The Sixers welcomed Larry Brown and the Charlotte Bobcats to the Wachovia center tonight. With the Miami Heat idle, the Sixers had an golden opportunity to steal away the 5th spot in the Eastern conference with a win over the struggling Bobcats. It would have been their 4th in a row overall, and 5th in a row at home. Instead they came out sluggish, and the Bobcats came out firing on all cylinders, before almost blowing a huge lead, and then holding off a late Sixes charge. Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young led the way offensively , with 25 and 21 points respectively, but the rest of the Sixers strugggled all night long, shooting just 46% from the field and getting to the foul line just 33 times, 10 less than what they had been averaging. Charlotte meanwhile, threaded the Sixers defense again and again, shooting 51% from the field and outmuscling them on the boards, with 13 offensive rebounds, to just 7 for the Sixers, and 41 overall, to just 23 for the Sixers. The Bobcats are also currently 9th in the Eastern conference, just 2.5 games out of the 8th final spot in the East, so they were in much more need of a win tonight then the Sixers, and it showed. Early Charlotte was just on fire as they jumped to a 17 point lead at the half with the score 50-33. In the 3rd quarter the Sixers slowly began chipping away at the Bobcats lead, and had it down to 13 heading into the 4th, with the score 73-60. Finally, late in the 4th quarter, the Sixers offense picked it up and suddenly with just over a minute to play, following a Thaddeus Young layup they pulled to within 2, as the Bobcats were self combusting, perhaps having flashbacks of their last game where they lost after blowing a 20 point lead. Unfortunately, that would not be the case tonight, as Boris Diaw scored on the other end to put Charlotte back up by 4, and complete a 24 point night. Andre Iguodala then drained a 3 pointer with about 25 seconds left to bring the Sixers within 6, after Charlotte had hit some free throws, but again the Sixer's D could not hold off the Bobcats, to set up one last possession to force overtime, and after Iggy missed another three, the Bobcats had held on 100-95. So the Sixers drop to 37-34 overall, but remain 6th in the Eastern conference, .5 games behind the 5th place Miami Heat.
2 comments:
Its a shame that the Sixers couldn't beat a struggling Bobcats and get that 5th place, but half a game is still close
-to ph1llysports
yeah actually 1 game now, but its still close
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