SIXERS NEWS

The Sixers continued their west coast trip in Dallas tonight against the Mavericks and an ailing Dirk Nowitzki, who played with a sprained ankle. As they have all season they came to play and gave the Mavs all they could handle. In the end though the Sixer's lack of experience in closing out games proved too much overcome against the Veteran Mavs. 12% shooting from beyond and 60% shooting from line were also a major factor for the Sixers in this one. To be fair the Mavs didn't necessarily shoot that well either, at only 27% from beyond,but they hit their shots when it counted and they were solid at the free throw line, at 79% overall.

In fact, the Sixers defense was actually pretty good in this one, as they held one of better shooting teams in the league, to under 50% from the field, and forced them into 10 turnovers, all of them steals. They managed to keep things pretty even on the boards, with Dallas barely edging them 47 to 42. Again though, Dallas got the rebounds when it really counted and none of their turnovers were of the careless variety. They too forced the Sixers into some turnovers, 13 of them to be exact, and only 6 of those 13 were steals. That's 7 Sixer turnovers that probably never should have happened and that alone could have made the difference for them in this one.

Still, despite all of their shortcomings, the Sixers still made it a close, exciting game for the most part and that's about all you can ask for from such a young team. Things didn't look exciting early on as the Mavs jumped out to a 9 point lead through 1 quarter. The play of Andre Iguodala, who had 13 and 7 rebounds in his return to the lineup, and Jrue Holiday, who had 11 and 13 assists, kept Dallas from extending their lead in the 2nd, and in fact the Sixers closed to within 7 at the half. The Sixers continued their march back in the 3rd quarter, eventually drawing even at 71 a piece with 2:25 left in the quarter. Dallas, was just able to hold them off though, as they took a 3 point lead into the 4th quarter. In the 4th, Dallas shifted into a zone and the Sixers, unable to rebound or hit threes down the stretch, never really figured it out. Somehow they at least managed to keep it close, but in the end Dallas cruised to a 99-90 win. So the Sixers drop to 2-7 overall, but still have only one loss by double digits this season, which enough for me to hang on to some hope for the remainder of the season.