After two losses at the hands of the juggernaut known as the Miami Heat, the Sixers know what needs to be done.

In an interview with PhillyBurbs.com on Wednesday, Andre Iguodala summed it up best when he said that he and the rest of his teammates "got to play... near perfect to get a win."

While that may have seemed obvious before heading into this series, the first two games in Miami did nothing but reinforce the point.

The Sixers' game plan worked perfectly for the first 12 minutes of the series as they sprinted out to a 31-19 lead in the first quarter of Game 1.

Then, the roof caved in.


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It didn't seem like much at the time.

During the 76ers' 110-105 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on March 9, starting power forward Elton Brand was hit hard on the back of his left hand, a blow that resulted in a "very minor fracture,"according to Philly.com.

"Elton got banged...the other night and I think he's going to be OK," said 76ers coach Doug Collins two days after the game. "He went through shoot-around today and seemed to be fine."

While he hasn't missed any action since that game, Brand averaged 13.8 PPG and 6.9 RPG during Philadelphia's next eight contests—a slight decrease from his season marks of 15.2 PPG and 8.7 RPG prior to the injury.

Brand himself will tell you that his hand is bothering him. And in the next breath, he'll completely dismiss the notion that the injury will cause him to miss any time, especially with the playoffs on the horizon.

"It is definitely a problem," Brand said when asked on March 27 about the injury. "It is nothing that will stop me from playing."

That response tells you all you need to know about what Elton Brand brings to this young Philadelphia team.


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Only the officials could cool off Jodie Meeks' hot hand.


Prior to Friday's 93-88 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers' coach Doug Collins made yet another change to his starting lineup, replacing the struggling Evan Turner with Jodie Meeks.

Given Meeks' performance versus the Charlotte Bobcats Saturday night, it'll probably be quite some time before Turner finds himself back with the starting five.

Meeks, in just his second career start, scored 26 points -- including 20 in the first quarter -- to lead the Sixers to a 109-91 win over the Bobcats.

The Sixers led the contest wire-to-wire, playing one of their more complete games on both ends of the floor. But last night belonged to a certain second-year shooting guard out of the University of Kentucky.

There's "hot," and then there's Jodie Meeks in the first quarter of Saturday night's win over the Bobcats. He was on fire right from the jump, starting the game 6-for-6 from beyond the 3-point line.

"He was like a flamethrower out there," said Collins, who was effusive with his praise of his young scorer. "Jodie gives us an extra dimension... he's pretty explosive."

Only the referees' whistles could cool off Meeks, who was forced to the bench after picking up his second foul less than 12 minutes into the game.

Meeks is well-known for his scoring prowess, having set the University of Kentucky single-game scoring record with 54 points against Tennessee in 2009. Less than two weeks ago, he enjoyed a similar hot hand, scoring 21 points during the Sixers' 99-90 loss to the Miami Heat on November 26.

After a string of six DNP-CDs (Did Not Play - Coach's Decision) to start the season, Meeks is merely grateful for the opportunity to contribute.

"I just wanted to come in and be solid," said Meeks following the game. "Just take open shots and knock them down."

He and the rest of his teammates were more than solid Saturday night, beginning the game on a 32-11 run. On the defensive end, they forced the Bobcats to miss 13 of their first 17 shots, leading to a 16 point lead at the end of the first quarter.

Meeks wasn't the only one carrying the scoring load for the Sixers; four other players scored 15 points or more, led by Thaddeus Young who chipped in 20 points off the bench. And while Spencer Hawes didn't score in double figures, he enjoyed his best performance as a Sixer (6 points, 9 rebounds).

The enigma that is the Evan Turner situation took another interesting turn last evening. 24 hours after one of his more solid outings of the year (11 points, 4 rebounds), the rookie out of Ohio State logged just over 11 minutes against the Bobcats, with many of those minutes coming with the game well out of reach in the 4th quarter.

With the emergence of Meeks, Collins appears to have the luxury of allowing Turner to grow at his own pace. Still, one would think that the second pick in the draft should be able to earn meaningful minutes for a team that's a far cry from .500.

With the victory, the Sixers improved to 6-14, with wins in three of their past four games. It should also be noted that they've now won four straight games at the Wells Fargo Center -- last year's team never won more than two consecutive games at home all season.

Recent success aside, the Sixers are clearly getting better as the year is progressing. A number of young players (Jrue Holiday, Young and Hawes, among others) have showed marked improvement from the beginning of the season to now. If they continue to grow at this rate, the Sixers could find themselves in contention for a playoff spot once April rolls around.

"I know we’re a better team today than we were 30 days ago," Collins said following the Atlanta loss. "I know that. And so that’s the one thing I’m hanging my hat on."
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If you believe in moral victories, the Sixers are 1-0.


For a team that has a lot more questions than answers at the moment, the Philadelphia 76ers' season-opening 97-87 loss to the Miami Heat went about as well as one could expect. While the final score is somewhat deceptive (the Heat led by 26 going into the 4th quarter), there were a few positives that one could take away from the Sixers' performance.

The starting lineups of the two teams represented a study in contrasts. In Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh, the Heat boasts (arguably) the best players at their respective positions in the NBA.

Conversely, at those same positions, the Sixers started a shooting guard who isn't all that adept at shooting, a small forward who can shoot, but provides little else, and a power forward who isn't very powerful or agile.

It looked to be the makings of a long night.

To the surprise of many, the Sixers actually held serve with the Heat for the majority of the first half. And aside from an awful 3rd quarter in which they were outscored 31-13, the team played relatively well considering the competition.

It was especially comforting to see Evan Turner look as sharp as he did in his first regular season game. Prior to Wednesday night, there was legitimate concern about the potential (or, more specifically, the lack thereof) of Turner -- the No. 2 overall pick in last June's NBA draft.

It would be reasonable to think that a player selected that high would easily be able to crack the starting lineup for a team that won 27 games last season. But success in the NBA hasn't come easy for the rookie out of Ohio State.

In the preseason, Turner averaged 7.7 points and 5.9 rebounds, but only shot 31.1% from the field, and looked out of sorts when the offense wasn't flowing through him.

Struggles aside, both critics and fans of Turner can agree on one thing: he is a more-than-capable ball-handler who will provide energy off of the bench and fill the stat sheet, as he clearly demonstrated against the Heat (16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists).

For a rookie, he does a lot of things fairly well. The problem is, he doesn't do anything exceptionally great. But if Wednesday night was any indication, that will come soon enough.

"[Turner] played with poise, he played with confidence," said Sixers' coach Doug Collins in his postgame press conference. "It was a really good night for him."

Hopefully, it will be the first of many good nights for Turner. His successful debut aside, the fact remains that there are fundamental flaws with the Philadelphia 76ers that became readily apparent during Wednesday night's game.

The primary issue with the Sixers' is that their roster isn't constructed very well. Unfortunately, due to salary cap restrictions, and the overall lack of talent on the team, there isn't much they can do about it in the foreseeable future.

For the most part, the Sixers are a collection of big men who aren't solid interior defenders and/or rebounders, and wing players who aren't good shooters.

Small forward Jason Kapono, who has come off the bench for all but 86 games during his seven-plus year NBA career, is in the starting lineup simply because he's the only legitimate perimeter threat on the entire team.

Shooting prowess aside, the fact remains that Kapono is (at best) a mediocre on-ball defender, who will likely give up as many points as he contributes. And because of that, Kapono was limited to a mere 13 minutes Wednesday night, allowing Turner to display some of the promise that Sixers' fans have been (impatiently) waiting for since Draft Day.

And mark it down: the lack of an interior defensive presence will plague this team throughout the entire season. Exhibit A: The Heat were plus-25 when Bosh was on the court Wednesday night.

But while Bosh only scored 15 points, the Sixers were forced to make a concerted effort to guard him whenever he was on the low block, leaving others -- most notably, James Jones (20 points, 6-7 3PT FGs) -- with uncontested shots.

The Eastern Conference is loaded with skilled big men (Dwight Howard, Brook Lopez, Amare Stoudemire, etc.), which will inevitably lead to many sleepless nights for Doug Collins as he attempts to devise schemes to limit their impact.

Clearly, it's much too early in the game to make a qualified assessment on the Sixers prospects this season. However, it's not unreasonable for them to be markedly better than they were a year ago, and that statement alone is far more positive than the doom and gloom many local columnists and beat writers predicted before the season began.

Win or lose, the Sixers are going to give us a lot to talk about this season.

One down, 81 to go.
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