<font color="blue">Detroit Pistons (42-23)</font> @ <font color="red">Philadelphia 76ers (32-34)</font> Time: 8:00 PM, EST Arena: Wachovia Center TV: ESPN ____________________ <u>Last Meeting</u> Detroit 93, Philadelphia 75 ____________________ <font color="blue">Detroit Pistons Starting Five</font> <font size="1"><font color="blue">PG</font> Chauncey Billups <font color="blue">SG</font> Richard Hamilton <font color="blue">SF</font> Tayshaun Prince <font color="blue">PF</font> Rasheed Wallace <font color="blue">C</font> Ben Wallace</font> <font size="1">Head Coach-Larry Brown</font> ____________________ <font color="red">Philadelphia 76ers Starting Five</font> <font size="1"><font color="Red">PG</font> Allen Iverson <font color="Red">SG</font> Andre Iguodala <font color="Red">SF</font> Kyle Korver <font color="Red">PF</font> Chris Webber <font color="Red">C</font> Samuel Dalmbert</font> <font size="1">Head Coach- Jim O'Brien</font> ____________________ Player(s) To Watch <font color="red">Samuel Dalembert - Philadelphia 76ers</font> Dalemebert has been on a rollercoaster throughout the season, but Coach O'Brien suddenly found a way to utilize him. Now days he makes the team rely on Dalembert offense and let Dalembert take his man one-on-one. Now while that sounds strange, Dalembert has actually done his part. Compared to this season and last season, Dalembert has become a much better offensive player. His defense seems to be stuck from where he left off last season, but his offense seems to be clicking. Coming off from his best game of the season, Dalembert and the players and most importantly the coach is becoming more confident in his abilities. Not only was Dalembert hitting fade away shots and giving shades of Kevin Garnett, he was even knocking down shots in crunch time. Not to mention, he also pulled down a season-high 17 rebounds. So heading into this game, the 76ers may potentially go to Dalembert because his long arms may cause the Wallace's some problems. They obviously have the strength to contain Dalembert for the most part but Dalembert finesse can get him some easy buckets here and there. Projected Stats: 11 Points , 2 Assists, 13 Rebounds, 1 Steals, 3 Blocks ____________________ <u>Keys To The Game</u> <font color="Red">Philadelphia 76ers</font> <ul><font color="Red">Ball Movement</font> In the last meeting between both teams, the 76ers offense looked very sluggish. Everyone was scoring their points on isolation plays. And against the Pistons this is the not the best strategy. They 76ers were only able to get a mere 15 assists. Steve Nash alone could out-assist the 76ers, so the 76ers must tune things up a bit and move the ball around. If they can get within the 20-24 assist range, they may very well win the game. As for Chris Webber, he is expected to play, so things are going to be a different this time around. For the 76ers sake hopefully he can run the offense and dish it off to the cutters and slashers because Iverson strategy of driving and kicking is not working against this Pistons defense. But then again, with Larry Brown the man who best knows Iverson will NOT be coaching this game. So this could play as a beneficiary role for the 76ers.[/list] <ul><font color="Red">Defending the 3Pt Shot</font> The Pistons hit 9 three pointers against the 76ers in the last confrontation. Now while that's nothing ground breaking, this served as a backbreaker whenever the 76ers made a run at them. But in particular the 76ers must watch Billups behind the arc. He led the 3pt "rampage" with five three pointers under his belt, so everything is going to start with him. If they can stop Billups from knocking down the 3pt shot, defending the 3pt won't be as much of a concern.[/list] <ul><font color="Red">Perimeter Shooting</font> This is virtually the only team that gives Iverson trouble as far as getting into the paint.. Against this Pistons team he has a history of majority of his points coming from the perimeter. The Wallace's are an intimidating duo and Iverson knows so to. He once referred to them as a ?nightmare?. So if Iverson continue to have trouble scoring or getting into the paint for that matter the others guys must be able to knock down their perimeter shots. It pretty obvious if Iverson can't get into the paint, then nobody will get into the paint thus the team perimeter shooting will have to come up big on game night.[/list] __________________ Personal Prediction I'll take the 76ers in an upset. The Pistons will control the game throughout, but Iverson along with Webber and Korver will spark a run mid to late in the 4th quarter and give the 76ers a 3 point win. Pistons 96, 76ers 99
Bleh...don't see the Sixers have much chance in this one. I still think Billups will hit up 3-5 3 pointers and kill the Sixers from the outside.
I still think otherwise. Anyways here are some quick game notes that I thought about it... <font size="1"><ul>The Sixers has been off for three days now. So you may see a rejuvenated team or a rusty team.[/list] <ul>Chris Webber is expected to play.[/list] <ul>Allen Iverson is still ailing from a fractured left thumb.[/list] <ul>Richard Hamilton is a GTD. He did not play last night in the loss to the Cavaliers.[/list] <ul>The Pistons are just 7-5 under they're acting head coach.[/list] <ul>The Pistons are also on their 2nd game of their back-to-back.[/list] <ul>Rasheed Wallace is averaging 22.3 Points as well as 9.8 Rebounds in his last five games.[/list] <ul>The Pistons own the season series with a 3-0 record against the Sixers.[/list]</font> -- GO SIXERS!
Number one key for the Sixers is stopping the frontcourt of the Pistons who have Price and the Wallace brothers. They are quick and long, something that the Sixers frontcourt is not. I believe that Richard Hamitlon is NOT playing for tonight's game because of the ankle. They look like they won't take any chances.
It's tough switching back from your favorite television show (Alias btw) and your favorite sports team, but I am managing. It's making the television experience a whole lot more interesting and exciting when your under five hundred percent team is up by twenty-two points against the defending champions at halftime. Even though Rip hasn't seen a single minute, Rasheed and Chauncey aren't standing up in his absence as expected. To make things worse Allen Iverson's field goals equal that of the entire nine person team Detroit has put on the floor so far tonight. We already have four guys in double figures (two with nine points, but still...) so, if we just keep on this type of play I think we're set.
Man I thought we were going to collapse early in the 3 when they came back. It's good to see the Sixers finally answer a second half run with their own though. Iguodala had a triple double!!!!!!!First of his career!
Definetley an excellant effort by the Sixers tonight. The Sixers played with lots of energy throughout the game since the three day break. Hopefully this can be a sign to come, everybody got involved and were finally starting to work the offense through Chris a lot more. If we can stay consistent then anything can happen.
IGGY! with the triple double 10-10-10! thats my boy! i like iggy, toronto should of had him but oh well...congrats on the big win.
This game was off the hook! Iguodala with a triple-double,Webber played 33 minutes and shot well (9/19). I haven't seen the game yet but I read from nba.com's recap that Webber made some jumpers to spark an 12-2 run. Now before the Webber trade we would've choked and let the Pistons go but Chris is the one who's capable of hitting shots when others can't. (Not in final seconds of the game,though ) Only thing I didn't like about the game is 8 TO's Allen had.
Yeah, game was the issh. AI scored his normal but it still seemed as if everyone was majorly involved last night. AI2AI alley-opp was sickening too.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Martin:</div><div class="quote_post">This game was off the hook! Iguodala with a triple-double,Webber played 33 minutes and shot well (9/19). I haven't seen the game yet but I read from nba.com's recap that Webber made some jumpers to spark an 12-2 run. Now before the Webber trade we would've choked and let the Pistons go but Chris is the one who's capable of hitting shots when others can't. (Not in final seconds of the game,though ) Only thing I didn't like about the game is 8 TO's Allen had.</div> Who cares about AI's turnovers, whenever the pistons got the turnover, the pistons create another turnover, and the sixers got the ball back. pistons turned the ball over like 20 times this game. go sixers!
At the post game conference Allen said his thumb was really bothering him in the second half today.....so that's why he had alotta turnovers in the last few minutes of the game, but then he said he was trying to make up mental excuses for him during the game. But that's something that's bothering me though he said the thumb will probably keep on hurting till the end of the season.
I see this injury as a blessing in disguise. The injury doesn't seem to be affecting his shooting which is a big relief, his shooting touch is still right around where it's suppose to be but the thumb injury is really hurting his ball handling. So I think he is going to be forced to give Webber the ball and let him run the offense at times which is something that we need to see more. Sometimes Iverson overdoes it with the ball handling, yes, he runs the offense but at the same time Webber is one of thee best player makers and he needs to be willing to give him the ball some more. Hopefully, Iverson will realize that and not continue to handle the ball non-stop and just hope he doesn't turn the ball over as much. I noticed he only committed just 2 turnovers in the final minutes of the 3rd quarter, but as the 4th quarter approached I think he was aiming after a double-double and he was just making careless mistakes. Mistakes he wouldn't normally do if the team wasn't sitting on such a comfortable lead. But I read an article on sixers.com and Iverson knows about the turnovers issues, and being the hard worker he is I have no doubt that he will cut down the turnovers by a large amount in the remaining season. If he can finish the season with just 3.5 turnovers or so that would be excellent granted that he is averaging 30+ Points, 8 Assists and leading the league in minutes with about 42+ MPG. As for the game, it was the bets game of the season IMO. Both AI's came up huge, Webber lead the charge when the Pistons made a comeback and everything just simply clicked for us. National TV and beating the defending champions by 23 is a nice thing to see. Our defense has been hell of a consistent thing as of late, we just had a minor set back against Chicago but its all good. We blew out the Bobcats, Lakers and then defeated Cleveland and held LeBron James to 3-20 shooting and again just a minor setback against the Bulls but we bounce back and beat the Pistons by 23 and held them to under 40% shooting. So things are looking very good for us right now. We play the Raptors on Friday at home, and I'm sure the 76ers are not going to let the same thing happen before happen again. So I'm projecting a win for us in that game as well. Let's go SIXERS! P.S. Was I on point with the "Keys To The Game" or what?
