SIXERS NEWS

The Sixers had won 4 in a row coming into tonight's showdown with the Eastern conference and Atlantic division leading Boston Celtics. Unfortunately, thanks to Boston's smothering lock down defense in the second half, the streak came to a close tonight, but not before the Sixerss found out how they really match up to the Eastern conference's elite. Although they are young, up and coming and on a roll right now, they are still growing as a team aren't quite ready to legitimately challenge teams like Boston just yet, but give them a couple years when Boston has aged out of contention and they'll be right up there. Despite the loss the Sixers still managed to produce five scorers in double figures(Andre Iguodala, Andre Miller, Louis Williams, Thaddeus Young, Jason Smith) with Miller's 22 leading the way. Defensively, Samuel Dalembert led the way with 10 rebounds and 2 blocks, and Reggie Evans chipped in with 11 rebounds, as the Sixers actually edged the Celtics in rebounding 51-50, but it was to no avail. The Sixers shot only 31% from the field and were constantly frustrated by the smothering Celtics, while Boston shot nearly 50% from the field and constantly scored easily as the game wore on. In the first quarter of play Boston jumped out a big early lead, but the Sixers fought back and tied it at one point before Boston pushed out a 6 point lead with the score 26-20. In the 2nd quarter of play, Boston merely maintained their lead with the score 53-47 at the half. Finally in the 3rd quarter of play Boston began to wear down the young Sixers and pulled away to a 14 point lead, with the score 76-62 heading into the 4th quarter. There Boston did just enough to maintain their lead yet again and walked away winners by only 14, with the final score 100-86. So actually the Sixers acquitted themselves quite nicely considering where they are right now as a team. So the Sixers drop to 30-34 overall, but remain 7th in the Eastern conference and 3rd in the Atlantic division.