After Friday night's 102-80 victory over the Sacramento Kings, Sixers' coach Doug Collins gave Elton Brand the option to sit out tonight's game against the Portland Trailblazers.

Brand's response? "I’ll be out there. We’re greedy."

Greedy, because the Sixers are inching ever closer to a coveted playoff berth. Friday's win, coupled with the New York Knicks' 99-95 loss to the Detroit Pistons, moved the Sixers into 6th place in the Eastern Conference standings.

Sacramento didn't do much to stand in the way of the 76ers' 36th win of the season. After a slow start, the Sixers got hot early in the opening period, ripping off an 11-0 run to take a 32-23 lead after the first quarter.

Jrue Holiday dominated the game's first 12 minutes, finishing the quarter with 12 points, 3 steals, 3 rebounds and 2 assists.

He and the rest of his teammates pretty much controlled the game from the opening tip. At one point, the Sixers missed eight consecutive shots in the third quarter and still outscored the Kings 25-16 during the period.


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We won't miss you too much in Philadelphia, no offense.


The Philadelphia 76ers have finally completed a trade to get Samuel Dalembert out of town today as they sent the big man out west to Sacramento in exchange for F Andres Nocioni and PF/C Spencer Hawes.

Sources claim that the deal was completed Tuesday night, but the teams took until this morning to get the minor details worked out, and if all goes smoothly, will have this finalized Thursday afternoon.

For the Kings, the deal makes a ton of sense. They get a player that they've coveted since he was placed on the trade block in Dalembert, and now boast a very strong frontcourt with the tandem of Dalembert and Jason Thompson.

Dalembert is also entering the last season of his contract, placing almost no pressure on the front office to hope he performs well as they can just let him walk next summer and have themselves sitting on almost $13 million in cap room.

Too bad this isn't a site for the Kings.

The 76ers, namely Ed Stefanski, have shown me that they are in no way trying to bring a winning product to this city, and only strengthen that with such a puzzling trade.

While Hawes has shown his flashes of being a serviceable big man, he all-too-often finds himself being bullied in the post. This will become a huge problem in the Eastern Conference as he must face the likes of Dwight Howard or Kendrick Perkins.

The real surprise here is the contract of Nocioni and the baggage it brings along. The 30 year old SF is still owed roughly $21 million over the next three years with the third year being a team option.

This isn't a team that will be competing for a championship next season, so why not sit on Dalembert's contract for one more season, and then have yourself, as I said before, $13 million in room to work with under the cap rather than taking on another bad contract?

It's all a blur at this point, but it should all come full circle come draft night where the 76ers could take a turn for the better with the number two overall pick, or find themselves traveling down a long dark road to another set of disappointing seasons.
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