Philadelphia, PA - Give coach Tom
Thibodeau credit.
Evan after his No. 1-seeded Chicago
Bulls were jettisoned by the upstart
Philadelphia 76ers in the most painful way
possible, Thibodeau never made excuses
despite missing superstar Derrick Rose and
starting center Joakim Noah for most of the
Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
In fact, he repeated what almost
became a mantra for the Bulls: "I do believe
we had more than enough to win with," the
coach said after watching his team fall,
79-78, in a sixth and deciding game Thursday
night.
He was probably right.
In Tuesday's Game 5, something Sixers
coach Doug Collins called a "human nature
game" for Philadelphia, human nature was
evidently a euphemism for an inability to
shoot the basketball.
With a chance to close out the Bulls,
Philadelphia was putrid in the Second City.
Chicago limited the Sixers to just 32.1
percent field-goal shooting with the second
quarter proving particularly challenging for
the 76ers. They trailed 17-16 after one, but
managed just 10 points in the second on
4-of-23 shooting and never recovered.
Meanwhile, the 69 points Philadelphia
mustered were the fewest points the team
scored in the postseason since laying a
68-point egg to Orlando in Game 2 of the
first round of the playoffs back in 1999.
Perhaps more importantly, it meant the
young Sixers failed a very big test and
failed it miserably. This wasn't getting a
69 on your mid-term, this was putting up a
40 on a test your professor graded on a
scale.
In the Sixers' first chance to
eliminate a playoff opponent since capturing
Game 6 against New Orleans in the East
quarterfinals back in 2003, this group built
around young players like Jrue Holiday and
Evan Turner and unproven playoff veterans
like Andre Iguodala and Elton Brand, came up
smaller than Earl Boykins at the Bol family
reunion.
The Sixers, of course, are far from
the first team to take their foot off the
gas after amassing a 3-1 series lead, but
considering they were an eighth-seed coming
in against the NBA's No. 1 team, you would
think a sense of urgency wouldn't be too
hard to create.
Of course, the only thing worse than
sleepwalking through a Game 5 would be a
lackadaisical Game 6 at home. Let's be
honest, you could sit Rose, Noah, Taj
Gibson, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and
Bob Love and the Sixers weren't winning a
Game 7 in the Windy City.