The Sixers traveled to Cleveland tonight as they looked to get over .500 for the first time all season. Once again they put forth a solid all around effor, not quite as good as in their last two games but certainly good enough to win this one. Still, Cleveland didn't make it easy and the Sixers had to use all of their experience from heartbreaking losses early in the season to pull it out in the end. Defensively, they racked up another 8 blocks and 10 steals and held the Cavs to just 21% shooting from beyond. Meanwhile, the Sixers shot 45% from beyond and decent 49% from the field as 6 Sixers scored in double figures. Elton Brand led the way with 16 and 8 rebounds, while Jrue Holiday had a big 13, 9 assists, and 6 rebounds, Jodie Meeks drilled two key treys and finished with 14, and off the bench Evan Turner had 10, Thad Young had 12 and 5 rebounds and Lou Williams had 16.
The Sixers were solid but not great all game long, and actually trailed by one after the 1st quarter. In the 2nd quarter they picked it up on both sides of the ball and went into the half up by 6. They kept it up in the 3rd quarter, expanding the lead to as many as 15, before settling for an 11 point cushion heading into the 4th. As late as the 8 minute mark in the 4th the Sixers had the lead at 12 and were in control. They then went cold from the field for a while from there and Cleveland was able to make a late push to cut the lead to down to as little as 3 with 4 minutes to play. After that a Holiday layup and a Meeks trey quickly pushed the lead back to 8 before Cleveland cut it to 3 again and got the ball with 29 seconds left. Thad Young then got a huge steal with 13 seconds left and got the ball to Holiday to drilled a pair of freebies to push the lead back to 5. Daniel Gibson followed with a clutch trey to cut the lead to 2 but Meeks was able to sink a couple more free throws after that and a couple Cavs misses later and the Sixers had hung on to win 95-91. With the win they move over .500 to 30-29 overall but remain 7th in the East, 1 game out 6th.
2 comments:
Sixers are above .500 baby!!! Ive been waiting for this for along time and its all the more impressive considering how they started off the season. Go Sixers!
-to ph1llysports
yes it is very impressive
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