They blew a 20 point lead against the 2nd worst team in the NBA in their last game so things couldn't possibly get worse for the Sixers tonight at the Wachovia center. In fact their opponents, the Portland Trail Blazers, were a team the Sixers had beaten 3 straight times coming in. Thus, things would definitely be better for the Sixers in this game right? Not so fast. In his first trip back to the Wachovia center since the Sixers let him go in the offseason, Andre Miller torched his old mates, mostly in the 2nd half, for 24 points to lead the Blazer's to the win. The Sixers kept it close most of night, but as usual they faltered late in the game. Elton Brand drained an 11 ft jumper to cut the Portland lead to 92-90 with 59 seconds to play, but that was as close as the Sixers would get. Portland hit 6 straight free throws and the Sixers missed a pair of 3 pointers in final 50 seconds to wrap up the 98-90 TrailBlazer's triumph.
Offensively, 5 Sixers scored in double figures, with Andre Iguodala's 23 leading the way. However, the Sixer's only shot 43% from the field with just 4 threes, and thus could only come up with 90 points. Still, any team with reasonable defensive talent should be able to win with 90 points on the board. For a half the Sixer's D was more than reasonable, in fact near excellent. Unfortunately, late in the game, where they needed the D to be staut the most, it broke down and allowed far too many easy drives to the basket for the Blazers. So Defensively, it was an ugly finish to the game for Sixers and they're not going to win a whole lot playing like that down stretch in games.
Sammy Dalembert racked up 10 points and 15 rebounds on the night for his 4th consecutive double double and that after just barely making it to the game on time. He had been on a 2 day goodwill mission in Haiti, but he rushed back to Philly tonight, arriving just a few minutes before tipoff and nevertheless got the start at center. Again I just marvel at the focus he has had out there on court for the last week or so. Tonight marked the halfway point of the season for the Sixers. At just 13-28 overall, the Sixer's had a first of half of the season to forget and were lucky to avoid hitting the 30 loss mark before the start of the season's 2nd half. It's hard to believe the Sixer's could possibly get any worse in the season's 2nd half. On the other hand it's also hard to say that the 2nd half of the season will really be all much better for Sixers either.
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2 comments:
WEll the way you started this article you made it seem almost impossible to lose this game but then I remembered you were talking about the Sixers. Again they fail to complete a game strong and it comes and bites them in the butts. It may be the off season for baseball but Im starting to look forward to it now because the Phils seem to be the only team to get somewhere.
-to ph1llysports
yeah that's true although it looks like the Flyer's will at least get to the playoffs
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