SIXERS NEWS

Following their big win over the Bulls last night the Sixers traveled to Detroit to begin a run of 4 straight games against teams with losing records, with a match up against the Pistons. If you look at the offensive side of the stat sheet for this one you'd think the Sixers won easily. 7 Sixers scored in double figures, as Evan Turner's 19, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists led the way. Meanwhile, Elton Brand put up 17 and 14 rebounds, Jrue Holiday posted 15 and 12 assists, Jodie Meeks drilled 2 treys and wound up with 11, and off the bench along with Turner, Lou Williams chipped in with 14, and 5 assists, and Mo Speights contributed 10 and 7 rebounds. Unfortunately as good their O was the D, still without Andre Iguodala, was that bad. It was particularly bad from beyond the arc where Detroit shot 53%. One other area where the Sixers had problems was the free throw line where they really killed themselves by shooting 69%. One or two more made free throws and things might have different here.

The Sixers really lit it up early as they jumped out to a 34-30 lead through 1 quarter of play. The Sixers maintained their 4 point lead after a tough 2nd quarter. After an equally rough 3rd quarter the Sixers remained ahead by 3 heading into the 4th quarter. They stayed ahead throughout 4th quarter, even pulling ahead by 5 at one point, but they just couldn't put the Pistons away. Finally it got down to the final 6 seconds with the Sixers up 3 and Lou at the line. Sadly he missed two free throws and Austin Daye somehow slipped open to hit a game tying trey with 4 seconds left. The Sixers followed with a timeout but couldn't get off a shot before the end of regulation. In overtime the Sixers, playing on back to back nights, seemed to run out of gas. However, just when all hope seemed lost, with the Sixers down 110-103 and only 22 seconds left, they nearly rallied back. Back to back treys by Turner and Meeks and 2 missed free throws by Tayshaun Prince suddenly cut the lead 110-109. After Rodney Stuckey finally did hit a couple at the line, Meeks missed a trey at the buzzer and the dropped another heartbreaker on the road, 112-109.