SIXERS NEWS

Coming into tonight the Sixers had won 2 games in a row and with a win would extend to a 3 game winning streak for the first time all season. Given the talent level of their opponents, the New Orleans Hornets, you wouldn't think that would be a likely proposition. However, the defeated New Orleans 96-92 when they came to Philly a month ago and the Hornets came into the night without the services of Chris Paul who is out with a knee injury for at least the next 3 weeks. Everyone knows the Hornets with Chris Paul are much different team than the Hornets without Chris Paul and that was no more evident than tonight. Without Paul's usual 20+ points and 10+ assists, the Hornets came out flat and did not have enough of a scoring punch to stick with the Sixers. While Paul's replacement, rookie Darren Collison, did put up 17 points, he could manage only 4 assists. Thus, besides Collison, only 2 other Hornets scored in double figures, and despite shooting a decent 46% from the field, and a red hot 52% from beyond the arc, New Orleans managed just 94 points.

Of course it was all the absence of Paul that doomed New Orleans tonight. The Sixer's played pretty well tonight too. They had all momentum in the world coming off the overtime over the Bulls and it propelled them through this game. They kept the pressure up on defense, forcing 12 Hornet's turnovers, and outrebounding them 46-36. Offensively, Andre Iguodala and Elton Brand continued their solid play, with 14, and 11 points respectively. Willie Green, again starting in place of AI, also chipped in with 12, but the big story for the Sixers on the night was their bench which simply obliterated the Hornets with 51 pts, as Lou Williams(11), Thad Young(19), and Rodney Carney(13) combined for 44 big points. Those points were really difference on this night with entire New Orleans' bench scoring just 27 points. It's hard to lose when your bench so thoroughly outclasses the opponent's bench, but the Sixers almost did in this one. After taking a 9 point lead into the half, they watch a New Orleans cut it to 6 heading into the 4th quarter. Fortunately, in the 4th the Sixers managed to stabilize and held off the late charging 101-94.

I don't have to tell you how remarkable it is that it took the Sixers over the half the season to compile they're first 3 game winning streak. It will be interesting to see if they can extend it to say 4 or 5 or even more. Who knows maybe there's life yet in the Sixer's playoff hopes. Sammy Dalembert registered 16 rebounds today, giving him double digit rebounds for the 13th consecutive game. What a gamer he is. At present the Sixers rather precariously at 18-31 overall. That's just good enough to be 11th in the Eastern conference, 5.5 games out of 8th. On the other hand that's also just bad enough for GM Ed Stefanski to be thinking about blowing up the team, by trading Andre Iguodala, and Sammy Dalembert in exhange for expiring contracts, or some other piece, that will help clear the space to make a run at things next season. So things will be very interesting for the next week or so before the all-star break. Should the Sixer go back to their old ways Stefanski will have no choice but to blow the team up or he might lose his job, but if the Sixers keep this up and suddenly find themselves back in the conversation for a playoff spot then big Ed might just have to stick with these guys and trust that they actually have talent after all. We'll find out soon enough.