First off the refs got the final call right: Devin Harris‘ second desperation heave of the final second was out of his hands before the clock struck zero. However, there is no good way the shot should have been counted in the first place. The clock didn’t start running when Harris first batted the ball down with his right hand, it started running when he picked it back up and promptly had it knocked away by A12 (who, its worth mentioning, played the sickest D you’ll ever see on a play that essentially loses your team the game). I don’t think you can blame the official scorer – they’re a Nets employee and it’s a bang-bang play, but the refs have to check for that and DiLeo and his staff have to be sure they do. Tony should have been in their ears from the minute the ball went in and he shouldn’t have gotten out of them yet. If the play held up he should have gotten fined for his postgame comments – a play that like is on the refs first and the coach second, when the first party fails its on the second to let them know about it.

Now … all that said, this game wasn’t about the last 1.8 seconds nearly as much as it was about the 47 minutes and 58.2 seconds before it. The 76ers once again didn’t hit their magic five threes, missed 14 of 37 free throws and put themselves in a position to lose a fluky game because of it.

In the grand scheme of things the loss doesn’t really matter – the Sixers are still mediocre enough to make the playoffs and be irrelevant once they get there – but as far as personal statement games go there are probably better games out there to come out like they did. Entering the All Star break the Sixers were as hot as any team in basketball, which could have either meant that they had turned a corner or that they were on a hot streak. The three losses before this could probably be explained away by scheduling concerns and minor mistakes, but this one cannot. If the 76ers want to be serious playoff team they need to take care of teams like the Nets. They were just on a hot streak.

A couple more thoughts worth noting …

• AI2 had himself a really nice game. I still think it was crazy to pay him $22 million more than anyone else could have offered him, but he really is playing up to his contract. It’s plausible that he could emerge as the type of player who could be the second best player on a relatively deep championship team.

• Reggie Evans did not. I’m a huge fan of Evans and think he’s a valuable 4th big man, but he was a negative last night.
• Royal Ivey is shooting 31% from the floor for the season
• It sure has been awhile since Thaddeus Young took a game over. I’m still high on the young lefty, but he’s a second year player and he needs to show some flashes now and again.
• It’s a good thing for Ed Stefanski that he didn’t make a move at the deadline. If he had unloaded Andre Miller and the team had gone on this skid every half-pence pundit in the tri-state area would be complaining that the team couldn’t win without him and how Stefanski had ruined a promising core.

“I thought a lot was going on for 1.8 seconds, I thought for sure it wasn’t good, and I still don’t think it was good. . . . There were so many things that went on in a small amount of time for that shot to be good.” – Andre Iguodala

“It was no good, we all know that. It was a half-court shot; by rule if it’s not conclusive, you can’t overturn the call. Violet called it no good, and by the video, he didn’t get the ball off in time, so I don’t know how you can overturn a call that was called no good, plain and simple.” – Andre Miller

“I thought it wasn’t good,” said Sixers coach Tony DiLeo.

Three lines on their world:

1. Champions League knockout phase begins today

2. Nate Robinson put up 41 in a win over the Pacers

3. and the Rangers shook up their bench

Three lines on ours:

1. The Sixers lost a heartbreaker

2. Neumann – Goretti handled Roman for the Catholic League crown

3. and Donovan McNabb might have made a power grab

Phillies, Birds, Sixers, Flyers and what everybody is talking about after the jump

PHILLIES

READ

Jim Salisbury paints Rich Dubee as Charlie Manuel’s Rahm Emmanuel.

Phil Sheridan points out that the Phillies could have hit a lot better last year. 

David Murphy looks at one of the subtler changes from Gillick to Amaro: Ru has stacked his minor league deck with vets.

SKIP

David Murphy looks at the battle to be the 25th man.

Jim Salisbury’s notes say Jimy Williams isn’t talking to Philadelphia press, and more.

SIXERS

READ

Rich Hofmann says the Sixers think they got robbed.

Bernard Fernandez looks at last night’s coaches strange routes to the top.

SKIP

Kate Fagan’s notes look at the shooting, the Lopez v. Dalembert matchup and more.

EAGLES

READ

*ifcor1 Les Bowen reads the tea leaves and thinks this whole McNabb situation is bad.

John Gonzalez has got McNabb’s back as the QB grabs for power.

SKIP

Peter Mucha reads a bunch of mock drafts.

FLYERS

READ

Sam Carchidi looks back on the rule that changed the way hockey fights.

Sam Carchidi reports that Mike Richards has picked up his first first star of the week.

Wayne Fish says Mike Richards is wearing the C admirably.

SKIP

Ed Moran says it’ll be Mike Green who the Flyers are going to have to gameplan against.

TODAY and MORE

Yeah, so the Champions League knockout phasestarts today, we’ll be watching that.

Locally the Flyers are back in action, the 76ers are headed to D.C. and the Phillies are gearing up for their first split squad action of the spring.  As always, feel free to email with any questions, suggestions, comments or complaints.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 9:25 am and is filed under Morning Rounds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.