SIXERS NEWS

The Sixers have had multiple opportunities this season to string together back to back wins for the first time. Tonight they finally took advantage of one, which is no small feat considering their opponent was the Portland Blazers, one of the most dangerous teams in the Western conference. Portland was struggling coming in, having lost 3 in a row, but struggle or not, they're still better than any team the Sixers had been able to handle before so you can hav stease like the Sixer's changes going in. In their 3 previuos wins this season, the key for the Sixers was defense an that was certainly the case again in this one. In fact the Sixer's defense was tremendous on this night holding the Blazers to just 37% from the field, and 27% from beyond, while collecting 9 steals. Even Bradon Roy couldn't get untracked in, as he settled for just 10 points. The Sixe,er's offense was not quite as impressive, but they did enough with Elton scoring 18, Spencer Hawes with 10, Jrue Hollidsy with 11 and Andres Nocioni with 3 treys for 11.

Early on in the first quarter both teams were deadlocked at 49. Eventually by the end of the half the Sixers had muscled their away ahead and actually stll held a 1 point lead at the conclusion of the 1st half. Portland fought back in3rd quarter and wound up with a 3 point advantage going into the 4th quarter. That's where the Sixers wrestled away control of the game away for good. They simply dominated the 4th, outscoring Portland 22-11 and controlling things defensively. By the time the smoke cleared and the final buzzer the Sixers had scraped away with a 9 point win, 88-79. There may not be many more Sixer top performances like this one so enjoy this one while you can. I for one though, am still hopeful this will be just the start of a much longer streak.