The 2nd hottest team in the NBA locked in a battle with the hottest team in the NBA tonight at Wells Fargo as the Sixers battled the Mavericks. Unfortunately, as Donovan McNabb would say, they should their youth in the closing minutes of the game and came up a bit short against the more experienced Mavs. 58% shooting from the foul line and multiple 4th quarter turnovers really hurt them, as did Jason Terry who came off the bench for 30 and Dirk who had 22 despite not hitting a 3 all night. The top performers for the Sixers were Andre Iguodala with 15 and 7 rebounds, Jrue Holiday with 14, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists, Elton Brand with 12 and 6 rebounds, Jodie Meeks who drilled 4 treys and wound up with 16, and Thad Young who had 13 and 7 rebounds, all of whom took a nose dive when it really mattered in the games final minutes.
Early on the Sixers just tried to hang in there with them and actually were down by 1 after the 1st quarter. In the 2nd quarter they continued to stay close and trailed by just 7 at the half. In the 3rd quarter they finally started to make a push for lead, actually pulling even at one point, before settling for a 2 point deficit heading into the 4th. The two teams stayed neck and neck for much of the 4th quarter. The Mavs would drill a big shot and the Sixers would invariably answer. As late as the 1:41 mark of the 4th the Sixers were within 1, and that was were things slipped away. After Dirk drained a deuce to make it a 3 point game Holiday was blocked on a drive to the basket and Jason Terry took the ball the other way and dunked for a 5 point lead. That was as close as the Sixers would get the rest of the way. They missed 4 free throws in a row after that while the Mavs sunk their freebies to close out a 101-93 win and a season sweep of the Sixers.
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