There is nothing new to report
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Monday, November 09, 2009
SIXERS NEWS
The Sixers welcomed the Phoenix Suns to the Wachovia center as they looked to get back on track after losing to the Pistons yesterday. They played much better offensively on this night, then they had against the Pistons, shooting 53% from the field and 38% from beyond the arc, with 5 Sixers in double figures. Andre Iguodala led the way with 24, Lou Williams had 13, Elton Brand chipped in with 10, Thad Young scored 15, and Maurice Speights came off the bench for 20. Unfortunately, the Sixers just couldn't stop the high powered Sun's, who also shot 53% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc. The Sixers hung with them for a while, and even had a 12 point lead at the half, but it was all but gone by the 4th quarter. Still, they managed to hang in there until Phoenix finally pulled ahead for good with a little over 2 minutes to play and eventually hung on to win 119-115. So the Sixers drop under .500 for the 1st time this season at 3-4 overall and hopefully they won't stay there for too long.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
SIXERS NEWS
The Sixers traveled to Detroit this afternoon for a matchup with the Pistons. With Tashawn Prnce and Rip Hamilton both missing the game for Detroit, you would think this would have been an easy eay evening for the Sixers. Instead Ben Wallace played some inspired defense, pulling down 16 rebounds, and racking up 3 steals and block each, as he helped limit the Sixers to just 43% shooting from the field and 16.7% shooting from beyond the arc. The Sixers just simply couldn't get any rythm going offensively. They hung in there though, with Andre Iguodala's 24 points leading the way. In fact after 3 quarters of play they were only down by 4 with the score 64-60. Even as late as about 2 and half minutes to play in the 4th quarter, the Sixers were within 2 and had actually led at one point before that. Then Detroit turned it on even more defensively, the Sixers went cold the rest of the way, and the Pistons hung on to win 88-81. So the Sixers finally lose one they probably should have won as they drop to 3-3 overall. Better luck next time I guess.
PHILLIES NEWS
The Phils decided today not to pick up the option remaining on 3B Pedro Feliz's contract. Now that doesn't mean yet that he won't be back with the Phils next season. It simply means the Phils are keeping their options open. So ultimately we'll have to wait and see what happens.
EAGLES NEWS
The Eagles welcomed the Dallas Cowboys to the Linc tonight for yet another showdown to decide 1st place in the NFC East. It was not a well played game with several penalty flags on both sides and 3 interceptions, 1 by Tony Romo and 2 by Donovan Mcnabb, but it was a typical tight NFC East battle. The Boys led early 7-0 on a 2 yd TD run by Tashard Choice following Mcnabb's fist int. The Eagles came back with a couple of field goals in the 2nd quarter to cut it to 7-6, before Nick Folk drilled a 22 yarder as time expired for a 10-6 Dallas halftime lead. The Eagles then opened the 3rd quarter with 77 yard drive, capped off by a Mcnabb TD pass to Brent Celek for a 13-10 Eagle's lead. Sadly they never led again, as luck was just not on the Birds side tonight. First Mcnabb miscommunicated with the rookie sensation, Jeremy Maclin on a crossing route, resuling in Mcnabb's 2 int of the day and a Dallas field goal to tie it at 13. Later the Eagles went for it on a 4th and inches from about midfield. It appeared for all intensive purposes that Mcnabb got the needed yardage on a QB sneak, but the officials did not give him the spot and then would not overturn the spot they had given simply because they couldn't see whether or not one of his elbows was down before he got the needed yardage. That then left the Eagles with no timeouts and a 20-13 deficit after Dallas, taking over from about midfield, drove down into Eagle's territory and turned a 3rd and 14 into a 49 yd TD pass to Miles Austin. It was his only catch of the game, after a combined 300+ yards recieving the last 3 weeks, and it made all the difference. The Eagles put together one more drive to try and tie it, but on 3rd down from inside the Dallas 40, Mcnabb came a shoestring tackle away from scrambling for a 1st down, and the Birds decided to settle for another Aker's field goal, this one 52 yards out. That left the Eagles down 20-16, and with no timeouts, desperate to stop Dallas quickly. Unfortunately, LB Akeem Jordan went down with a knee injury on the ensuing kickoff and Dallas exploited his absence on 3rd and 3 from inside their own 40, with Romo completing a short pass to Jason Witten to move the chains and allow Dallas to run out the clock. The Eagles have the toughest part of their schedule coming up now and really needed to win this one to solidfy their spot atop the NFC East and towards the top of the NFC. Instead they drop to 5-3 overall and now must hope they can survive this upcoming stretch well enough for another shot at Dallas and the division. It won't be easy though.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
FLYERS NEWS
The Flyers welcomed the St.Louis Blues to the Wachovia center tonight as they looked for their 4th straight win. Thanks to another inspiring night of defense and 30 more saves by Ray Emery out of the 31 shots he faced, they were able hold off St.Louis and extend the winning streak to 4. It wasn't easy though. Scott Hartnell scored the only Flyer's goal in regulation with a power play tally late in the 2nd period. For a while it looked like that would hold up, but just under 6 minutes into the 3rd period T.J Oshie finally got one by Emery to knot it at 1 for St. Louis. It stayed that way through the rest of regulation and all the way through overtime as went into a shootout, which usually means bad things for the Flyers, but not tonight. In the 2nd round of the shootout Brad Boyes beat Emery to give St. Louis the edge, but Claude Giroux, the hero the last time the Flyerr's played a shootout, came through again to even things at 1. After 2 more rounds and 2 more Emery saves, Mika Pyrola, who had not previously scored a goal on the season, finally ended it by beating Chris Mason to start the 5th round of the shootout. So the Flyer's got the 2-1 victory for their 10th win of the season, and at 9-4-1 with 19 points they're still only 6th in the Eastern conference.
Friday, November 06, 2009
SIXERS NEWS
The Sixers welcomed a beat up New Jersey Nets team to the wachovia center tonight. New Jersey came in with only 9 healthy players and half the starting lineup on the injured list, except center Brook Lopez and shooting guard Courtney Lee. In fact New Jersey came in winless on the season, so this stood to be an easy Sixer victory. In the end was a Sixer victory, barely, but a win is a win. The Sixers actually trailed most of the night, despite shooting 50% from the field and beyond the arc. It wasn't because New Jersey played all that well, the Sixers just simply let them stick around, committing 15 turnovers, almost getting out-rebounded and allowing a shorthanded team shoot 47% from the field. Ultimately though, the Sixers were able to take care of business thanks to hot shooting down the stretch from the likes of Andre Iguodala with 16 points, Lou Williams, with a game high 18, and Jason Kapono who came off the bench to drill 4 threes and score 14. The Sixers trailed by 2 after 1, clung to a 3 point lead at the half, and were down again by 5 after 3. Finally in the 4th the Sixer's shooting heated up again, as Iggy nailed a 3 with 2 minutes to play to put the Sixers ahead for good, and then swiped the ball from Terence Williams as time expired, to preserve a 97-94 win. So the Sixers are now 3-2 and have beaten everyone they were supposed to, if only they could learn how to do it a little more easily.
FLYERS NEWS
The Flyers traveled to Buffalo tonight for a matchup with the Sabres. who came in having allowed the fewest goals in the NHL thus far, while the Flyer's came in with the NHL's best power play thus far. Of course the Flyers also came having the last 4 meetings between these two teams and having won their last 2 in a row, this season, while Buffalo came in having lost 2 of their last 3. Ultimately the Flyer's picked up right where they left off, destroying the Sabres 5-2. The Flyer's were just better than the Sabres tonight in all facets of the game, except oddly enough the power play, the source of both Buffalo goals. Otherwise Ray Emery outshined Ryan Miller with 28 saves out of the 30 shots he faced to 32 out of 36 for Miller. The Flyers limited Buffalo to only 30 shots on goal, while getting 37 themselves. Sometimes good defense is all you need to win, even in today's wide open NHL. The Flyer's led 1-0 after the first period with Dan Carcillo of all people scoring late in the period. After 2 periods they were up 3-1 with goals from Chris Pronger and the rookie James Van Reimsdyk, who continues to impress. Finally in the 3rd period goals from Daroll Powe and Dan Carcillo again, this into the Sabres empty net put away the win. So the Flyers now have 17 points with an 8-4-1 record, good enough only for 6th in the Eastern conference, because everyone ahead of them has played more games than the Flyers have.
PHILLIES NEWS
The Phils have already started to making offseason moves. Today they picked up the $9 million option to keep ace Cliff Lee here for another year. They also decided not to negotiate a new contract with former ace Brett Myers, meaning his tenure here is effectively over. So it will be interesting to see what the Phils rotation looks like next season. Obviously, the top 4 will or should remain intact, with Lee, Cole Hamels, Joe Blanton, and J.A Happ, but will be interesting to see who the number 5 starter. If Pedro Martinez comes back then it would probably be him, otherwise they can go with the ageless one, Jamie Moyer, who will be back for one more season, or Kyle Kendrick who looked very good late last season, and was the Phils no.5 starter in 07 and much of 08, or there's even a 3rd option, the young phenom Kyle Drabek, the 1st round pick from a couple years back who's been tearing up the Phil's farm system, but he's probably not ready yet. Aside from that the Phils also want to bolster their bullpen and bench, which were really the only weaknesses for this year's team. Finally the Phils also have to decide whether or not to resign 3B Pedro Feliz for another season. There are a few free agent 3B who might be an upgrade over Feliz, offensively, but defensively he is about as good as it gets, so it will be a tough decision. I think we should stick with the Feliz though , as his numbers this year, contrary to popular belief, were up from 08, with 154 hits, 30 doubles, 82 RBIs, and a .266 batting average. As far as I am concerned if you can get that kind of production from your #7 hitter in the National League, you're lucky and you'd be crazy to give it up.
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