SIXERS NEWS

The Sixers welcomed the Atlanta Hawks to the Wachovia center tonight. After consecutive losses, the Sixers actually came in still able ,with a win, pull within .5 games of 5th place in the Eastern conference, with the Miami Heat idle on the night. Fortunately, Sammy Dalembert suffered only a calf strain, was able to play tonight. Thus, with Sammy back patroling the middle the Sixers picked it up on defense, and frankly the Hawks missed a lot of open shots, in shooting just 44% from the field. The Sixers weren't much better shooting just 46% from the field, but they hit em the when the Hawks missed em, and were able to build up enough of a lead early on, to hang on for the big win. The Sixers jumped out to a 12 point lead after a quarter of play, and a 14 point lead at the half with the score 51-37, but Thaddeus Young went down with an ankle sprain. In the 3rd quarter without Thad to keep up the scoring the Hawks made some inroads, but the Sixers were still up by 8 heading into the 4th quarter with the score 77-69. The Hawks actually made it tighter in the 4th quarter, but the Sixers stayed composed and Maurice Speights came up big with 16 points, as the Sixers were able to push back out to a convincing 13 point win, with the final score 98-85. So the Sixers move to 38-35 overall and remain 6th in the Eastern conference, now just .5 games behind the 5th place Heat. Also at the moment Young is listed as day to day.