<div align="center"> @ <font color=""DarkRed"">Philadelphia 76ers (7-6)</font> <font color=""red"">Portland Trailblazers (5-7)</font> Time: Tuesday, Nov. 29, 7:00pm TV: NBALP, CSN <font color="DarkRed">Philadelphia 76ers</font> <font size=""1""><font color=""DarkRed"">PG</font>- Allen Iverson <font color=""DarkRed"">SG</font>- Andre Iguodala <font color=""DarkRed"">SF</font>-Kyle Korver <font color=""DarkRed"">PF</font>- Chris Webber <font color=""DarkRed"">C</font>- Samuel Dalembert</font> <font size=""1"">Coach: Maurice Cheeks</font> ____________________________ <font color=""red"">Portland Trailblazers</font> <font size=""1""><font color=""red"">PG</font>- Sebastian Telfair <font color=""red"">SG</font>-Sergei Monia <font color=""red"">SF</font>-Darius Miles <font color=""red"">PF</font>- Zach Randolph <font color=""red"">C</font>- Joel Przybilla</font> <font size=""1"">Coach: Nate Mcmillan</font> </div> Keys to the Game <ul><font color="DarkRed">It all starts on defense</font> The 76ers are losers of four of their last five, and are at 7-7. In order for them to win this game they need to play good on defense. Samuel Dalembert needs to step up and be a presence inside, although he just came back from an injury, the 76ers need him to get back on pace more then ever. Steven Hunter also needs to play his role on defense when he comes off the bench, and provide some enrgy and block some shots. Another major problem you can consider part of defense is defensive rebounding. The 76ers need to box out and rebound the ball and not give up second chance points. The Portland Blazers have players capable on penetrating, guard Sebastian Telfair has the ability to knife through the lane and score. Forward Darius Miles also has the ability to take people off the dribble.[/list] <ul><font color="DarkRed">Win this for Cheeks</font> Mo Cheeks left the Blazers last season, after having numerous disputes with different players on the team. One of them including Darius Miles. Mo probably wants to win this one more then anybody could imagine. The 76ers need to go out and play hard, and at the least make this game respectble for them. [/list] <ul><font color="DarkRed">Offensive executiong</font> Have you ever heard of the saying, your offense can be your defense? One of the reasons the 76es are struggling on defense is because they aren't executing on offense like they should be. This team is often not executing the easy plays such as missed dunks, and missed layups. The 76ers also can't force quick jumpers and need to work the ball around and find good shots. There are a couple of good examples of this. Instead of Korver catching and shooting long range shots, I'd like to see him actually make an offensive move. A pump fake to get the defender in the air and a nice mid range J would be nice to see, but then again maybe I'm asking for to much. The other example would be Chris Webber, I am very satisfied at his level of play this season. But I'd like to see him taking that 5 foot hook shot more often, instead of that 18 foote jumper he has been shooting a lot lately.[/list] <div align="center"></div> I think the 76ers can get a win here easy, but then again almost every game in the NBA is a difficult one because almost every team is always going to make a run. The 76ers have to learn how to withstand another teams run, and keep up a steady production for four whole quarters. Tonight they have a chance to either go up a game over .500 or drop a game below it. Lets hope the 76ers come out and get the job done. I'm predicting a 76ers win, but I think it will be a close game as well. Look for an average player on the Blazers to step it up if the 76ers do a good job on the main guys. 101-07 Philly.
nice preview. im really excited for this game because mo cheeks is going up against his former team. it should be interesting to see how his former players darius miles, ruben patterson, and zach randolf will react. all in all, im just excited and hopefully we can bouce back from that awful loss with a blowout win. PS: nice preview B, but dont you think you should have included "finishing off games" in you sixers key to the game? also, what's 101-07? lol.
its the end of the first. the sixers are up 23 to 20. i expected them to get a higher lead, but portlands been playing good as well. c-webb really has to start stepping up. shooting 0 for 6 is unacceptable. also, korver is hot right now and hopefully this continues. go sixers.
I was able to catch the 2nd half of the game, and sadly as it sounds but C-Webb is back on one leg. Don't take this to heart because then again he was a monster and grabbed 15 rebounds, but offensively he's now again a jump shooter. I'm sure he can withstand the physicality from crashing the boards and all but then having to bump into guys on the offensive end in the low block to get some points is asking for too much I guess. Whatever the case may be, on the defensive end as far as rebounding goes, he looks amazing, but offensively I don't like what I see. Iverson was terrific. Almost went for 40+ points in three consecutive games. However I think he should have sat out the game ever since the 4th quarter because it was clearly a win. They have a game tomorrow and I think Mo should have just rest him rather than having scoring 40+ against his former team. Overall it was a great night, but the thing that stood out the most was REBOUNDING. Yup, we actually rebounded the ball. 60 rebounds to the Blazers 30 rebounds. And at the same time only gave up 4 offensive rebounds. Looks like Webber got to everybody and everyone all of a sudden wanted to rebound. It certainly got to AI for example, he grabbed 8 but since Webbers stressed the importance of rebounding it was only right that he lead the way with 15 rebounds on his own. Here are something I noticed from the game and boxscore which will/reflects on the importance of rebounding for this team: 1. Since they were able to rebound the ball so well, they were able to get 94 shot attempts. But the most notable thing about all this is that they are at the bottom of the league in rebounding but yet at the same time are at the top of the league in scoring. Rebounding provides so much offensive opportunities which is why they got 94 shot attempts, so what if they get even more opportunities to score when they’re scoring is already up to par? Compared to other nights the Sixers were off in this game but still managed to score over 100 points(due to rebounding(21 offensive rebounds)), so what if they having a regular offensive night and do a decent job on the boards? If they consistently rebound the ball I’ll say they will be near the Suns of last season as far as putting up points goes. 2. Defensively it helped out a lot as well. Despite shooting under 30% at one point in the 1st quarter they were still able to hold a lead against the Blazers which were shooting over 40%. The reason being is because they limited the Blazers shot attempts by grabbing the boards and giving the Blazers less of a chance to get offensive rebounds which ultimately leads to 2nd chance points. So rebounding is the key for the Sixers success in my opinion. And I agree with Stephen A. Smith as in Dalembert is the most important player on this team because as far as rebounding goes everything starts with him. It’s very essential that Dalembert leads the way in grabbing rebounds because this is what will ultimately make or break this team.
I actually think this game would be a lot closer then what is actually was. For starters the 76ers did an excellant job on the glass tonight against the Blazers, out rebounding them a whoping 60 to 30! That really made my day when I read that. The 76ers also kept a lead throughout the majority of the game. Their lead was no less then 11 in the second half. This game, a different player stepped up. Kyle Korver scored sixteen points and even managed to grap 8 rebounds. Chris Webber started off slow on the offensive end, but hey he ended with a nice double double with 16 points and 15 rebounds. Allen Iverson had an interesting statline, a normal 38 points, 8 rebounds, and no assists and only 1 turnover. But nobody is complaining, the 76ers played well as they should have and they gave us some answers to previous problems they had. This team played very well, but they could still actually play a lot better. Dalembert is going to need some more time to get back on track, and when he does this Sixers team will look even better.
Great win for the Sixers. It feels good to win confidently and not have the team come back while you have a large lead. I hope this carries on to the next game and through the rest of the season.
For all of you who watched the game, how was Dalembert?? How is he on the defense and is he flowing with the offense or does he have no idea what he's doing on offense?
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">For all of you who watched the game, how was Dalembert?? How is he on the defense and is he flowing with the offense or does he have no idea what he's doing on offense?</div> He looked okay. Still a little rough around the edges but will all that will be history once he gets more games udner his belt. Remeber he has sometime to go before he reaches that level that got him that contract. Guys are starting to get into mid-season level while he only played one preaseason game and did light workouts for most of the training camp. Luckily he's an athletic freak or else it would probably take him until mid Feb to get into full shape. Also, in addition to what I said in the importance of rebounding for this team... I did a little research and I noticed that the Sixers are 5-0 when out-rebounding the opposition. I was surprised that they even outrebounded the other teams on five different occasions.
