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**Coatesvillain** · 10-15-2004, 09:15 AM

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Jim O'Brien values the use of videotape for instructing his players on how to play his systems of offense and defense, even if the tape can be pretty brutal to watch sometimes.

And that's the way it was yesterday, when the 76ers viewed the mistakes they made, especially at the defensive end, in their preseason opener.

"It's like a camera - the box only takes what it sees," O'Brien, the team's new coach, said after putting the players through a grueling three-hour practice session yesterday at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

"If you're ugly and you get a picture taken, you're ugly. Well, that's what it was with the transition defense. It was ugly, and there's no hiding from that. It is what it is. The video doesn't lie."

Defense was a particular emphasis of O'Brien's during the Sixers' week-long training camp at Duke University in Durham, N.C. So despite the team's 114-107 victory over Washington on Tuesday night in Durham, he was upset afterward over the Wizards' ability to keep getting behind the defense for fastbreak layups.

O'Brien was a lot more critical after viewing the tape, calling the Sixers "horrible on transition defense. It was as bad as it can get." So he worked the team on transition defense and then worked it some more. He also used defensive drills designed to keep offensive players from penetrating to the rim - another area that made him wince as he viewed the tape.

"Defensively, we were nowhere near where we need to be," he said. "It can be expected for this time of year. But I thought we were further along defensively after training camp, and I'm hoping to see improvement on the points that I made."

The Sixers will open a four-game exhibition road trip tonight in Toronto with a game against the Raptors. They also will meet the Raptors on Sunday afternoon in London, Ontario, before traveling to New Orleans and San Antonio.

After going through their entire training camp without an injury, the Sixers will be without forward/center Marc Jackson tonight. Jackson, who scored a team-high 21 points, suffered a strained right hip flexor against the Wizards and sat out yesterday's practice.

All-star guard Allen Iverson sat out the last hour of practice, also because of a strained right hip flexor. O'Brien said he did not know how much Iverson would play tonight.

O'Brien said Iverson, now playing point guard instead of shooting guard, was "fantastic" against the Wizards in collecting 16 points and five assists while committing only two turnovers.

The coach keeps track of what he calls "adjusted assists," which he awards when a player passes to someone for an open shot that is missed, passes to someone who is fouled while shooting, or passes to someone who then hits someone else for an open shot. He had Iverson picking up 10 adjusted assists.

O'Brien also was impressed with rookie forward Andre Iguodala, who played in the fourth quarter when the Sixers completed their comeback from a 15-point deficit.

"He didn't look nervous to me," O'Brien said. "I made a decision late in the game, when we were up two, to call his number, put the ball in his hands, and he did something very positive with it. So if I was dealing with somebody who wasn't ready to make a big play at the end of the game, I wouldn't have called his number."

Iguodala said that he was "going a little bit too fast" when he entered the game, but that he gradually settled down.

"I think it took a little time to get adjusted and get comfortable out there," he said. "So next time, I want to go out there a little more confident and just try to become more comfortable on offense."

O'Brien said he would go with 12 or 13 of the 16 available players on his roster in tonight's game.

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**Coatesvillain** · 10-15-2004, 09:18 AM

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Most of the flaws O'Brien found in the 114-107 victory over the Wizards were at the defense end of the floor, where Washington shot 47.6 percent from the floor thanks mostly, he said, to Sixer breakdowns in transition defense.

''It was a baaaaaaaad thing,'' O'Brien said Thursday. ''We were nowhere near where we need to be.''

''I'm a little surprised went so long but we needed to work on some things,'' new Sixer forward Corliss Williamson said.

O'Brien was disappointed at his team's effort in what he considers the principles of his defensive philosophy, transition defense and protecting the rim. He also said there was a little too much standing around on the offensive end, which he said produced scoring opportunities at the Wizard end.

''When we shoot the basketball … you do one of two things, either go and get the damn ball off the glass or sprint back ,'' O'Brien said. ''It's that simple. There is no third option that says, 'Watch the ball.'''

It was O'Brien's main focus during the week-long camp at Duke University, but he said there was little carryover from practice to game.

''Transition defense in particular was covered ad nauseam in training camp, so we should have been further along than that,'' O'Brien said. ''The basket wasn't protected. What we did was sprint back and come out and stop the basketball let people come in behind us for lay-ups.''

''The No. 1 key is effort, and that's running back on the defensive end, trying to get back into the paint where you can stop their break,'' Williamson said. ''If we have a better effort in that area we'll be a better transition defense team. We worked all week in training camp on it and, for some reason, when we got into the game the other night we lost focus and lost our principles.''

O'Brien helped bring those deficiencies into focus during a pre-practice film session.

''It's always important to watch tape so you can learn from your mistakes,'' rookie forward Andre Iguodala said. ''Some players may not remember what they did, and by showing them and being visual they can see what they did wrong and quickly fix it.''

''It's like a camera — the box only takes what it sees,'' O'Brien said. ''If you're ugly and you get a picture taken, you're ugly . Well, that's what it was with our transition defense . It was ugly and there's no hiding from that. It is what is is, and video doesn't lie.''

Offensively, O'Brien had little complaints other than his team's 18 turnovers.

''We did some really outstanding things the other night,'' said O'Brien, whose team scored 42 fourth-quarter points to erase an 11-point deficit. ''We got out on the break a lot, we penetrated the middle a lot, and we had very good shot selection.''

He also said Allen Iverson was ''fantastic'' playing the point. Iverson had five assists and just two turnovers in 24 minutes, and O'Brien said Iverson added five ''adjusted'' assists, ''meaning that he passed the ball to somebody that had a great shot missed it, passed it to somebody that had a great shot got fouled in the act of shooting, or he passed the ball to somebody who passed the ball to somebody for an open shot.''

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**Kunlun** · 10-15-2004, 08:57 PM

It's nice to read about how fantastic Iverson is doing at the point guard position.

cornerback · 10-15-2004, 09:40 PM

you guys held Toronto to 40% shooting tonight.

(I actually thought Toronto looked pretty good on offence. Guess not though. Maybe it's just because last year was so brutal by comparisson)

cornerback · 10-15-2004, 09:47 PM

also, I think we only had 4 fast break baskets. Which is what Mitchell is looking for out of Toronto (my team). So mission accomplished on that front.

and I dunno how many fouls were called, and didn't watch the game all that closely, but I saw a few cheap ones. Like a John Salmons clean block on Pape Sow near the end of the game (not completely clean, but they usually dont call it)

**Coatesvillain** · 10-15-2004, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by cornerback!
you guys held Toronto to 40% shooting tonight.

(I actually thought Toronto looked pretty good on offence. Guess not though. Maybe it's just because last year was so brutal by comparisson)

Toronto's percentage was dropped a huge amount because of bad three pointers taken when there were higher percentage shots available. I think the Raptors were 7 for 28 from beyond.

Pan Mengtu · 10-15-2004, 10:12 PM

Box scores look good for the 76ers.

AReallyCoolGuy · 10-16-2004, 04:11 PM

Having Milt Palacio play, also didn't help our(Toronto) shooting percentage

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