Saturday, January 10, 2009
SIXERS NEWS
The Sixers looked to make it 3 in a row as they welcomed the Charlotte Bobcats to the Wachovia center. The Sixers shooting finally cooled off in this one, but fortunately they were playing the Bobcats who don't shoot all that well themselves and so they were able tough out a win anyway. Offensively, Andre Miller led the way with 22 points, while Andre Iguodala added 15 points and Thaddeus Young added 12 points. Meanwhile, Sammy Dalembert led the way defensively with 4 blocks and 9 rebounds, in an otherwise plain performance by the Sixer's defense. Charlotte actually held the early lead by 3 after a quarter of play with the score 27-24. They still led by 2 at the half with the score 45-43. In the 3rd quarter the Sixers rallied to a 9 point lead with the score 74-65. Finally in the 4th quarter the Bobcats tried to chip away at the Sixer's lead but eventually it became too little too late as the Sixers held on to win by 6 with the final score 93-87. So the Sixers improve to 16-20 overall and remain 1 game out of 8th in the Eastern conference.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
FLYERS NEWS
The Flyers returned home at last tonight as they welcomed the Minnesota Wild to the Wachovia center. Marty Biron was brilliant in goal as always, with 27 saves out of the 28 shots he faced. Meanwhile, Scottie Upshall had a goal and an assist to power the Flyer's offensive effort. Late in the first period Stephane Veilleux scored for a 1-0 Wild lead. Midway through the 2nd period Scott Hartnell scored to knot it up at 1 with an assist from Upshall. Early in the third period Mike Knuble scored for a 2-1 lead. Finally late in the period Upshall scored for a 3-1 lead to put it away for good. So the Orange and Black improve to 22-10-9 overall for 53 points and still 3rd in the Eastern conference and 1st in the Atlantic division.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
SIXERS NEWS
The Sixers looked to make it two wins in a row as they traveled to Milwaukee for a matchup with the Bucks. Milwaukee jumped out to an early lead but the Sixers kept up their lights out shooting and eventually rallied to victory, against the chronically bad Milwaukee defense, one of the few that's actually worse than the Sixer's defense. All told on the night the Sixers shot a blistering 51% from the field and 53% from beyond the arc as Andre Iguodala and Andre Miller led the way with 20 and 28 points respectively. They also shot an impressive 82% from the free throw line, hitting 32 free throws. Basically they schooled the Bucks on what a good offense is supposed to look like. Defensively, they were solid with lots of blocks and steals. Essentially they did just enough defensively for a win, but could have done better and at some point they are going to have to if they want to keep this thing going. Anyway the Sixers briefly led by 5 after a quarter of play, but by the 4th quarter Milwaukee had turned the tables with a 6 point lead of their own with the score, 85-79. The 4th quarter belonged to the Sixers as they outscored Milwaukee by 11 and eventually rallied all the way back to hang on for a 5 point win with the final score 110-105. So the Sixers move to 15-20 overall , now just a game out of 8th in the Eastern conference, currently occupied by you guessed it, the Bucks.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
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
FLYERS NEWS
The Flyers finally finished off their road trip tonight in Washington with a matchup against the Capitals(their last game only finished off the west coast swing of their road trip). Marty Biron got the start in goal and had a good night saving 33 of the 34 shots he faced, but Jose Theodore matched him save for save for the Caps so the game came down to yet another shootout and well you probably know what happened. Early in the first period Nicklas Backstrom scored for a 1-0 Caps lead. That score remained until Braydon Coburn scored just seconds into the 3rd period to knot it up at 1. From there thanks to some dazzling goaltending neither team could score until the game had gone into a shootout. In the first round of the shootout Simon Gagne missed for the Flyers while Viktor Kozlov scored for the Caps. In the 2nd round Mike Richards missed for the Flyers and Alexander Semin missed for the Caps. Finally in the 3rd round Jeff Carter missed for the Flyers and Alexander Ovechkin missed for the Caps to close out the 2-1 Caps win. So the Flyers technically improve to 21-10-9 overall for 51 points, still 3rd in the Eastern conference and first in the Atlantic division.
PHILLIES NEWS
Reliever J.C Romero has just recently been suspened for the first 50 games of next season for using some sort of illegal drug which he apparently got over the counter. So perhaps it is his fault for taking the drug ,or maybe it is the pharmacist's fault for giving him the wrong drug. We'll probably never know, but either way this is going to makie things difficult for the Phils early next season, but hopefully some will step up fill the void.
Monday, January 05, 2009
PHILLIES NEWS
Well, it's official Pat Burrell will not return to the Phils next season. After the Phillies signed Raul Ibanez there was little chance he would return, and today he finalized a 2 year $16 million deal with the Tampa Bay Rays, yes the same team the Phillies just beat in the world series. So next season he'll be able them beat Phillies in the world series instead of the other way round. Good for him that he gets to move on to a good ball club, but it's just too bad the Phils couldn't keep him.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
EAGLES NEWS
After dismantling Dallas last week to clinch the final playoff spot in the NFC the Birds traveled Minnesota to begin their playoff run against the NFC North champion Vikings. Not surprisingly, with two of the league's best run defenses on display it was a defensive tussle throughout. Thanks to a few more big plays and stud defense in the second half, the Eagles eventually found away to win out. Offensively, the Birds didn't have their best day with the run game totally stuffed, but to their credit they stuck with it, consistently mixing in enough run plays all day long to keep the defense honest. In his first playoff start since losing the superbowl 3 years ago, Donovan Mcnabb had a solid day, basically providing most of the Eagles offensive output, as he completed 23 of 34 passes for 300 yards and a TD. Defensively, it was yet another virtuoso performance for the Birds. Tarvaris Jackson was limited to just 164 passing yards and an interception, aside from one 40 yard run, Adrian Peterson was virtually shutdown with just 83 yards on 20 carries, and Vikings collectively were totally shutdown in the 2nd half with zero points and less than one hundred yards of offense. Early on neither team could get much going, although the Eagles did manage to put together a few solid drives, both resulting in long David Akers field goals of 43 and 51 yards for a 6-0 lead. Minnesota finally got untracked early in the 2nd quarter as Adrian Peterson finished off a long drive with a 40 yard td run for a 7-6 lead. The Eagles answered with another Akers field goal for a 9-7 lead. Then on the ensuing Vikings possession Asante Samuel intercepted Jackson and raced 44 yards for a TD and a 16-7 lead. The Vikes came right back on their next possession with a long drive capped off by a 4 yd Peterson TD run to cut it to 16-14. Thanks to some stout defense the score stayed that way until about the middle of the 4th quarter. There Mcnabb slung a screen pass to Brian Westbrook who then ran off an electrifying 71 yards for a TD and a sudden 23-14 Eagle's lead. From there the Birds simply ran down clock and after Jackson and center Matt Birk botched a snap and the Eagles recovered, Akers booted his 4th field goal of the day to provide the final winning margin, 26-14. So the Birds head to New York for a date with the Giants. It should be a classic NFC East tilt.
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