SIXERS NEWS

The Sixers finally returned home from their tough road trip tonight as they welcomed the Houston Rockets to the Wachovia center. Naturally, considering they were playing the Rockets who have 20 wins, while the Sixers have 20 losses, there was little doubt the Sixers would lose again tonight. However, perhaps inspired by their near miss in San Antonio the Sixers picked up where they left off and kept up the hot shooting long enough to pull out the surprising victory. All told they shot an impressive 56% from the field, as Andre Iguodala scored 28, Willie Green had 14, and Maurice Speights and Lou Williams each had 15 off the bench. Theo Ratliff, who saw his first extended action in quite a bit, was also a key factor off the bench with 3 blocks and 4 rebounds leading to easy fastbreak points. The defense for the Sixers was a little bit better as well with 11 steals, but perhaps it was also a bit lucky as it caught the Rockets on a bad shooting night, particularly a dreadful 26% from beyond the arc. Still it was a good night for the Sixers and a rare spark out of a team that seemed like it was already finished. Perhaps they are finally beginning to improve after all. Early on in the game Houston actually held a slim lead, with a 3 point lead after a quarter of play and a 2 point lead at the half, with the score 55-53. In the second half it was all Sixers. By the 4th quarter they led by 8 with the score 79-71. Finally in the 4th quarter they simply traded baskets with the Rockets until they had held on for an 8 point win, with the final score 104-96. So the Sixers improve to 14-20 overall and remain 2 games out of 8th in the Eastern conference