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Friday, March 20, 2015

Stan Van Gundy doesn't like the Sixers

Last spring, at the Sloan Sports Conference in Boston, Stan Van Gundy referred to the Sixers, and their route of rebuilding as ‘embarrassing.’

"Not what Philadelphia is doing right now, which is embarrassing," Van Gundy replied to a question about tanking. "I don't care, [commissioner] Adam Silver can say there's no tanking or what's going on [but] if you're putting that roster on the floor, you're doing everything you can possibly do to try to lose."

Ironically, Sam Hinkie was present when those comments were made.

Image via foxsports.com
Fast forward to this March, and Van Gundy’s Pistons sit well out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture at 24-44; only 8 games ahead of the restructuring Sixers. 

With a solid defensive effort and some tough interior play, the Sixers bested the lottery-bound Pistons 94-83 on Wednesday night. The Pistons were held 15 points below their season average, and were limited to only 20 points in the paint thanks to Nerlens Noel, Thomas Robinson, and the rest of the frontcourt. It was a solid, albeit not pretty, team win for a team that is building back up after a deadline day shake-up.

After the game however, Van Gundy gave the Sixers no credit, placing the loss entirely on his own team.

“We kept making the same mistakes, we were never in that game,” he stated.

When asked to explain his team’s low field-goal percentage against the Sixers, he didn’t mention anything positive that the Sixers may have done to cause the subpar shooting.

“When you don’t throw the ball to open people, and continue to force shot in the paint, if we continue to take those shots against anybody, we’re going to shoot in the 30% range. It’s the shots were taking. They all come and attack the ball, we’re taking difficult shots at the rim, there’s people wide open on the perimeter and we won’t throw it to them.”

He implied that his team did a poor job of ‘knowing their opponent:’

“It was a total lack of focus in getting ready for a game and knowing who your opponent is and taking what you go through in the morning and preparing yourself to play.”

As his media session was about to end, I asked Van Gundy if the loss to the Sixers was ‘embarrassing’; a reference to his comments about the Sixers a year earlier. He didn’t respond. 

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