New Day, Same Problems for the Sixers: They've Dropped Five of Seven

Eddie Jordan was brought into Philadelphia to help jumpstart an offense that was one of the worst in the NBA last season, averaging just over 97 points a game. So far this year, the Sixers are averaging...just over 97 points a game, and their defense is now allowing over 102 points per game. The offensive problems came into play again tonight, as the Sixers dropped their fifth game in their last seven contests in a 94-88 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

As the case has been with most of these losses, the Sixers played the Bulls tight throughout, but had a lapse in defense at an important part of the game. Tonight, it came at the start of the fourth quarter, when the Bulls went on a 14-4 run to effectively put the game out of reach. Chicago didn't have the best night offensively, either, but their 45% shooting was better than the 42% that the Sixers threw up, and that came with the Bulls using just three men on their bench the entire night.

I don't know what the problems are for the Sixers right now, but it's obvious that something has to change. Andre Iguodala and Lou Williams each scored over 20 points tonight, but the bench managed just nine points for the night, and that's not going to get it done against any team in the NBA, I don't care how bad they are. Eddie Jordan let the starters play a little bit more than the bench tonight, but it didn't seem to matter. The Princeton offense that he brought with him still isn't taking hold, and now it's effecting the defense in a negative way. Last year, the Sixers held opponents to 97 points a game, and this year, they're letting teams score over 100 on them with regularity.

In half the games so far this year, the Sixers have allowed 100 or more points, and they've less than 80 just once...and that was against the New Jersey Nets, so it doesn't really count. I know the defense wasn't that great last year, but it was better than this, and the offense at least showed a little bit of life. The Bulls had 18 turnovers tonight, and the Sixers scored just 14 points off of them. The Bulls had eight players come into the game, and outrebounded the Sixers by five. These are problems that have been coming up in almost every loss so far this year, and something has to change. Yes, it's only been ten games, and I might be jumping the gun a little bit, but right now, this team is playing sloppy basketball, and it's not even fun to watch. Something has got to click with this team, and soon, or the 2009-2010 season could turn into a very long and painful 82 games.