The Sixers are fooling themselves if they think the way they are playing will win them the series. No bench scoring is all it took for the Sixers to lose by double digits.
Green did his job tonight, but the bench wasted it.
They did get to the rack a bit more, but not enough to win. They need a different strategy.
It does seem like Dileo was indicating that Dwight Howard is in the 3 second zone all the time. That is all he would say, but it's enough for him to make his point without being fined by the league. The refs are killing the Sixers in this series. Dwight is in the lane long enough for their to be a 3-second call on every play. It's cheating and it's illegal and it sullies the game for it to not be called. They certainly have no problem calling it on the Sixers.
Notice no Speights yet again, and again inadequate bench scoring. Either Williams or Speghts should be able to have sufficient impact for the Sixers to win. Lou is too inconsistent, and I'm not sure why. He has regressed this season and is a disappointment. Speights is simply underutilized, a bad coaching decision, simply because he is the prototypical power forward the Sixers need to provide an inside presence. This lack of inside scoring was recognized as a significant fault, last season, which is why they traded for Elton Brand. Within a few seasons, Speights will surpass Brand as an inside player, being better suited for the spot by virtue of his size. Of course, right now, Speights isn't strong enough to play in the middle and cannot handle Howard. Then again, how much worse can he be than Sam and Theo who picked up fouls so rapidly that it killed the Sixers rotation?
The only good thing about this loss is that it may force the coaching staff to do some more unorthodox things to win. I do believe the team has the ability, if only they would fully utilize all their resources.
The referees are a real problem. There is definitely a bias towards Orlando, and they are permitted to foul without being called for it quite often. The most egregious are charges called on the Sixers, when it's clear that the Orlando defender did not get in position in time. This is very bad, because the Sixers are on a fast-break and rather than getting a score, they lose possession. The Sixers are down the floor in 4 sec. how can anyone possibly be back and fully set in that amount of time? I don't see this changing, so the Sixers will have to fight through it. The coaching staff should help by calling legitimate three second calls on Dwight. If they refuse to call them, demand they look at the replays to see that they are in fact violating the rule. Then, if there are still no calls, they should file a protest with the league.
Orlando shouldn't need help from the refs to win, if they do, they don't belong and the NBA is a farce since they are creating stars rather than allowing the stars to earn their spots by playing successfully within the rules.
