Another ugly game, and this time, an ugly win to match for the Sixers.
It was looking like a pending feel-good W for Philly when Jrue Holiday
hit consecutive threes to put the Ballers up seven with just about 3:30
to go, but a Boozer three-point play and a CJ Watson jumper quickly cut
the lead to two, and the Sixers ended up needing a little help from the
refs to escape with the Game Four win.
Still, it was a huge win for the
Sixers, and with the 3-1 series lead, you have to feel like now they're
actually—gasp!—the favorites to win in this series.
After a game three that saw the Sixers' guards balling and their
frontcourt go bone-dry from the field for the first three quarters,
matters were reversed for the Sixers today, with their backcourt
struggling enormously through the first three—Jrue was a horrific 1-14
at the half, with Evan Turner and Lou Williams not doing much
better—while the Sixers' bigs actually came through. Spencer Hawes in
particular was even stronger than he was yesterday, hitting from all
over the court (including a three at the end of the half that brought
Evan out of his seat on the bench) and ending with 22 points and eight
rebounds—the first Sixer center since Moses Malone to have to straight
post-season 20-pointers, apparently.
The Bulls, again missing their star point guard in Derrick Rose and
defensive anchor in Joakim Noah, just didn't have the weapons to put
away the Sixers today. Overpaid forward Carlos Boozer had a decent
enough game as the Bulls' featured scorer, putting up 23 points (but
needing 24 shots to do it), but their guards again struggled, with their
starting backcourt of C.J. Watson and Rip Hamilton shooting a combined
8-27 from the field, and all-star swing Luol Deng continuing to no-show
offensively, scoring just 11 points on as many FG attempts. (Partial
credit must go to the Sixers' back-court for the Bulls' continuing
shooting woes as well, with Turner and Holiday making up for their
lackluster offense with clampdown D.)
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It seemed like the two teams' strengths and weaknesses canceled each
other out nearly all game, so it was no surprise to see the game go down
to the wire as it did on Friday. But the key sequence of the game might
have been one where the refs unfortunately took over the game with
their own erratic officiating, as a Carlos Boozer drive with about a
minute left, in which he appeared to be clocked by both Elton Brand and
Spencer Hawes, was not whistled, while a bump on Jrue Holiday at the
other end was, allowing the Sixers to go up four and take control of the
game. It took a little wind out of the joy of the victory for it to be
so zebra-influenced, but props to the Sixers for actually making their
free throws down the stretch—7-8 again down the stretch, including a
jaw-dropping two-for-two from Andre Iguodala—and it's not like the Bulls
were playing brilliantly down the stretch anyway, committing careless
turnovers and performing some Reid-worthy clock management.
I've taken the approach this series that it's more important that the
team really figures out who they are, rather than doing whatever it
takes to move on to the next round.
This series already has so many
asterisks next to it that it almost doesn't matter long-term who ends up
winning, though it would be cool and somewhat hilarious to see this
team have a shot at getting to the conference finals—and as far as
looking towards the future, today wasn't quite as encouraging as
yesterday. Still, even if Evan had a rough day on offense, you liked
seeing him attack the basket on nearly every possession and shutting
down CJ Watson on D, and even if Jrue had a miserable showing from the
field in the first half, those two threes were absolutely cold-blooded,
and the converted final-minute free throws were nearly as huge. And
Spencer Hawes...well, a couple more games like this and we might have
some tough decisions to make in the off-season about our
flawed-but-versatile big man.
Game five in Chicago on Tuesday, with a chance to close out (!!!) the
Bulls and not see the WFC crowd again until round two.
It's a weird
post-season, and if they do win the series, lord knows most people
aren't going to give the Sixers much credit for an upset. But to all
those people who may eventually be harping about how you can barely
consider it an upset consider the Bulls' injuries, I ask you this—how
many of you actually predicted the Sixers to win after Rose went down? I
certainly didn't, and I seriously doubt you did either.
It will still
be a huge accomplishment for the Sixers if they win a fourth game in
this series, and though I don't know where they'd go from there, I'm
very proud of our boys for getting that far.