, at some point the players think, "here we go again" and turn into loosers.
In order to stop the bleeding the team needs to do something different. Tony DiLeo needs to get a clue- playing Evans and Dalembert at the same time is a recipe for falling behind. Yes, you'll get your share of boards, but no scoring. You can put Ratliff with that group as well. Relatively one-dimensional hustle players will not win games for you, not unless you have some guys who can really fill it up, like LeBron.
The only thing that I can see that will help the Sixers as they are presently constructed is to play Speights more. At least he appears to be serviceable as a scorer, and in truth, in some games the Sixers are close enough to win that the addition of an inside scorer would make a substantial difference. Having a go to guy in the post changes the whole offensive dynamic. Once you throw the ball into the post the other team has to defend down low, and that opens up the lanes for slashing and passing that the team doesn't get otherwise. Even if he only scores a handfull of times, it opens up the floor enough for others to score. You can't defend Iguaodala with two players if one of them is occupied guarding your big man. If he leaves to defend Andre, he has an easy pass inside for a score.
Had Speights played his 25-30 min. last night the Sixers would have produced a couple more points in the paint, slowed the game down a bit when they had the ball and forced the Mavericks to do what they cannot- defend inside! That might have interfered enough with their scoring to stop them from eating into the Sixers lead.
Defense is the last thing I think about when I put in a player, when my team is behind. Let the other team worry about matching up to my player, and I'll spend a lot of my time, rubbing that player off of mine if he can defend him. And on defense, I'd experiment. Who's to say he can't guard Nowitzky? It's not as though anyone else for the Sixers was doing a good job! At least this way you match Dirk's height and speed! And what better opportunity for him to learn than against the stiffs Dallas plays inside? You can't protect him against bigger players forever, eventually he has to learn how to play against bigger stronger players and realize his quickness gives him a huge advantage.
