I think the series comes down to Willie Green and the bench player's contributions.
We know what we're going to get from Dalembert and it's not going to change much.
We know that between the two Andres and Thad were going to get about 70 pts.
What we don't know is where the rest of the scoring will come from. Usually we can count on Willie for 8, but he's really been choking in this series. Lou Williams is at the top of my list for players off the bench, if we can get 15 out of him, we're in good shape most of the time, if he gets to 20 it's probably a lock we'll win.
Royal Ivey, well I liked that three the one game, and wasn't too happy in the next when he missed one. I thought and still think that he's not good enough to be in the NBA.
Donyell is an X factor, some nights he's on, some nights he's not. He actually matches up fairly well with Orlando's bigs. I think with him out there to spread the floor the lanes would be more open.
Reggie Evans, usually the first big off the bench, has been absolutely horrible in this series. He doesn't match up well with Orlando's taller, finesse players is virtually spastic on offense and makes terrible decisions. The coaching staff would be wise to not use Reggie as the default big, at least for this series.
Marreese Speights (What? you didn't think I was going to mention him
) You can't really say what would happen since he's been out for such a short amount of time, but I did notice that his length bothered Lewis and that he scored over Howard inside. It seems to me, a layman that he would be an ideal choice, since the two primary concerns with the Sixers are scoring and rebounding and he's generally well-suited to both.
Theo Ratliff, I always loved Theo as a player, undersized but a hard sincere worker, he seems better against Howard in this series than Sam. However, since neither of them is an offensive juggernaut, it makes little difference which one is in, but Theo can actually catch a pass, so I'd use him with the 2nd group when they're having trouble scoring.
The refs aren't on anyone's side, I hope we get the benefit of a few more, but really the Sixers lost this one on their own. The bench and Willie were incredibly bad. It's ok if one or two don't produce, since usually the others do. It's very rare that none of them produce and we don't score enough.
I think this is on the coach's more than anything. the Andres and Thad can score because they can take their man off the dribble. Most of the rest of them need to spot up and shoot. The staff needs to devise a plan to get these players into the space they need to be effective. The one thing that would destroy the Magic would be to set someone big up in the lane to distribute or threaten the basket. If Howard doesn't come out, he shoots the short shot. If he does the big looks to the wings coming in from the right or the left for an easy basket off a screen. The only problem is the timing, the big can't stay in the lane for too long without doing something, so everyone else needs to be in position first.
If only the Sixers had someone who could operate in the post.... we have two, Thad and Marreese and the staff should get busy figuring out how to attack Howard with these players.
