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TOP GALLERY
Things are Gonna Get Easier: Sixers Head to Cleveland
February 11, 2012, 5:21 pm
By Andrew Unterberger
The700Level.com
The700Level.com
4-3. Not bad for a seven-game death stretch, though not necessarily as
decisive as we would've hoped when the Sixers started the stretch 4-1.
Back-to-back tough losses against the Spurs and Clippers—one in which
the Sixers got legitimately outplayed, and one in which a bunch of crap
went wrong for both teams and the Sixers lost because Chris Paul might
be the deadliest player in the game with less than a minute left in
regulalation—make the seven-game set a slightly mixed bag, though on the
whole, you'd probably still have to consider it a victory for Philly.
They're still 18-9, third-best in the East—and tonight, they get to play
their first creampuff match in two weeks with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
All right, "creampuff" might be going a bit far. The Cavs are actually having a surprisingly acceptable season this year, just two-and-a-half games out of the playoffs with their 10-15 record, and just a couple nights ago they even beat the Clippers, which by some transitive mathematical properties might make them a better team than the Sixers, technically. Of course, they've also lost to the Raptors, Warriors and Nets, and they'll be missing both their likely Rookie of the Year point guard Kyrie Irving and their MVP of the last few weeks, hustling big man Anderson Varejao. After going against Tony Parker & Tim Duncan and Chris Paul & Blake Griffin, somehow I doubt the Sixers are particularly sweating Ramon Sessions & Antawn Jamison.
Nonetheless, the Sixers are somewhat untested on the road this year—5-4, against 13-5 at home—and the post-LeBron Cavs took two games against the Sixers last year, including one in Cleveland. With the Sixers finally looking to spend some time away from the Wells Fargo Center—they play seven of their next eight games on the road, after playing 17 of 22 at home—a decisive win against Cleveland would obviously be a great way to kick off the next leg of the Sixers' season. (Hopefully this will also be a chance for young bigs Nikola Vucevic and Lavoy Allen to put up some numbers after getting shut down by the San Antonio and LA front lines, while perhaps Coach Collins won't be as stingy as he has been lately with Evan Turner's minutes.)
7:30 tip from Quicken Loans Arena. The loss to the Clips was the Sixers' second in a row, their first losing streak longer than a game of the entire season. Impressive that they held out this long, but neither we nor the team want to see it happen again anytime soon—or worse, continue tonight. “It’s disappointing to lose two straight at home," said Elton Brand after the loss. “We’ve got to regroup, go on the road and keep growing.” See you there, EB.
All right, "creampuff" might be going a bit far. The Cavs are actually having a surprisingly acceptable season this year, just two-and-a-half games out of the playoffs with their 10-15 record, and just a couple nights ago they even beat the Clippers, which by some transitive mathematical properties might make them a better team than the Sixers, technically. Of course, they've also lost to the Raptors, Warriors and Nets, and they'll be missing both their likely Rookie of the Year point guard Kyrie Irving and their MVP of the last few weeks, hustling big man Anderson Varejao. After going against Tony Parker & Tim Duncan and Chris Paul & Blake Griffin, somehow I doubt the Sixers are particularly sweating Ramon Sessions & Antawn Jamison.
Nonetheless, the Sixers are somewhat untested on the road this year—5-4, against 13-5 at home—and the post-LeBron Cavs took two games against the Sixers last year, including one in Cleveland. With the Sixers finally looking to spend some time away from the Wells Fargo Center—they play seven of their next eight games on the road, after playing 17 of 22 at home—a decisive win against Cleveland would obviously be a great way to kick off the next leg of the Sixers' season. (Hopefully this will also be a chance for young bigs Nikola Vucevic and Lavoy Allen to put up some numbers after getting shut down by the San Antonio and LA front lines, while perhaps Coach Collins won't be as stingy as he has been lately with Evan Turner's minutes.)
7:30 tip from Quicken Loans Arena. The loss to the Clips was the Sixers' second in a row, their first losing streak longer than a game of the entire season. Impressive that they held out this long, but neither we nor the team want to see it happen again anytime soon—or worse, continue tonight. “It’s disappointing to lose two straight at home," said Elton Brand after the loss. “We’ve got to regroup, go on the road and keep growing.” See you there, EB.
