Sixers Shock And Lock Down League-Leading Spurs, 77-71

Message to the rest of the NBA, Doug Collins has the 76ers going in the right direction and they’re getting better, in fact much better.  I could see that The Sixers shocked the San Antonio Spurs last night with a 77-71 win at the Wells Fargo Center, in what was a low-scoring, hard fought contest.

Collins’ squad was led by the 27 points of Jrue Holiday and the 17 rebounds of Elton Brand. and the game wasn’t decided until the final seconds.

It wasn’t pretty, but so what the Sixers who aren’t even above .500 beat the Spurs who have the best record in the NBA at 44-9.  The 76ers were only the second below .500 team to beat San Antonio this season.  With the win they improved their record to 25-28.

It was an awful game for both teams when it comes to putting ball in the hoop, as they combined for a 34.4 shooting percentage, but Philadelphia was playing some outstanding defense down the stretch.  It’s the only way they were able to corral the top Spurs scorers, point guard Tony Parker scored only 9 points and shooting guard Manu Ginobili was held to 8.

Parker was 3-of-10 from the field and Ginobili was worse at 2-for-10.  Late in the fourth quarter, the young point guard Holiday locked down Parker and Andre Iguodala put the handcuffs on Ginobili.  They made it difficult to get the ball to Tim Duncan and it allowed them to hold the Spurs to a total of 25 points in the second half.

“That was an incredible display by our guys defensively,” coach Doug Collins said. “I’ve never been more proud. This was a grind-it-out, halfcourt game.”

Holiday had a monster game for the Sixers with a game-leading 27 points.  This young man is coming into his own and the fact that he could go out and play on this level against the team with the league’s best record has to give a major shot of confidence.  Holiday was 9-of-14 from the field, 3-of-4 from beyond the three point line and 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

Surprisingly, Spencer Hawes was the second-leading scorer with 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field, 5-of-7 from the line, while also contributing 8 rebounds. Iguodala struggled from the field like nearly everybody else in the game.  He was 2-for-15, yet his defensive contribution was invaluable to the win.

Collins laid out the formula for the getting the win and involved more of a focus on the defensive side of the floor than the on the offensive end.

“Our whole game plan was around three things,” Collins said. “First and foremost, keep those guards [Ginobili and Tony Parker] out of the paint. They were 5-for-20, Ginobili 0-for-5 from the three-point line. We also did a good job keeping them off the free-throw line.

“Number two was defending the three-point line, especially those corner threes. They were 3-of-17 from the three-point line. And then we said we wanted to be able to push the ball in the open court, force some turnovers. We forced 16 turnovers. We had 21 fastbreak points.”