<font color="Red">Philadelphia 76ers (17-20)</font> @ <font color="darkorange">Charlotte Bobcats (8-26)</font> Time: 7:00 PM, EST Arena: ----- TV: CSN, NBALP ____________________ <u>Last Meeting</u> N/A ____________________ <u>Starting Five</u> <font color="Red">Philadelphia 76ers</font> C- Samuel Dalembert F- Kenny Thomas F- Kyle Korver G- Andre Iguodala G- Allen Iverson Head Coach- Jim O?Brien <font color="darkorange">Charlotte Bobcats</font> C- Primoz Brezec F- Emeka Okafor F- Gerald Wallace G- Kareem Rush G- Brevin Knight Head Coach- Bernie Bickerstaff ____________________ <u>Key Match-up</u> <font color="Red">Allen Iverson</font> v. <font color="DarkOrange">Brevin Knight</font> ____________________ Player To Watch <font color="Red">Corliss Williamson - Philadelphia 76ers</font> [IMGl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/corliss_williamson.jpg[/IMGl]PPG: 9.8 RPG: 4.0 APG: .8 FG%: 43.7 % FT%: 80.2 % Looking at his season averages, you would wonder why he's the highlighted player for the 76ers. Well if you haven't noticed Corliss Williamson is playing the most consistent basketball he has thus far with the 76ers. Over the last three games or so, he's providing a major spark off the bench, and he's usually the catalyst (alongside Marc Jackson) that leads the surge when the 76ers back their last minutes rally's after being down by huge deficits. With his size and bulkiness he will be problem for the Bobcats. That said; look for Corliss Williamson to have yet another great game. The better he's played the more minutes he's received. He's has been quietly one of our best players in the past couple games, and look for this to continue. Projected Stats: 14 Points, 3 Assists, 7 Rebounds, 3 Steals, 0 Blocks ____________________ <u>Keys To The Game</u> <font color="Red">Philadelphia 76ers</font> <ul><font color="Red">Brevin Knight</font> While he does not pose as a threat on the offensive end, his playmaking ability is very underrated, and that has been one the of the key's to the Bobcats unexpected surge. If you take a look at the Bobcats roster, you would think it would be impossible for a PG to dish out 14, 18 and 20 Assists with these players. But think again, Brevin Knight quickness and court awareness has been huge for this team. Similar to another PG called Allen Iverson his ball penetration opens up many opportunities for his teammates. With that said, the 76ers must look to take Brevin Knight out of his comfort zone. Allen Iverson in a rare occasion actually has the size and strength advantage against his opponent. But in these two situations strength will not mean anything it will all depend on who can keep up with one another quickness.[/list] <ul><font color="Red">Allen Iverson</font> Heading into virtually every game it?s expected that Iverson will try to get things going early on, opposing coaches expect to see Iverson try get it going on offensively as well. However, Iverson needs to do otherwise. He?s already banged up as it is, so his best option or more like the team best option would be to get Iverson setting his teammates up first before he gets his own. Currently, the 76ers have to hot players in Thomas, Williamson and against an expansion team that should be enough. So Iverson must look to get others involved and make them threats and which later on he can get his points much easier because the Bobcats would potentially be worrying about the other guys. It?s a very simple equation that would be very effective to help the 76erse pull out a win.[/list] <ul><font color="Red">Score</font> The Bobcats rank #24 in giving up points(92.6). So it?s quite simple. The 76ers needs have a scoring mentality. While the Bobcats could run (depending on the players they have on the court), as a whole their not very much of a running team. The 76ers best option is look to run and get into the transition game. They can beat the Bobcats any many ways when you look at it? whether it?s the perimeter game, transition game, half-court game. It doesn?t really matter, but they just need to score and up the tempo right away.[/list] __________________ Personal Prediction- This should be an easy game for the 76ers. I?m expecting a 10+ point win. Now while I think we have the upper advantage, the Bobcats are without a doubt one of thee most competitive teams in the league. Their talent may not completely be there, but the low expectations of being an expansion teams fires them and usually gets them going. So while I expect a 10+ point win, I think tee Bobcats will keep this game competitive throughout and when the 76ers seems as if they are going to push the lead to the 20?s, the Cats will manage to keep the game within a 15-8 point deficit. The Cat?s will eventually make a 4th quarter run, but Iverson and Korver will hit some key shots at the end and eventually seal the deal. 106- 92 76ers
This should be an easy win for the Sixers. They practically outmatch the Bobcats in every single position except for perhaps powerforward with Emeka Okafor. However, they really need to keep an eye out for him and Brevin Knight. Emeka is a huge hustle player that is big on rebounds and can pound it down low for points. Meanwhile, Brevin Knight is a great passer and has great courtvision and like Avery said, is really underrated. Don't underestimate these players. In this game, Allen Iverson and Andre Igoudala should be coming away with great games since they can easily beat their counterparts on both ends of the court. Prediction- Sixers win, 102-93.
Sixers Squeak by Bobcats <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> The 76ers were nursing a two-point lead as the Bobcats took possession with 7.6 seconds left. Jason Hart penetrated and was met by a pair of help defenders. He appeared to be fouled on a runner that missed. "I went to the hole and tried to draw contact," Hart said. "Next time I just have to go in there a little bit stronger and a little bit harder. I thought I drew a lot of contact." "We're an expansion team," Bobcats forward Gerald Wallace said. "We're not going to get a lot of the calls that the experienced teams get, so we just try to make the shot anyway knowing that we're not going to get those calls."</div> Full Story This was a pretty nice game. Korver performed very well against the 'Cats as well as Iverson. It got pretty close to the end but we managed to hold our lead. Good game by the Sixers. <font size="1"><font color="Red">-Your are allowed to post just 3-4 pargraphs of an article, yet you post nearly half of the article. So please avoid from letting this occur again. Thank You, Avery 76ers Team Leader</font></font>
This game was very entertaining to watch. It was the first Bobcats game I have ever watched. We should've beat them by more than 2 points. Oh well though. All in all its the W that matters. KEnny THomas and AI were fantastic. So was Corliss Williamson oming off the bench. Kyle Korver made some production but he also missed a lot of shots.
...Good win. I give them that. However we played yet another "dissapointing" game IMO. I understand that the Bobcats are a very competitive team, but at the same time looking at where we're supposed to be, we should have just run away with this game instead of us holding our breath in the last couple minutes before regulation. This game was suppose to be at LEAST a 10 point win, but yet we barely got through the Bobcats. This marks the second consecutive game in which we had trouble defeating two of the worst teams in the NBA. But like I said, it's still a good win depending on how you look at it. However to maintain that #1 spot in the Atlantic Division we need to play much better. Granted that it was any two other teams in place of the Hornets and Bobcats we would have easily been on a 2-game lossing streak. And to be honest, looking at the state of the Sixers right now, I highly doubt we will be able to pull out a win in Orlando saturday night. We're just not playing at the level we're suppose to be playing. But then again, the Sixers do have a nack of turning things around quickly, so hopefully, just hopefully they can turn everything around and play great basketball. Last night game...no matter the outcome, win or lost, that was not a game we would want to build off of. Anyways for our sake let's just hope Thomas, Williamson and Jackson continue to perform well because I don't know where we would be without them especially with Iverson struggling the way he has.
Yes we should easily beat the Bob Cats seeing as we're a division leader right now but we didnt easily beat them. THe thing I liked though how the ball was spread around on the offensive end. Our defense in that game SUCKED. God it was awful and I should've mentioned that in my earlier post. The game in Orlando should be quite a sight to see on Saturday, and I think it will test them. The Sixers on a chart would keep going up and down because that's how it's been pretty much i think. The thing that matters is that we won the NO and Charlotte games. We could have easily lost any of those games. YA Iverson has really been struggling. I just checked the power rankings on www.nba.com and it said on the Sixers part that Iverson has been strugling and shooting .355% over the last 5 games. I didn't relize he was shooting that horrid. Yea i agree thank god that Corliss and Kenny are stepping it up big time. Right now If I knew NOTHING about the Sixers and just watched recent games I'd think Kenny Thomas was our franchise player.
