I agree, but the thing is, half the time Salmons is the one bringing the ball up and AI is playing off the ball. I heard that the reason Mo implemented that is to ease tensions on the team that AI is a shoot-first point guard. This way if he gets the ball from the PG (Salmons), the rest of the team doesn't have much to gripe about. That KO for Snow trade doesn't look too good right now...
While AI is in a funk that's no reason why I wouldn't blame the loss on him. The Sixers were up 10+ points i believe at half time and while I'm watching the play-by-play action on Yahoo! every 5 secs I see "A. Iverson misses a 23 foot three pointer". I'm like "WTF?!". First of all prior to this game he got to the line 24 times against a tough defensive team in the Rockets but settling for TONS of mid range jumpers and 5+ three pointers is crazy. ALSO, he only got one assist in the whole 2nd half while he had 5 assist in the first half. AI is a great scorer, no doubt about that. But last night was just oen of those nights that he needed to relax. A 35+ point night wasn't needed. The team was feeding off of him very well. Korver was getting his shots, Webber was hitting on all cylinders and so on. Basically everyone got things going on offense which lead to reasonable defense. But it wasn't until AI got into jack mode where everything went down hill. The team was playing so well before he started shooting like crazy. By no means am I saying AI should be traded or anything, but I have to say I blame him for that loss. There was no reason he should have been taking as much shots as those. Here is what Mo and C-Webb said about the game and I COMPLETELY agree... MO: “If you’re not sharing the basketball, you take a quick shot and they end up getting a fast break and they end up getting into a rhythm. The ball goes up, you can’t offensive rebound the ball. A lot of things happen. The first half we were sharing the basketball, we were moving and cutting, and the second half we stopped doing those things.” Webber: “In the first half that was basketball. I don’t know what happened. I just don’t understand it. Coach has been preaching consistency all year. I’m really at a loss for words.” ““I have been on teams in the past where team play has gotten us over the hump offensively. When you get easy buckets that makes it tough on the other team defensively. When we don’t play as a team offensively it makes it that much tougher on the defense. In the second half we just didn’t play team ball.” AI needs to wake up. I'm sure if we won and AI went 14-28 instead of 9-28 we wouldn't be talking about this, but AI is not going be on point all the time and last night was def. an example so when he is not on he needs to learn how to get others involved. For the most part he does as much as he possibly can to get others involved but when you're not on, you need to PASS the ball.
But the rest of the guys are partially to blame for ALLOWING him to play like that. You'd think a guy like Webber would have the balls to single Allen out... or even Mo Cheeks. Hell, even Johnny. If the guys don't say anything, Allen won't change (not that he'd change anyway).
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">But the rest of the guys are partially to blame for ALLOWING him to play like that. You'd think a guy like Webber would have the balls to single Allen out... or even Mo Cheeks. Hell, even Johnny. If the guys don't say anything, Allen won't change (not that he'd change anyway).</div> Exactly. So why bother causing problems and single him out? AI has never been the one to blame one person he blames the team, so if he was to get singled out I'm sure he would say that he's "hurt". But all in all, like you said, he wouldn't change anyways but at the same time at least Mo and C-Webb are giving around the bush responses to AI. Just check out the quotes I posted it is VERY CLEAR that they are calling AI out but not doing so in a negative fashion that will only stir problems up. I'd rahter they say what they say instead of "AI needs to play team ball". Well all of this is of course when they it comes down to speaking to the media but if they really got balls they would go in the lockeroom(with no media) sit AI down and talk to him about this. But since that won't happen, I'm happy with what they are saying.
Yeah, that is what I meant. I certainly do not want them to stir things up by saying things like that in front of the media, but they should atleast try to break it to him in a good way in a private meeting or something.
I'm happy the Sixers got these idle days because honestly right now, I'm sick of them. They better show up on National TV. Last time they made a huge comeback against Minny on Sunday morninning but too bad nobody seen it because of that NFL Playoff game. Well this time all eyes are going to be on them so THEY BETTER show up. The Nets are starting to pull away again.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Avery:</div><div class="quote_post">I'm happy the Sixers got these idle days because honestly right now, I'm sick of them. They better show up on National TV. Last time they made a huge comeback against Minny on Sunday morninning but too bad nobody seen it because of that NFL Playoff game. Well this time all eyes are going to be on them so THEY BETTER show up. The Nets are starting to pull away again.</div> i agree with you avery. im glad that the sixers are getting time off. i really hope mo shows some emotion at least and lets them know straight off that they are playing like crap. he better drill them to death and go after play after play after play. also, if BK or some other people want to know, or are surprised at how come so little people come to our home games anymore, then look at the last couple of games and youll know. nobody gives a damn if AI scores 50 points every game yet the sixers lose every one
It's no big secret that our home attendance is struggling. Fans want winning basketball. If Iverson is averaging 50 points a game, and the team is losing not too many fans would come to the games. The only times we have big crowds are when we are playing against a marquee player or team.
