<div align="center"> <font color=""DarkRed"">Philadelphia 76ers</font> @<font color=""red""> Portland Trailblazers</font> Time: Wednesday, 10:00pm (ET) 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"">Portlanf 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 Przybillia</font> <font size=""1"">Coach: Nate McMillan</font> </div> <ul><font color="DarkRed">Foul Trouble</font> The big guys for the 76ers have got to stay out of foul trouble. Samuel Dalembert fouled out of last nigths game against the Nuggets in 23 minutes. This foul trouble he constantly gets in is hurting his play and the 76ers. Dalembert is averaging a career high 4 fouls a game. The 76es need his pressence on defense to block shots, and to rebound the ball. Hopefully Sam can start making better decsions on when he fouls. If I'm not mistake he fouled Carmelo beyond the arc last night, which is unacceptable. The 76ers don't have a very deep frontcourt, so for Sam in particular to stay out of foul trouble, it would help the Sixers a lot.[/list] <ul><font color="DarkRed">Team Defense</font> Players like Sebastian Telfair, and Darius Miles like to penetrate to score their buckets. Last night the 76ers gave up a 45 point scorer in Carmelo Anthony. The thing that scares me is that Carmelo scored a lot of those points by simply attacking the lane and scoring easy layups, and dunks. This is a problem that has plagued the 76ers for all of the season. They can't seem to keep the good scorers out of the paint. In order for the 76ers to be successfull tonight, they must play defense as a team. When players get in the lane, Sixers should be coming off their man to at least play some help defense.[/list] <ul><font color="DarkRed">Rebound!</font> The 76ers are undeafted when out rebounding their opponent. They out rebounded this Blazers team the last time they played. But don't under estimate the Blazers, they have a guy like Zach Randolph who can explode for a 20 and 20 night any time. UNtil the 76ers lose and out rebound an opponent this will be a key for them every game, because this stat always seems to hold the outcome towards the game.[/list] <div align="center"></div> I'm iffy about this game for some reason. The 76ers are coming off a hard fought win over the Nuggets. Allen Iverson has done something to his ankle, and stated that it was bothering him pretty bad after the Nuggets game. With that being said I'm predicting an ugly game between these two. What I mean is a low scoring grind it out type of game. I have a gut feeling the Blazers might upset the Sixers, but its hard to pick against the 76ers because they have been playing well. This Sixers team right now is better then this Blazers team, I think the Sixers will win in the final few possesions of the game. 94-88, Philly.
nice preview B. i agree. im a little iffy as well. the blazers arent an elite team, and far from it, but they still have guys that can do damage. guys like telfair, miles, and randolf. i think that the sixers will win this one though, but not without a fight. it will come down close but i ultimately see the sixers winning this, 98-94. a very hard fought game.
This should be an easy win for the Sixers. But it probably will not as we saw with that Atlanta game. Even without Iverson I think the Sixers should be able to win this game if Iverson is forced to miss. Sixers may be tired from their Denver game last night also so our offense will probably be a tad bit slower. I wouldn't be surprised if Portland pulls off an upset, but I am going to go with.. 92-89 Sixers
Iverson will play tonight... his ankle is fine. This morning he showed up to the team breakfast limping on the wrong foot and had to be reminded of which ankle he sprained. Haha... We should win tonight. There is no excuse if we lose even if this is a back-to-back game... especially since Portland played last night as well.
I don't think Darius Miles will be playing tonight so our key is to shut down Randolph. Last time the two teams met, Randolph totaled 24 points and 9 rebounds which seemed to not hurt us too much. I am not worried a bit. The Blazers are a weak team, but they aren't the type to pull many upsets like the Hawks have done a number of times this season.
Sammy has no defensive instincts at all. He always seems to be getting goal tending calls against him every single game. So far tonight he already has two calls against him and the game just started. He goes up to late, and then always has a confused look on his face when the referees call goal tending. Cheeks needs to bring in a big name assistant coach to work with his big men, and there shot blocking instinct if not this season, during the off season.
Tough loss. AI was hot in the first half, and went cold in the second. It looked like his ankle was really bothering him because he didn't look to penetrate all that much, he just settled for his jumpers. He hit them in the first half, but went cold in the second. I think Webber was just tired... he was short on everything. Iggy is playing weird lately... careless turnovers, erratic shots, etc. I mean, he took a three-pointer in the final two minutes of the game when every possession is critical. Yeah, you're kind of open, but still. I don't know, his play just seems weird to me as of late. He did have some sick dunks though... Korver was on fire in the third... what did he have, like 17 points in the third quarter alone? Kid hit every shot in the period. Ridiculous. We should have gone to him more in the fourth, because Portland had no answer for him. Sam fouled out... what a surprise. We were very turnover prone in the first half... we had 11 in the first half, and that's our average for a game (I think). This loss mainly came down to fatigue. We should have won, but our guys had nothing left in their tanks this game. Referees mad bad calls both ways throughout the game... and I usually don't compain if they screw the opposing team over, but there were a lot of blown calls both ways, in my opinion. No excuse for this loss though, but we got to put it behind us and go out and get the W in Utah.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Diesel:</div><div class="quote_post"> I wouldn't be surprised if Portland pulls off an upset </div> Other than Korver and Dalembert(while he was in the game) everyone was taking bad shots and causing careless turnovers. Dalembert with 10 rebounds and 6 blocks, but only 2 points. i'd take that from him any day. The one play I really liked during the game was at the end when Iverson took a shot, then missed, but then Hunter got the offensive board, and made it in. That play reminded me of our glory days. Iverson + Team Filled with Offensive Rebounders = Success I think we should aim for that again.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting B-22:</div><div class="quote_post">I'm iffy about this game for some reason. The 76ers are coming off a hard fought win over the Nuggets. Allen Iverson has done something to his ankle, and stated that it was bothering him pretty bad after the Nuggets game. With that being said I'm predicting an ugly game between these two. What I mean is a low scoring grind it out type of game. I have a gut feeling the Blazers might upset the Sixers,</div> From now on I'm going to call you Mr. Cleo. As for the game, for some reason I'm not upset, maybe it's because we have the Utah Jazz up next. But then again, if we lost to the Nuggets the other day I would have said the same in regard to the Blazers. A lost is a lost, and we are only a game and half behind the Nets and I doubt Iverson is going to let the Sixers lost two straight games to teams they are far superior than. Right now, I'm not worry and hopefully the team it not and they just need to move on. We lost so that most likely means we got out-rebounded, but what could have helped us win this game was if Webber could have at least scored one point in the 2nd half. Korver was huge, AI wasn't hit usual self, Hunter was decent and so was Sammy with his six blocked shots. At the end of the day Randolph was just too much for us. If AI had a normal game, we would have won, but he is human and he is not going to score 35+ point every night.
Yeah, hopefully these two days of rest help AI get over his ankle, because it was clearly bothering him. He didnt' penetrate as much as he normally does. I think the days off should also rejuvenate Webber, but I'm still concerned about his minutes, especially in back-to-backs. By the way, love the sig Avery!
Alright first of all I'd like to say that B-22 has just been on the money with these predictions so far, he nailed this game as well as the Denver game, also a week or two back he nailed that the Minnesota game would go into OT. That deserves some respect right there. Anyway, Sixers should have won this game no questions asked, they are clearly a more talented team than the Blazers. This is one of those games where you can beat the same team 99 out of 100 times, you just don't know what happened that one loss.
