The morning after the Sixers became the 11th consecutive victim to fall to the Cavaliers, Philadelphia fired head coach Maurice Cheeks, the former Philly PG’s 9-14 mark this season helping to make him the 5th NBA coach terminated during this campaign. Dime’s Andrew
Katz pretty much called this one a few days ago, dubbing the Sixers a squad that’s “underperformed as much, if not more than any other team in the league.”

The money committed to Cheeks is nowhere near the same ballpark of what they owe
to Elton Brand and Andre Iguodala. The dollars could dictate where the blame is placed.No matter what Cheeks™ salary is right now, there are some problems with this team that need
to be addressed by the coach. Despite the talented offensive weapons at small forward
(Iguodala, and Thaddeus Young) and power forward (Brand), Philly lets their point guards pull
the trigger a lot. They™re third in the League in field goals attempted by a point guard right
now at 20.2 attempts per game behind the Spurs (20.9 FGA) and the Clippers (20.3
FGA).

Through the early going this season I’ve been grossly negligent in not acknowledging the
emergence of Robin Brook Lopez and the improved play of Devin Harris for
New Jersey, but I’d be equally sloppy in not pointing out that Vince Carter had a historically poor evening Friday
against the Raptors. Writes the
Star-Ledger’s Dave D’Alessandro, “the bright side (if you want to call it that) was this particular game (if you want to call it that) wasn’t played in Toronto, where Vince Carter’s performance might have caused serious injury – the inevitable result of 20,000 paying customers falling all over each other in hysterics.”

Carter narrowly missed putting up a doughnut in the right-hand column, shooting 0-for-13 from the floor and not scoring his first point until the 8:21 mark of the fourth quarter, when he knocked down two free throws.

That’s right – 13 shots, zero makes, in 29 agonizing minutes.

Only twice has Carter gone scoreless in his sterling career, but those were truncated outings (four and six minutes) in which he left due to injury. But this time, even his spirit wasn’t wounded: As he knocked down his first point from the line, he responded to sarcastic cheers with a “settle down” motion. When the second attempt fell, he raised his arms and wiggled his fingers, as if to say, “Okay, bring it.”It was the only real statement – non-verbal or otherwise – that Carter made all night. For the first time in his Nets tenure, he did not address the media after the game, electing to head for the bus that would start the trip to Chicago, where the Nets play Saturday night.