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1. Containing Deron Williams

Deron Williams is undoubtedly New Jersey’s best player, but so far this year he’s been hot and cold. When he plays well, his team has a chance to win. When he doesn’t? They’re toast. So keeping Williams from doing a ton of damage should and will be priority number one for the Sixers. Jrue Holiday doesn’t give up a quickness advantage on Williams and should be okay defending him on his own. And the Sixers will give some help: other than Anthony Morrow and maybe Shawne Williams, the Nets have no one who can really burn them.

2. People Who Play

The short-term outs: MarShon Brooks for the Nets, Spencer Hawes and Nikola Vucevic for the Nets

Long-term: Brook Lopez and Damion James for the Nets, no one for Sixers

Hawes and Vucevic being out hurts less against the Nets than against most teams. For one, the Nets aren’t that good. But maybe more importantly, the Sixers don’t really need a pure big: New Jersey’s centers are Mehmet Okur and Johan Petro, who have been bad and agonizingly terrible this season and forever, respectively. And MarShon Brooks, while a nice player, would have met the Andre Iguodala buzzsaw. The Sixers will benefit more from New Jersey’s injuries than vice versa.

3. A Big Night From The Bench (Specifically Thaddeus Young)

The Sixers should be able to play Thaddeus Young in long stretches tonight, as the Nets boast only one strong rebounder (the noticeable Kris Humphries: he’s the one being booed and heckled) and no major post threats. Given this, the conditions are ripe for a big game from Thaddeus. I don’t see anyone who can stop him.

And if the game turns out as I expect, a lot of time will be given to bench players. Evan Turner and Lou Williams should have golden opportunities to succeed as well. I might as well throw Lavoy Allen in there, as he’s sure to play too.

From Dei Lynam:

In an effort to help the players avoid mental fatigue during this 66-game sprint, the Sixers’ strength and conditioning coach Jesse Wright and trainer Kevin Johnson suggested to Collins the players do yoga on their rare practice days. The change in training has been a hit.

“We have aired on the side of rest, just trying to keep our guys as mentally fresh as possible,” Collins said. “As a result we have had a lot of slippage in what we would like to do offensively, but I think we have the better chance to win, rather than come in and try to practice for 40 minutes we are better off letting our guys come in and relax and get a nice session of yoga while being together.”

I suggest you read the entire article, because the quotes are quite humorous. I know nothing about yoga, but I’m guessing it can’t hurt to give players some rest. Now is the time, with home games against bad teams, to get as much rest as possible.

However, the lax practice policies will need to end eventually, as the Sixers’ schedule looks to get much tougher. New Jersey’s next, so the Sixers shouldn’t need too much practice. But with games against Orlando, Miami, and Chicago coming soon, they might want to get some practices in. They’ll need them.

Credit: Miami Herald (miamiherald.com)

The Sixers did not play poorly for about 44 minutes of game action against the Heat. I would surmise they played quite well, considering they had no legitimate center for most of  the second half.

I mentioned on twitter last night that the Sixers did not lose because of LeBron James. Sure, he had a great final line (28-6-5 with awesome shooting percentages), but the Sixers could have won if they kept everyone else in check. They failed in that endeavor. Chris Bosh had a great offensive game. Joel Anthony seemingly wore pogo sticks. The supporting cast hit nearly all of their open shots. All of those things factored into what became a blowout victory.

However, there’s two things I want to highlight (and propose short-term fixes for) which I believe are glaring holes the Sixers have, especially leading into a game against the long-armed frontcourt Washington brings. The first is Chris Bosh-ian performances becoming a trend. The second is rebounding. I’ll start with the latter.

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It’s been a while. A long while. But, after seeing the Sixers face the Nuggets and Heat, I now am confident in saying this. Sixers will win their division. It’s obvious the other 4 teams are not playing well. But, the Sixers can most certainly hang with the best teams in the league. I should clear up that Heat game. Sixers are a better team than last year. They can easily beat last year’s version of themselves. And that version gave the Heat a nice challenge in the playoffs last year. On Saturday, they hung on with the Heat before finally getting blown away. But, I’m not convinced that the Sixers don’t stand a chance. They probably couldn’t take the Heat in another 7 game series but don’t expect the Heat to beat the Sixers like that again.

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Sixers have trouble against good teams, Hawks continue to hang tough without injured star, and Wizards get a big win this past week. The order of the rankings have shifted. Who in the world…is on top of the world? The top 3 teams in this ranking this week are VERY close to each other. Don’t let the rankings get to you; it could have gone either way. I had trouble deciding which team had the best week. Oh, by the way, it’s the Sixers, Hawks, and Clippers. Let’s see what happens…

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I wanted to investigate why Spencer Hawes all of a sudden became good player; at least on offense. This post may be more fun than serious but his injury got me thinking about what Sean said “Spencer Hawes, as I mentioned during the game, Space Jammed someone out of his talents. It’s the only explanation. Hopefully his roll continues into 2012″ Space Jam, in case you don’t know, is a movie where a bunch of cartoon characters steal NBA player’s skills. That’s what Sean was aiming at. While it may not be the only explanation, surprisingly enough, this may be the best option.

When the season started, Hawes was blowing everybody’s mind with hook shots and fadeaways. When Sean made his statement, I started to think of who he could have Space Jammed. During this time, Elton Brand actually was not playing well. What I noticed after Hawes started to slow down from the injury was Brand starting to play better. So I’m going on record as to saying that Spencer Hawes Space Jammed Elton Brand! Yes, it makes perfect sense. Spencer Hawes actually sucks. So, when he took Elton’s offensive game, his body got overwhelmed by what Hawes was doing out there and that explains the injury. Too hot to handle. And so the skills returned to Brand and that’s why we see him playing well. Sure, it could be that Elton just played himself into shape, or that he felt the need to step up with Hawes being out. But, c’mon people, that Space Jam theory sounds WAY cooler.

Oh yeah there are some other ideas to consider to Hawes’ early success after the jump.

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Today, we see a new leader in the rankings. Hawks lost one of their stars to injury and Sixers continue to blow out teams. I made one big mistake that I semi-regret. JaVale McGee should have won the 2010 slam dunk competition and there is video evidence to back up why Blake’s “car” dunk wasn’t all that. Also, some extra puns in here too. Don’t have to laugh…just smile and shake your head in slight agreement but with a little of “what is he talking about!?” too. It’s that, and more in our power rankings!

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Credit: TSMinteractive.com

This is a quasi-reaction to Dante’s take on the fast start. Let’s say I disagree to a point.

Usually, among Sixers social media enthusiasts, I am a bit of a pessimist. Although I don’t insist on blowing up the team every year like some, because I actually like to see them win, I generally have tempered expectations. For example, my prediction that the Sixers would win 35 games seems like it will come up short. And I hope it does. I’d rather be wrong in a good way than right here.

With the Sixers facing admittedly weak early competition (although the first 5 and 7 of 12 were road games), the 9-3 start comes with caveats. Namely that they’ve lost close games, faced teams with injured superstars or other important players, and haven’t proven capable of beating really good teams. Their best win came at home versus Indiana, without Danny Granger and George Hill. They’ve ganged up on the likes of Golden State, Phoenix, Sacramento, Toronto, and the haplessly awful Washington Wizards, winning games against each by 20 or more.

And while these dominating performances should be expected of good teams, they haven’t done anything to prove they can hang with the best teams. But don’t blame the Sixers for this – they just haven’t had the opportunity to.

The list of elite NBA teams at the current time is shallow. The consensus, as of now, is that the Heat, Bulls, and Thunder are the three clear favorites in the league – none have seen the Sixers.  The Sixers also haven’t played Dallas, Denver, either LA team, Boston, or Orlando. They’ll get Atlanta later this week, but they lost Al Horford earlier this week. So there’s a lot good teams the Sixers have missed.

Despite this, the Sixers have taken care of business. They’ve started 9-3 with 5 opening west coast road games and have a buffer as the season goes along. And I can’t help but shake the feeling that, even if their record worsens, they can still get better.

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This really is a message to those who thought Sixers were a great team close to winning it all. I’ve heard and seen some things that are really overrating this team. And once Hollinger from ESPN put the Sixers 1st in his power rankings, things really got out of control. Call me negative, but I don’t believe this team is anywhere close to contender status. They won’t be able to hang with the elite of the NBA long enough to somehow pull an upset.

Now, the Sixers are a better team than what we saw last year. Much better? I don’t want to say that just yet. Look at who they beat this season: Kings, Pistons, Pacers, Raptors, Hornets Warriors, and Suns. None of these teams are much better than Sixers. Sixers should have won those games. The losses came to Blazers, Jazz, and Knicks. Blazers are probably only team there that might be contender. We can go with the whole, “You can only play who they put in front of you” thing and that’s all well and good. But, to say that the Sixers are a great team is way too premature.

Let’s take a look at what the weaknesses are of this team and why they are more far off than many people may think.

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John Wall pretty miserable this year for the Wizards, for good reason. Credit: Washingtonpost.com

The Wizards Being Really, Really Bad

I know this is a terrible thing to put, but it is probably the most relevant point to make. They started 0-8, are now 1-9, and last night lost to the Bulls, when the Bulls were without Derek Rose, C.J. Watson, and Rip Hamilton. They had to start John Lucas III at guard, and he went 10-28. The Wizards also scored just 64 points, which makes me shudder to think what the Sixers D could do to them. With 6:00 left, it was a question of whether the Wizards getting to seventy points. They didn’t score again.

With the Wizards this bad, it seems as though the Sixers starting at 7-3 is a mirage. With a home and home against the Wiz, they should easily progress to 9-3.

The Sixers Coming Out Angry

Not that they have anything to be ashamed of in their near comeback versus the Knicks in New York. However, they came so close to winning after being down a huge deficit, you have to think that the Sixers will want to send a message by blowing out an opponent, and the hapless Wiz will be a perfect opponent to do that to.

This could be especially obvious on the defensive end, as the 7-6 lead the league in points per game allowed, and have only allowed 100 points twice in nine games. On the offensive end, Lou Williams will want to get his groove back after a dismal performance at the Garden, and Jrue Holiday will also want to show he is able to not turn the ball over after a poor first half.

All of this points to the fact that the Sixers will not suffer a letdown of overlooking the Wiz in the first half of the home and home on Friday.

Spencer Hawes Return?

The 7-6 clearly missed their man in the middle against the Knicks, especially on offense, as they failed to break eighty points. It was reported that Hawes was close to playing so with another two days it would seem as though he should be able to get back on the court for both of these games. He is off to an absolutely fantastic start, with advanced stats showing him as top ten in the league in both rebounding and defense, as well as hitting lots of shots. Nikola Vucevic is a good young player, but Spencer is better and more experienced, and his return could boost the team.