SIXERS NEWS

Coming into tonight the Sixers had not really gotten a win against a quality opponent this season. Now after a thriller in Detroit against the former face of the franchise, Allen Iverson, and the Pistons, they have one. Admittedly the offense wasn't a whole lot better tonight than it has been, not surprising considering Elton Brand sat the night out with a hamstring strain. However, the Sixer bench did display marked improvement, combining for 42 big points, and collectively it proved to be the difference tonight. Guys like, Theo Ratliff who provided much needed D with 5 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals, Donyell Marshall who playing in his first game in over a week, provided the clutch shooting with a couple of key 3 pointers, and Lou Williams who continued to display a renewed scoring touch with 16, all truly came up big for the Sixers tonight. Finally the D was better as well, not yet great, but good enough to help pull out a Sixer victory. Early on Detroit jumped out to a 6 point lead after 1 quarter and a 10 point lead at the half with the score 48-38. The Sixers started to battle in the 3rd quarter, cutting the lead to 9 by the start of the 4th with the score 67-58. There it was the bench that got the bulk of the playing time, and the bench that ultimately won the day as a Marshall 3 pointer finally put the Sixers ahead with just 35 seconds to play and after some solid free throw shooting the Sixers had held on for a clutch 96-91 victory. So the Sixers move to 9-11 overall and hopefully this win will give them the confidence to get on a roll and start winning consistently as they go forward.