The Flyers traveled to New York tonight for yet another matchup with the Islanders, as they looked for their 6th straight win. The Islanders meanwhile, came in hoping to avoid their 7th straight loss. Somewhat predictably the Islanders came out hungry and energized, determined to not lose again, while the Flyers came out sloppy and lethargic, resigned to the fact that New York wouldn't be much of a challenge. They were wrong. For the first two periods New York gave the Orange and Black all the energy and intensity they could handle and then some. Fortunately, Sergei Bobrovsky was up to the challenge. With help from Matt Carle and Andrej Mezaros, who both swatted away pucks that got through him, He stopped 22 of 23 Islander shots, singlehandedly keeping the Flyers in it through the 2nd period.
Heading into the 3rd period the game was tied at 1 thanks to Bobrovsky and a late goal by Mike Richards in the first period. After killing off a penalty to start the period the Flyers finally seemed to grab the momentum. Bobrovsky had 9 more saves to keep New York from pushing ahead. Meanwhile, the Orange and Black finally started putting pressure on the Islanders in their zone and it was just matter of time until would pay off with the go ahead goal. Finally with about 5 and half minutes to play Richards and Eric Wellwood setup Andreas Nodl with the go ahead and eventually winning tally. The now tiring Islanders offered little resistance in the final minutes the Orange and Black hung on, 2-1 for their 6th win in a row. Ultimately it was one of those nights where Flyers numbers on the stat sheet don't look very good, 26 shots on goal to the Islanders 32, 17 faceoff wins to the Islanders 37, and 0 for 2 on the power play to the Islanders 1 for 6, but they found a way to win anyway and that's what good teams do.
Saturday, November 06, 2010
Friday, November 05, 2010
SIXERS NEWS
Just a couple nights after their first win, the Sixers had yet another night they'd like to forget. It was one of those nights that indicates this may be yet another long season. The Lebronless Cavs were their opponents which should have meant a golden opportunity at collecting 2 wins in a row. Instead the defense, so good in their first win, turned back into letdown and cost them another sure win. With Andre Iguodala injured and unable to return to court after halftime, the D couldn't help but be worse anyway, but it should have been better than this. All told Cleveland shot 54% from the field and racked up 123 points. They reached the foul line 48 times and were successful there 38 times, both numbers about twice as many as the Sixers. They also dominated the Sixers on the boards 41-30, not so much because they rebounded so well but because the Sixers rebounded so poorly. I mean when the starting center and power forward, Spencer Hawes, and Elton Brand combine for only 2 rebounds, and Tony Battie has to come off the bench for 26 minutes just to rebound, something's not right.
Thanks to their poor defense the Sixers fell behind by as much as 19 in the 1st quarter and didn't look like it would be their night. Then a funny thing happened, Doug Collins got them believe again. After a rash of steals and hot shooting from Jrue Holiday, who had the night of his life with 29 and 8 assists, the Sixers were able to close to within 8 by the half. They followed with their first dominant 3rd quarter of the season. With Holiday and Brand, who had 20 points at least, leading the way, they outscored Cleveland in 3rd 31-18. A trey by Andres Nocioni with a little under 6 minutes left in the period, finally put the Sixers ahead 72-71. By the 4th quarter they were up by 5 and seemed to be in control, even though they couldn't seem to stop Cleveland on the other end of the floor. They were still leading by as much 7 with about 4 and a half minutes to play when things took a turn.
The Sixers, who shot 55% from the field, finally started to cool off at that point. In fact they couldn't buy a basket and Cleveland with Daniel Gibson and Mo Williams finally coming back off the bench, rallied ahead. Holiday and Brand tried to keep the Sixers in it, but after a Holiday layup cut it 106-105 Cavs with a 2 and a half minutes to play, it was all Cleveland. Williams just kept driving into the lane and the Sixers kept letting him. Finally in the last minute or so they were forced foul but Cleveland hit their free throws and held on to win 123-116. With the loss the Sixers drop to 1-5 on the season and find themselves on the very edge of another lost season.
Thanks to their poor defense the Sixers fell behind by as much as 19 in the 1st quarter and didn't look like it would be their night. Then a funny thing happened, Doug Collins got them believe again. After a rash of steals and hot shooting from Jrue Holiday, who had the night of his life with 29 and 8 assists, the Sixers were able to close to within 8 by the half. They followed with their first dominant 3rd quarter of the season. With Holiday and Brand, who had 20 points at least, leading the way, they outscored Cleveland in 3rd 31-18. A trey by Andres Nocioni with a little under 6 minutes left in the period, finally put the Sixers ahead 72-71. By the 4th quarter they were up by 5 and seemed to be in control, even though they couldn't seem to stop Cleveland on the other end of the floor. They were still leading by as much 7 with about 4 and a half minutes to play when things took a turn.
The Sixers, who shot 55% from the field, finally started to cool off at that point. In fact they couldn't buy a basket and Cleveland with Daniel Gibson and Mo Williams finally coming back off the bench, rallied ahead. Holiday and Brand tried to keep the Sixers in it, but after a Holiday layup cut it 106-105 Cavs with a 2 and a half minutes to play, it was all Cleveland. Williams just kept driving into the lane and the Sixers kept letting him. Finally in the last minute or so they were forced foul but Cleveland hit their free throws and held on to win 123-116. With the loss the Sixers drop to 1-5 on the season and find themselves on the very edge of another lost season.
Thursday, November 04, 2010
FLYERS NEWS
The Orange and Black kept it rolling tonight as the archrival New York Rangers visited the Wells Fargo center. Claude Giroux again made up for the absence of Danny Briere, with 2 points, both on the power play, both sweet assists. If Giroux can do all this without Briere just imagine what could he do with Briere in the lineup. Aside from Giroux's heroics the Flyer's defense took care of the rest. They held the Rangers to just 21 shots on goal and killed off 3 of the 4 Ranger power plays. Sergei Bobrovsky was a big part of those penalty kills as he outplayed the Flyer killer, Henrik Lundqvist, with 20 saves out of 21 shots, to Lundqvist's 17 of 21. He's clearly growing in confidence with each game and making it harder and harder to envision Micheal Leighton back in front of the net.
The Flyers actually fell behind early in the 2nd period on a power play tally by Brandon Dubinksy, but were in command after that. Just 4 minutes later Mike Richards evened the score with his own power play goal and Giroux picked up his first point of the night with the assist. 4 minutes later Blair Betts poked another one in for a 2-1 lead. Later with about 5 minutes left in the 2nd, Giroux picked up his 2nd point, assisting on a score by Nikolay Zherdev for 3-1 lead. Only 3 minutes into the 3rd period Chris Pronger blasted in the Orange and Black's 2nd power play goal of the night for a 4-1 lead that all but put New York away. 5 Bobrovsky saves later and the Flyers had their 5th straight win and sole possession of first place in the Eastern conference by a point over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
SIXERS NEWS
Just one night after a heartbreaking loss, the Sixers came out angry tonight at home against the Indiana Pacers, who beat them 2 games ago, and used it as fuel to finally play a complete game defensively. The increased defensive intensity paid off handsomely for the Sixers, in the form of their first win of this young season. The Sixer's defense had been good in spurts thus far this season, but never for any sort of sustained period of time. Tonight they came out strong defensively, and never dialed it down. They held the Pacers to just 31% shooting from the field, and completely took away Roy Hibbert and Danny Granger who combined for just 16 points. For the first time all season they actually managed to not get outrebounded, instead outrebounded the Pacers 54-46, with 2 guys, Elton Brand with 12, and Mo Speights with 11, rebounding in double figures. Finally they also threw in 8 blocks and 9 steals just for good measure. The defense was so good that even much maligned center Spencer Hawes got into the act with 4 rebounds and 2 blocks.
On the same night the Sixers produced their best defensive performance of the season, they also produced arguably their best offensive performance as well. For the first time this season, 6 Sixers got into double figures. It's not hard to see why either as they finally go to free throw line consistently and didn't kill themselves when they got there, hitting 21 of their 25 free throw attempts. Leading rebounder Brand, was also the Sixers leading scorer with 25. Andre Iguodala, and Jrue Holiday each had 11, to round out the scoring for the Sixer's starters, while Thad Young, Lou Williams, and Evan Turner came off the bench for 16, 11, and 12 respectively. Finally in addition to scoring more, the Sixers also took much better care of the ball, with just 10 turnovers, their lowest total of the season thus far. The offense was so good that even much maligned center Spencer Hawes got into the act with 9 points, including his first trey as a Sixer.
The Sixers really came out firing in this one, taking a 15 point lead into the 2nd quarter. This time there was not 2nd quarter let down as the Sixers actually extended their lead to 24 at halftime. Once again they did fall off slightly in the 3rd quarter, but enough for Indiana to really get back in the game, as the Sixers retained an 18 point lead heading into the 4th quarter. As they have all season they took over again in the 4th quarter, outscoring Indiana 23-17, extending their lead en route to an easy 101-75 win, a complete reversal of the first meeting between these two teams. That at least is a sign this team might be different from last year's after all. Only time will tell.
On the same night the Sixers produced their best defensive performance of the season, they also produced arguably their best offensive performance as well. For the first time this season, 6 Sixers got into double figures. It's not hard to see why either as they finally go to free throw line consistently and didn't kill themselves when they got there, hitting 21 of their 25 free throw attempts. Leading rebounder Brand, was also the Sixers leading scorer with 25. Andre Iguodala, and Jrue Holiday each had 11, to round out the scoring for the Sixer's starters, while Thad Young, Lou Williams, and Evan Turner came off the bench for 16, 11, and 12 respectively. Finally in addition to scoring more, the Sixers also took much better care of the ball, with just 10 turnovers, their lowest total of the season thus far. The offense was so good that even much maligned center Spencer Hawes got into the act with 9 points, including his first trey as a Sixer.
The Sixers really came out firing in this one, taking a 15 point lead into the 2nd quarter. This time there was not 2nd quarter let down as the Sixers actually extended their lead to 24 at halftime. Once again they did fall off slightly in the 3rd quarter, but enough for Indiana to really get back in the game, as the Sixers retained an 18 point lead heading into the 4th quarter. As they have all season they took over again in the 4th quarter, outscoring Indiana 23-17, extending their lead en route to an easy 101-75 win, a complete reversal of the first meeting between these two teams. That at least is a sign this team might be different from last year's after all. Only time will tell.
EAGLES NEWS
Apparently Ellis Hobbs has not been demoted to backup CB. Instead he won't be starting for the Eagles this Sunday because he has a hip injury. In fact, he tried to play through it last week, which explains why he just couldn't keep up with Kenny Britt in the 4th quarter. In other Eagles' news Ernie Sims was fined 50,000 for a helmet first hit on WR Lavelle Hawkins in the Eagles' game against the Titans 2 weeks ago. Given the NFL's new strict guidelines on helmet first hits, this fine is not a surprise at all. You just wonder why the NFL waited two weeks to levy it. Why not fine Sims two weeks ago when the hit actually happened.
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
SIXERS NEWS
The Sixers must be wondering at this point what it will take for them to finally get a win this season, because they were oh so close tonight in Washington. They really did everything you could ask for in this one. They shot 55% from the field while the Wizards only shot 47%. They were even with the Wiz in the rebound department at 36 a piece. Finally they were pretty even turnover wise with 22 and 21 respectively, and steals wise with 10 and 15 respectively. So defensively, it was an evenly matched contest and it was the scoring or lackthereof that made up the difference in this one. In fact, Washington had the advantage for the better part of the night because offensively they were able to take advantage of all the turnovers they got, While the Sixers failed to consistently take advantage of their turnover opportunities.
Individually the Sixers top performer was Lou Williams who poured in 30 points, mostly in the 4th quarter to almost singlehandedly carry the team to a win. Other impressive Sixers included Elton Brand who put up a solid 21 points and 9 rebounds, Andre Iguodala who contributed 12 and 9 assists, and Jrue Holiday who had his best game of the season thus far with 14 and 13 assists. Other than that it was a pretty average night for the rest of the Sixers and it showed at times. The other guys did their part as well though, they just weren't as into the game and weren't as a big a part of the Sixer's efforts as the others were.
Early on the Sixers actually jumped out to a 14 point lead and appeared poised to break this one open into an easy win. Then Doug Collins started going to the bench to end the quarter and the lead all but evaporated. The Sixers managed to hang in there for the next 2 quarters on guts and guile alone, before they finally heated up and started hitting shots again. Most notably Lou Williams drilled a trey at one point early in the 4th, that just beat the shot clock and Ignited Williams game. He was only 1 for 7 on the night before that first trey, but after that he caught fire and couldn't miss again. He hit another trey a later in the quarter to momentarily put the Sixers up 6. Later still with the Sixers clinging to a 3 point lead in the final seconds he drilled 10 straight free throws to preserve the lead.
Unfortunately all of Williams heroics went for naught as Cartier Martin somehow knocked in a three over Iggy at the buzzer to force overtime. In overtime the two teams went back in forth until Brand banked in a mid range jumper to put the Sixers up 1 with 14 seconds left. Alas, Brand then fouled out trying to block Andray Blatche's possible game winning attempt. It looked to be a clean block but the officials blew the whistle, Blatche sunk the free throws and the Sixers were down 1 with 7 seconds left. Unlike Washington the Sixers were not able to get a clean look as Iggy wound up throwing up a wobbly fadeaway that caught iron as time expired. So in the end the Sixers ultimately dropped their 4th straight game to open the season, 116-115. Better luck next time boys.
Individually the Sixers top performer was Lou Williams who poured in 30 points, mostly in the 4th quarter to almost singlehandedly carry the team to a win. Other impressive Sixers included Elton Brand who put up a solid 21 points and 9 rebounds, Andre Iguodala who contributed 12 and 9 assists, and Jrue Holiday who had his best game of the season thus far with 14 and 13 assists. Other than that it was a pretty average night for the rest of the Sixers and it showed at times. The other guys did their part as well though, they just weren't as into the game and weren't as a big a part of the Sixer's efforts as the others were.
Early on the Sixers actually jumped out to a 14 point lead and appeared poised to break this one open into an easy win. Then Doug Collins started going to the bench to end the quarter and the lead all but evaporated. The Sixers managed to hang in there for the next 2 quarters on guts and guile alone, before they finally heated up and started hitting shots again. Most notably Lou Williams drilled a trey at one point early in the 4th, that just beat the shot clock and Ignited Williams game. He was only 1 for 7 on the night before that first trey, but after that he caught fire and couldn't miss again. He hit another trey a later in the quarter to momentarily put the Sixers up 6. Later still with the Sixers clinging to a 3 point lead in the final seconds he drilled 10 straight free throws to preserve the lead.
Unfortunately all of Williams heroics went for naught as Cartier Martin somehow knocked in a three over Iggy at the buzzer to force overtime. In overtime the two teams went back in forth until Brand banked in a mid range jumper to put the Sixers up 1 with 14 seconds left. Alas, Brand then fouled out trying to block Andray Blatche's possible game winning attempt. It looked to be a clean block but the officials blew the whistle, Blatche sunk the free throws and the Sixers were down 1 with 7 seconds left. Unlike Washington the Sixers were not able to get a clean look as Iggy wound up throwing up a wobbly fadeaway that caught iron as time expired. So in the end the Sixers ultimately dropped their 4th straight game to open the season, 116-115. Better luck next time boys.
Monday, November 01, 2010
FLYERS NEWS
It was not the Flyer's best effort, and how could it be with Danny Briere suddenly serving a 3 game suspension, but rather was just one of in what a should be a long list of games this season in which they simply took care of business. The defense was solid, allotting Carolina just 28 shots on goal and keeping the penalties to a minimum. In fact the Orange and Black committed just 3 penalties all night long and killed off all of them. Meanwhile, Claude Giroux collected another power play tally, to give the Flyers at least one power play goal for the 4th straight game. Considering how much they struggled on the power play earlier in the season, that's pretty impressive. Equally impressive was Sergie Bobrovsky who shined again with another 26 saves out of the 28 shots he faced. Put it all together and you've got another job well done.
Jeff Carter picked up the assist as Scott Hartnell gave the Flyers the early 1-0 lead with 8 minutes left in the first period. Mike Richards assisted as Claude Giroux broke a 1-1 tie on the power play with 8 minutes left in the 2nd period. Early in the 3rd period Carter picked up another assist along with Kimmo Timonen as Hartnell picked up another goal for a 3-1 Flyer's lead. It stayed that way until Joe Corvo scored with 27 seconds left to cut the Flyers lead in half 3-2. It was too little too late for Carolina though and Orange and Black walked, er skated away with the 3-2, their 5th in a row. With the win the Sixers are now all alone in first place in the Atlantic division and 2nd in the Eastern conference.
Jeff Carter picked up the assist as Scott Hartnell gave the Flyers the early 1-0 lead with 8 minutes left in the first period. Mike Richards assisted as Claude Giroux broke a 1-1 tie on the power play with 8 minutes left in the 2nd period. Early in the 3rd period Carter picked up another assist along with Kimmo Timonen as Hartnell picked up another goal for a 3-1 Flyer's lead. It stayed that way until Joe Corvo scored with 27 seconds left to cut the Flyers lead in half 3-2. It was too little too late for Carolina though and Orange and Black walked, er skated away with the 3-2, their 5th in a row. With the win the Sixers are now all alone in first place in the Atlantic division and 2nd in the Eastern conference.
EAGLES NEWS
The Eagles have demoted Ellis Hobbs to backup CB, while promoting Dmitri Patterson to take his place. It was Hobbs' struggles that allowed Kenny Britt to go off for over 100 yards and TDs in the Eagles last game before the bye week. So this comes as no surprise.
PHILLIES NEWS
After much consternation Davey Lopes has decided not to return as the Phils first base coach next season. A master at reading pitcher's tendencies and timing their throws to plate, Lopeshas been instrumental in the success of Phils' base stealers since 2007. The Phils will now have to find someone equally as adept to replace him.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
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