SIXERS NEWS

The Sixers returned from the all star break tonight at the Wachovia center with a key matchup against the Miami Heat, who came in 7th in the East. Unfortunately for the Sixers this one turned out to be a total mismatch. Not necessarily because the Heat are that much better than the Sixers, but because the Sixers just played so poorly tonight. They shot just 37% from the field and a blistering .083% from beyond the arc. It would have been a complete 0-fer from beyond the arc but Jrue Holiday managed to drain the Sixer's only trey of the day. The Sixer's were also dominated on glass 52-37. So when they did miss they usually didn't get the chance to clean it up. The only bright spot for the Sixers was that they only turned the ball over 6 times, to Miami's 13. Of course when you consistently fail to do anything when you do have the ball, it doesn't really matter how well you protect it.

Incredibly, despite their poor play, the Sixers managed to keep things close for a quarter, with the score only 23-21 Miami heading into the 2nd quarter. By the half Heat were up by 11 and by the 4th quarter the Miami lead was a laughable 27. Not surprisingly that's about how it ended with Miami winning easily 105-78. It just wasn't the Sixer's night tonight and it won't be their night ever again if they keep playing like this. I didn't think the all-star could make a team so rusty, but hopefully that's all this was, just a little post break rust. Speaking of rust, AI finally returned to the lineup tonight and obviously he didn't help very much coming off the bench for just 4 points and a couple of assists and rebounds. So he's got a little rust to shake off too. Anyway so with the embarrassing loss the Sixers drop to 20-33 overall but are still 10th in the Eastern conference, 6.5 games out of 8th.