SIXERS NEWS

The Sixers were back on the road again tonight in Atlanta against the resurgent Hawks. Early on all signs pointed to another dominating Sixer victory, as they jumped out to a 20 point lead, but from the second quarter on it slowly slipped away, until they had lost again. Oh woe is me. Offensively, four Sixers scored in double figures(Andre Iguodala, Andre Miller, Willie Green, Thaddeus Young) with Iggy's 22 leading the way. Defensively, the night belonged to Samuel Dalembert with 13 rebounds and 5 blocks as the Sixers out rebounded Atlanta 42-38. In the end though, the two teams were so evenly matched that it really didn't matter. In the first quarter of play, the Sixers jumped out to a commanding 20 point lead, and still lead by 18 heading into the second quarter, with the score 32-14. Atlanta turned things around in the second quarter, cutting the lead to 6 by the half, with the score 50-44. Thus heading into the third quarter, it was a whole new ball game and the Hawks took advantage of it and eeked out to a 2 point lead, with the score 72-70 heading into the 4th quarter. Finally in the 4th quarter, Atlanta kept it's nose out in front until with 19 seconds remaining, and the Sixers trailing 94-91, Josh Smith sunk two clutch free throws, to close out a 96-91 Hawks win, So the Sixers drop to 18-30 overall, but as usual they remain in 4th place in the Atlantic division.