The Sixers welcomed the Boston Celtics to the Wachovia center tonight in a showdown for top billing in the Atlantic division. There wasn't much belief coming into tonight, despite their 2 game winning streak, that the Sixers would be able to seriously challenge Boston, but for a time early in the 1st quarter, an upset victory for the Sixers seemed a real possibility. The Sixers just came out hot, while Boston started slow and before you knew it they were up by 8. Then Boston finally started to wakeup defensively and Rasheed Wallace and Eddie House hit a barage of threes, and after Rajon Rondo drilled a jumper over the backboard at the buzzer, Boston led after 1, 19-17. The Celtics never looked back from there. The Sixers really cooled off offensively the rest of the way, shooting just 36% from the field and .06% from beyon the arc. They jut couldn't get anything to fall, and they couldn't get the ball inside or get out on the break for easy baskets. The Boston defense was just too smothering the rest of the way, and eventually the Celts got to be in full control of this one, rolling to a convincing 107-54 win. So ultimately the Sixers just weren't ready to challenge Boston quite yet, but give them some time to perfect that princeton offense and figure it out on defense a little more and we'll be right on their heels. For now the Sixers drop to 2-2 overall and remain 2nd in the Atlantic division behind Boston.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Monday, November 02, 2009
PHILLIES NEWS
The Phils and Yanks squared off in game 5 of the world series tonight with the Phils needing to win to keep the series alive. Looking to replicate his game 1 win, Cliff Lee got the start and was not quite as dominant as he had been, but effective enough to help the Phils pull out an 8-6 win. Lee allowed 5 runs on 7 hits, in 7 strong innings, while striking out 3. Meanwhile, the Phils' bats, other than Ryan Howard who did at least get on base a couple times , finally woke up, with Chase Utley bashing 2 more homers, for his world series record tying 4th and 5th homers, Raul Ibanez slamming his first homer of the series, and a pair of singles by Jayson Werth and Ibanez, and a fielder's choice, leading to 3 more runs. In all the Phils racked up 8 runs on 9 hits, with Utley accounting for 7 of 8 runs, and 2 of the 9 hits. He was simply on fire tonight and has been all series long. Still, despite all that the Phils almost lost it late again. An exhausted Lee gave up 3 runs in the 7th, to help the Yanks cut it to 8-5. Then in the 9th against Ryan Madson the Yanks put their 1st 2 runners on and got it down to 8-6 with 1 on and 2 out for Mark Teixeira, the AL home run leader. With A-Rod looming in the on deck circle Madson had to get him out, and after a long at bat he did, striking Teixeira out on a nasty changeup to preserve the win. So the Phils and Yanks head back to the Bronx for game 6 on Wednesday with Pedro Martinez to go up against Andy Pettitte. Hopefully Pedro has one last masterful performance left in that golden right arm.
FLYERS NEWS
After throttling the Hurricanes 6-1 in their last game, the Flyers came right back out and did it again tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning, in a 6-2 win, for pretty much the same reasons as their last game. Ray Emery was strong in the front of the net as always, registering 26 saves out of the 28 shots he faced. The Flyers again won a good amount of faceoffs, which in turn helped them to kill them off 2 more power plays. Finally, they jumped out a quick lead with goals by Scott Hartnell and Mike Richards in the 1st period. Jeff Carter made it 3-0 early in the 2nd period and a few minutes later after Tampa finally got on the board, David Laliberte scored yet another goal(I mean really who is this guy and why didn't they bring him up sooner) and Mike Richards added a 3rd goal in the period to push it to 5-1. Carter then rocketed in a power lay goal early in the 4th quarter to push it to 6-1 and that was about all she wrote. So the Flyers win their 2nd in a row, against another subpar team mind you, and appear to be on the rise.
Sunday, November 01, 2009
EAGLES NEWS
The Eagles welcomed the Giants to the Linc this afternoon for a show down for 1st place in the NFC East. It was thought that this would be a close game against the two division rivals, but instead it quickly turned into a shootout in the Birds favor. Leanard Weaver got it started with a 41 yard TD run early in the 1st quarter. A few minutes later Donovan Mcnabb hooked up with Brent Celek on a 17 yd TD pass, for which the extra point was blocked. David Akers later added a field goal for a 16-0 early in the 2nd quarter. Then after the Giants had finally scored with under 2 minutes to play in the 1st half, Ellis Hobbs returned a kickoff into Giants' territory, which was followed by Mcnabb hooking up with a wide open Desean Jackson for a 54 yd TD pass. Later after an Eli Manning interception, Mcnabb hooked up with Jeremy Maclin for a 23 yd TD pass and just like that it was 30-7 Birds at halftime, and New York did not know what had hit them. The Giants tried to come back in the 2nd half cutting the lead to 33-17 heading into the 4th quarter. Early in the 4th quarter though, Lesean Mccoy put the Gmen away for good with a 66 yd TD run to cap off a convincing 40-17 Eagles win. It was just a totally dominant afternoon for the Birds on both sides of the ball. On defense, they sacked Eli Manning twice and intercepted him twice, while holding New York to just 17 points. On offense New York just couldn't stop the Eagles who rolled to 391 yards of offense, including 180 rushing yards, and 40 points. They really could not have scripted the afternoon any better, and I think today shows that they really do need to run the ball a little more consistently if they want to continue to have success going forward. I just wonder though after seeing the Eagles dominate in this game, how they ever lost to the lowly Raiders. I guess you just really have to give Oakland some credit now for what they did that day. Anyway so the Birds are now 5-2 overall and first in the NFC East as they prepare for another divisional showdown next week against the Dallas Cowboys.
PHILLIES NEWS
The Phils and Yanks met in game 4 of the world series tonight with the Phils looking to even the series at 2 games a piece. Joe Blanton got the start and was effective, allowing just 4 runs on 5 hits in 6 tough innings. Meanwhile, the Phils could only come up with 3 runs off Yankee starter C.C Sabathia. on an RBI double and a solo homer by Chase Utle, and an RBI single by Pedro Feliz. Still that was only good enough to put the Phils behind by one heading into the 8th inning. There with 2 out and Feliz down to his last strike he rocketed a game tying solo homer to the seats in left to tie it up at 4. Next it was up to Brad Lidge to keep it tied in the top of the 9th and give the Phils a chance to pull it out in the bottom of the inning. He got the 1st 2 outs of the inning without issue and then Johnny Damon gave him an extraordinary at bat before lining a 2 out single. Damon then stole 2nd and with the Phils infield shifted to the right to neutralize Mark Texeira, no one was covering 3rd base, allowing the alert Damon to advance all the way to 3rd. Since he often bounces his slider in there to get guys to chase, he didn't feel safe enough to pitch it to A-Rod or Jorge Posada they made him pay with a pair RBI doubles to put New York back haed 7-4. From there to no surprise Mariano Rivera rolled another postseason save and the Phils had a lost a heartbreaker 7-4, to drop 3-1 behind the Yanks. With Cliff Lee to start tomorrow there is still a good chance the Phils can push this thing to a game 6, but who knows after that.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
SIXERS NEWS
Fresh off their first win of the season, the Sixers traveled to New York for a matchup with the Knicks, just another Philly-New York matchup on this Philly-New York weekend. Anyway the Knicks weren't very good last year and frankly they still aren't that good that this year, so this should have been an easy win the for Sixers. Through the first 3 quarters it looked like it would be as the Sixers took a 23 point lead into 4th quarter. They simply dominated in the 1st half with 70 points annd had an unbelievable night from the field, shooting 60%, and 37.5% from beyond the arc. The Knicks shot only 35% from beyond the arc, but they put up 40 of them, to only 8 by the Sixers and hit 14 of them, to the Sixers 3. Those 14 treys were almost enough to save the Knicks, as they came roaring back in the 4th quarter, cutting the lead to 1 after a three by Danilo Gallinari. Then Jason Kapono missed 1 of 2 free throws, allowing New York to tie it at 122 with 5 seconds to play. Andre Iguoadala then missed a 15 footer at the buzzer and it was on to overtime. There the Sixers, angry that they even needed overtime to close this one out, came out firing and outscored New York 19-5 to runaway to a 141-127 victory, that is, an especially big win, considering their next game pits them against the Boston Celtics. Bring it on.
PHILLIES NEWS
The Phils and Yanks squared off in game 3 of the world series tonight. Cole Hamels took the mound as the Phils came out firing. Jayson Werth homered and Hamels had New York hitless for 3 and 1/3rd innings as the Phils jumped to a 3-0 lead. Alex Rodriguez then hit a flukish 1 out 2 run homer in the 4th and it all went south from there. Hamels was touched up for another 3 runs in the 5th inning, to put New York ahead 5-3. After the Yanks added a 6th run in the top of the 6th, Werth hit his 2nd home run of the night in the bottom of inning to cut it to 6-4, but that was as close as the Phils would get. New York added a run in the 7th and 8th inning to push the lead to 8-4 coming into the 9th. There the Phils made one final rally as they always do with Carlos Ruiz slugging a solo homer to cut it to 8-5. From there though Matt Stairs grounded out and Jimmy Rollins popped up to end a tough 8-5 loss. So the Phils fall behind 2-1 but there is a still a lot of series left if they can just knot the series at 2 tomorrow than they would be in good shape with Cliff Lee to start game 5. So don't give up hope yet.
FLYERS NEWS
With their top 2 scorers on the shelf and the defense struggling coming in the Flyers were in for a tough night against the big bad Carolina Hurricanes, or at least we thought they were. Apparently no one told the team they were supposed to be struggling now, as they blitzed Carolina from start to finish. By the end of the 1st period it was already 3-0 Orange Black, with scores by Scott Hartnell on the power play, Matt Carle, and recent Phantoms call up David Laliberte in his 1st NHL game. In the 2nd period Carolina tried to pick it up, outshooting the Flyers 20-9, but Ray Emery saved 19 of them, and James Van Riemsdyk answered the Carolina score, off an assist by who else Laliberte. Finally in the middle of the 3rd period Braydon Coburn scored twice within a minute of himself to finish off a 6-1 blowout victory. Perhaps the Canes were a little tired, but they still outshot the Flyers 40-28 and had 5 power play opportunities to 4 for the Flyers. So it should not have been such a lopsided win, and yet it was. It easy to see why too. The Flyer's killed off all 5 Hurricane power plays, Ray Emery was huge with 39 saves out of the 40 shots he faced, and the Flyer's actually won most of the faceoffs for a change. Thankfully, while Briere and Gagne went on the injured list, top faceoff man Blair Betts returned to the lineup and was just what the doctor ordered winning 13 faceoffs, Mike Richards won 12, and Jeff Carter won 7. So while they didn't step up their scoring, Carter and Richards did step up big time. The funny thing is when the Flyers started out 3-0 and looked to be headed for a great season, it was thanks in large part to Betts winning faceoffs and controlling the puck on the 3rd line. It was only when he went out that the Flyers began struggling. Now he's back and suddenly the Flyers look like that team again. So Betts is the key to Flyer's success this season. Who knew.
Friday, October 30, 2009
SIXERS NEWS
After an embarrassing loss to the Orlando Magic in their season opener the Sixers returned to the Wachovia center tonight looking to get back on track in their home opener against the Milwaukee Bucks. Thanks to some improved defense, admittedly against an opponent not nearly as talented offensively, and a more balance offensively they were able to do just that. All 5 Sixer starters scored in double figures with Andre Iguodala's 19 leading the way. Elton Brand scored 17, Lou Williams posted 16, Thad Young added 13, Sammy Dalembert chipped with 10 and 12 rebounds. Jason Kapono also came in off the bench to score 12, including 2 threes. Offensively, the only thing down from the opener, was the Sixers shooting percentage which dropped from the 50s to 45%, but that was really because they were focusing more on defense tonight then their scoring. The defense really was a whole lot better for the Sixers tonight as they held the Bucks to just 40% shooting from the field and only 30% from beyond the arc. They also outrebound the Bucks, barely, 45-44 and posted 12 steals and 7 blocks. Sure, it was against the Bucks, but it was still an impressive defensive effort by the Sixers and it is what they need to do every game if they want to be successful. The Sixers actually trailed by 6 at the half with the score 47-41. They picked it up on defense from there and by the 4th quarter they were up by 9 with the score 76-67. They simply handled the Bucks in the 4th and eventually put away a 99-86 win.
FLYERS NEWS
It's been a rough last couple of days for the Flyers and they weren't even playing. First Simon Gagne went on the injured list with a hernia in his shoulder a couple days ago and now today Danny Briere came up lame in practice with a pulled groin. This is exactly what the Flyers could not afford to have happen. They were already having some trouble scoring with their top 2 forwards in the lineup, now what they are going to do. The Orange and Black are just going to have to play unbelievable defense or it's going to be long wait for those guys to come back. Also Jeff Carter and Mike Richards are really going to have to pick things up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)