It's great for howard, I considered starting Battie and Cato with Howard off the bench, but Howard has been solid so far, and to think about his potential as well, its awesome. On offense I like to pass the ball aroud to whoever has best positioning for what he can do. If I get the ball low to mobley, I won't do anything if 2 guys are on him, but if it's one on one on the perimeter, i'll be aggresive. Howard is vica versa. The only guy who I can be aggressive at all times is francis.. although stephen jackson is pretty reliable also..
Orlando @ Philly
I had a decision on who to start tonight: Stephen Jackson or Grant Hill. Jackson had been nothing but sensational since arriving, and Grant Hill hasn't played well at all this season. I stuck with Hill though.. becuase Jackson off the bench is alot better at this stage. That would hurt me though. As the game started, Francis was on fire! He was penetrating well against McKie and scoring. He even hit a 3. But Cuttino was playing terrible, and with Jackson not starting, it really slowed down the performance of the team. Philly sagged into a zone and Mobley was getting great looks but was just missing them. However Stevie and Dwight Howard were good enough to keep it tied after 1 quarter, 23 all. The second quarter was a nightmare though. I went to a lineup of Stevenson, Garrity, Nelson, Battie and mobley, but it just was a bad 1st half for Cuttino. He had 1 point all half, and we had only scored 3 in the 2nd quarter through 6 minutes. I put francis, jackson and howard back in and that immediately helped as we scored 11 points in the final minutes to bring it back to within stiking distance, 42-37.
3rd quarter would begin terribly for Philly. Allen Iverson was injured on the first play and didnt come back. But Robinson and Mckie would step up and carry the 76ers. Mobley started getting out on the fastbreak and we got some production out of that, but this was stevies game. He was just unstopable in this game, but philly was hanging tough, and led heading into the fourth, 64- 62. In the fourth Dwight Howard re emerged, but it was stevie down the strecth that gave us a chance to win. Mckie and Robinson kept hitting three's, including back to back ones with 1:30 left to give them a 5 point lead. Francis would respond with a dunk, then grant hill made a steal and pass to francis for a fastbreak dunk, then hill made another steal which lead to francis who kicked it to mobley who hit a 3 that gave us back the lead. Philly missed their chance to go up and there was a 4 second differential between the shot/game clock and they didnt foul. this allowed me to run the clock down and i drove with francis and kicked it to cato who missed the shot as the shot clock expired, but howard cleaned up the board with a crazy tip in. Philly scored a meaningless shot at the end, and we escaped with a 87-86 win. If Iverson didn't get injured, different story, definately.
Player of the Game
Stevie Francis
36 points (17-21 fg, 2-2 3pt)
2 rebounds
2 assists
1 steal
Rest of the stats
Cato 2 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 blocks
Howard 15 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block
Hill 2 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steal
Mobley 15 points(14 in the 2nd half), 6-20 fgs (2-14 3pt), 4 reb, 1 steal
Jackson 7 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 2 blocks
Garrity 8 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal
Mckie had 28, robinson 24. They played great. I hope i run into philly in some big games this season, this was a fun game.
Other Scores
Washington 106
Dallas 97
Arenas 21 points, 11 assists
Stackhouse 28 points
Kings 86
Nuggets 78
Bibby 23 points, 10 assists
Carmelo 31 points, 8 rebounds
Heat 103
Bucks 98
Shaq 36 points, 13 rebounds
Redd 24 points
Seattle 111
Memphis 94
Allen 23 points
Memphis starters 76 points, rest of the team 18.
Scouting results are reading for my guys, im just too buggered to post them. sorry, I'll post them tommorow. Thanks for reading
