SIXERS NEWS

The Sixers traveled to Indianapolis tonight for a matchup with the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers had been struggling as of late, and were only a half a game ahead of the Sixers in the Eastern conference standings coming in, so this was a real opportunity for them to string together their 2nd win in a row and move up in standings. True to his word Eddie Jordan stuck to the same lineup and once again the defense was solid even though Jrue Holiday got hit in the head early in the game and had to leave the court for a while. As soon as he came back in the 2nd quarter the D picked up again and the Sixers were up and running to a 7 point lead at the half. In the 3rd quarter they extended that lead to 13 and in the4th quarter they held off a few late charges by the Pacers to hang on for a solid 107-97 win.

The defense really has made all the difference for the Sixers these last 2 nights. Last night they locked down Dirk. Tonight they outrebounded Indiana 52-44 and forced 21 Pacer's
turnovers which led to 25+ Sixer's points. The Sixer's scoring was pretty good tonight too with 5 player's scoring in double figures. Elton Brand led the way with 23, AI, who will be starting for the Eastern Conference in the upcoming NBA all-star game, posted 17, Willie Green added 10 and Lou Williams and Thad Young were strong off the bench with 14 and 22 and 10 rebounds, respectively. So the Sixers really played a complete game tonight which is something they haven't done much of this season. Hopefully they can keep it up.

The Sixer's shot 63% from beyond the arc tonight with 7 threes. Not bad considering their best 3 point shooter, Jason Kapono, never got into the game. After getting hit in the head, well actually the face to be exact, Holiday needed 22 stitches above his eye before returning to the court. He actually looked unfazed by the whole thing though, which is a good sign of toughness, especially for a rookie. At 15-28 overall now, the Sixers leapfrog over the Agent-Zeroless Wizards and Pacers into 12th in the Eastern conference, still 5.5 out of 8th.