The Philadelphia Inquirer: Shooting blanks, 76ers fall

I checked the game thread & leaf through a couple of pages but did not find this posted anywhere. So my bad if it has been.

Good read.
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Posted on Tue, Nov. 18, 2003



Shooting blanks, 76ers fall

By Joe Juliano
Inquirer Staff Writer

The endless stream of bricks rattled off the rims at both ends of the Wachovia Center floor last night, but the malaise of poor shooting was felt more by the 76ers than the Houston Rockets.

The Sixers established career worsts at the seven-year-old arena for points and field-goal percentage in a game, shooting a putrid 31.5 percent from the field in a 74-66 loss to the Rockets in front of a crowd of 18,486 spectators, most of whom left well before this classic had ended.

The 66 points also tied the second-lowest point total by a Sixers team since the introduction of the 24-second clock in 1954-55.

The previous Sixers lows in the Wachovia (formerly the CoreStates and the First Union) Center were 67 points against New York on Feb. 19, 1999, and 31.7 percent shooting against Miami on Feb. 18, 1997.

The Sixers played once again without starting frontcourt players Glenn Robinson and Derrick Coleman. And for tomorrow night's game against Toronto, they may be without Allen Iverson as well.

Iverson, playing on a swollen right knee, shot just 4 for 19 from the field and scored a season-low 15 points - only four in the second half - in 45 painful minutes. He admitted after the game that he had thought about sitting out last night, and may have if not for the injuries to Robinson and Coleman.

"When I got here, you know me; I get into this environment and I want to play," Iverson said. "But I don't think it was very smart to go out there, as far as pushing off and creating things. I was moving like somebody else. It wasn't me."

The Sixers did get forward Kenny Thomas back after a four-game absence because of a bruised lower back. Even without the benefit of a practice, Thomas tied for the team high with eight rebounds in 21 minutes.

The Sixers, who fell to 2-3 at home, were outrebounded last night for the ninth time in 11 games. The return of Robinson and Coleman will help, but Coleman is listed as day-to-day and Robinson is not expected back until Friday or Saturday.

Of getting injured players back, point guard Eric Snow said: "It will help, but we can't push a guy back. Just because we lose a game doesn't make them heal. They're still injured. So I'd rather have them sitting out now instead of coming back when they're not ready and getting hurt again."

Shooting has harmed the Sixers in their last two games. They were coming off a 33.7 percent performance Saturday night in an overtime loss at Cleveland and were worse last night.

They shot 2 for 18, or 11.1 percent, in the third quarter last night. The Rockets, who were the "superior" shooting team at 32.5 percent in this game, kept the Sixers in it by making only 20.8 percent in the third quarter, leading to a 13-13 stalemate.

But the Sixers had nothing in the fourth quarter, either. Trailing by 59-49 entering the period, they drew to within 62-55 on a Willie Green scoop with 8 minutes, 3 seconds remaining, but the Rockets quickly went up by 13 with a 6-0 run that featured four points by 7-foot-6 center Yao Ming (12 points, 14 rebounds).

The Rockets led by as many as 15, at 74-59, with 3:55 left when Jim Jackson converted a free throw after a technical foul call on Iverson. Houston committed six turnovers and missed two shots on its final eight possessions, but the Sixers had too high of a hill to climb.

Houston's Cuttino Mobley, a Cardinal Dougherty High graduate, led all scorers with 19 points on 7-for-16 shooting that included four three-point baskets in 10 attempts. Steve Francis, the Rockets' leading scorer with a 20.3 average, made only 3 of 17 field-goal attempts and scored 11 points.

The Rockets were an exhausted team, playing their fourth game in five nights in four cities and coming off a double-overtime loss to Toronto on Sunday.

Sixers coach Randy Ayers chose to credit the Houston defense, which prevented his team from running and getting into any kind of flow.

"They did a great job of controlling tempo and really taking us out of the rhythm of our offense," Ayers said. "They had a good game plan in terms of when we had Allen at the point, they were trying to get the ball out of his hands."

If there was one bit of good news about last night for the Sixers, it's that they needed to refocus quickly on tomorrow night's game against the Raptors.

"I've forgotten it already," Aaron McKie said. "We've got to get prepared for Toronto."


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Contact staff writer Joe Juliano at 215-854-4494 or jjuliano@phillynews.com.