Pick Your Poison

Well the Sixers indeed ran into a wall last night. The Magic have stepped up their defense in a way that is giving the Sixers fits. The more alarming issue, however, is what happened to the Sixers defense. Throughout the first four games of this series, the Sixers have focused their attention on the perimeter and limited Turkoglu and Lewis from scoring in bunches. They have mitigated the damage by allowing the entry passes to Howard and then quickly collapsing on him, usually fouling, and forcing him to earn his points at the line. Last night that strategy seemingly disappeared. Howard had his way inside and on the glass, and was very effective from the line. Fine, I'll let that happen if the Sixers clamp down on the perimeter. Not the case. The Magic were getting several open looks and frankly could have won by a greater margin but missed a bunch. The Sixers needed to hit the majority of their outside shots and they simply could not do it. Marshall entered the game only to provide porous defense, quick fouls, and missed shots. That's not the game we can have from him. Dalembert once again couldn't stay on the floor and was caught gambling for offensive rebounds and fouling, thus forcing Ratliff to have to play even smarter minutes on Howard. The frontcourt's fouls need to be strictly limited to fouling Howard on the low-block while he has the ball or stopping slashers on their way to the basket to prevent easy scores.

One interesting wrinkle is the blatant elbow that Howard threw at Dalembert's head after a tangle for a rebound. The league despises thrown punches/elbows to the head and no doubt will look at this very seriously. If this were the regular season, Howard would almost certainly be forced to sit a game but since we are in the playoffs, the league will hate to influence anything (especially when it's clear who they would rather have advance from this round). Howard might just be facing a hefty fine. News just came out that Courtney Lee, Howard's own teammate and another victim of his flying elbows last night, broke his sinus and is out for at least Game 6. Lee has been the benefactor of the Sixers' defensive attention to Lewis and Turkoglu and has had a few strong games this series. Let's see what the league say about Howard this afternoon. Obviously a suspension would greatly impact the Sixers' chances to win Game 6.