SIXERS NEWS

The true mark of a team is not how they deal with a loss, but rather how they deal with the game after. No one would have blamed the Sixers tonight if they returned to Wells Fargo a little hung over from another near miss. Last season and at times early this season that's exactly what they would have done. Not anymore as the Charlotte Bobcats found out the hard way courtesy of Jodie Meeks. In his 2nd career start, Meeks had a record breaking night with 20 points in the first quarter, tying Allen Iverson's Wells Fargo center record for points in a quarter, and 7 three pointers, breaking Kyle Korver's Wells Fargo center mark for treys in a game by a Sixer. In all Meeks wound up game and career high 26, but he wasn't alone. Andre Iguodala had 15, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds, Elton Brand had 15 and 10 rebounds, Jrue Holiday had 15 and 7 assists, and Thad Young came off the bench for 20 big points.

Overall the Sixers had their best shooting night, at 51% from the field, 52% from beyond the arc, and 84% from the line. Aside from the glittering offense, the Sixers also put some sparkling defense on display, holding Charlotte to just 41% shooting from the field and 33% from beyond. Once again with essentially the smaller team they out rebounded Charlotte 38-37. Finally they forced the Bobcats into 13 costly turnovers that led 25 of the Sixers 27 fast break points. Basically the Sixers did everything tonight that this team was built to do, fastbreak off turnovers, score easy points in the paint and deny the opponent the same advantages. A few more efforts like this and who knows this team could go places this season but we'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks to Meeks hot hand the Sixers were able to jump on Charlotte early, taking as much as a 21 point lead with 2 minutes left in the 1st quarter. Charlotte did make a run through to cut the lead to 16 by the end of the quarter. The Sixers spent most of the 2nd quarter keeping the Bobcats at arm's length, and actually pushed their lead back up to 19 at one point, before Charlotte made another run at the end half to cut the lead to 9, before Andre Iguodala converted a key deuce with 23 seconds left in the half for an 11 point lead. In the 3rd quarter the Sixers picked it up again and pushed the lead to 22 at one point before another late Bobcat run cut it to 18 going into the 4th quarter. Finally in the 4th quarter the two teams basically traded baskets as the Sixers cruised to an 18 point win, their 3rd in 4 games and hopefully a sign of the things to come.