[Coatesvillain]

December 27, 2004 - 10:00PM (EST)

Philadelphia 76ers (11-14) VS Portland Trailblazers (13-12)

@Rose Garden, Portland, Oregon
Aired on: and

Projected Starting Lineups:




Season Series: First meeting of the season.

Storyline: PORTLAND, Oregon (Ticker) -- Allen Iverson will try to keep alive an impressive scoring streak when his Philadelphia 76ers continue an eight-game road trip Monday against the Portland Trail Blazers.

After posting consecutive games with over 50 points, making him the seventh player in NBA history to accomplish the feat, Iverson scored 40 in a 102-90 win over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday to start the long trip.

Iverson is shooting 57 percent from the floor during the hot streak, including 10-of-19 from 3-point range. Amazingly, he has led or tied for the team lead in assists in each game and has made 10 steals.

Philadelphia has won two of the three games and five of seven overall to draw within 1 1/2 games of the lead in the crowded Atlantic Division standings.

The Trail Blazers will be playing their first game since December 22 after a mildly successful six-game road trip.

After dropping the first two games of the trip, Portland recovered to win three of the last four to finish 3-3. It capped the swing with a 104-95 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday.

The 3-1 stretch to finish the trip coincided with a lineup shift by coach Maurice Cheeks.

Following a 112-88 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on December 15, Cheeks chose to bench point guard Damon Stoudamire in favor of veteran Nick Van Exel.

The move has yielded positive results, and in the win over the Bucks, Van Exel made Cheeks look like a genius with a season-high 26 points. He made six 3-pointers, including the 1,400th of his career, and promptly hinted at retirement once the game was over.

A 12-year veteran, Van Exel has averaged 15.0 points and 6.3 assists in his four starts.

The teams split a pair last season with the visiting club winning both times.

LINK

[digital jello]

From what I've seen so far, Ratliff and Dalembert have been going back and forth quite nicely.

Iverson looked alright. Iggy stepped up.

Miles looked good. So did Randolph.

I'm going to see them play the Blazers on the 10th in Philly, so this is a preview of my game.

EDIT: Nice win.

[Kunlun]

The Sixers have been playing really well the past couple weeks. We've been winning and the losses have all been really close where we could have won. I think our team is finally getting used to eachother and starting to take teams by surprise.

[JGKoblenz]

Great game by Iggy:

22 points (10-18), 10 boards, 5 assists, 3 steals, 2 TO and 1 block.

It's nice to see 5 players scoring in double figures, plus Green with 9 and Thomas with 8. Good effort from everyone.

[Max Payne]

Great game for the guys....AI showing us how age is no substitute for real talent. Iggy showing us glimpses of the monster player that he will become soon.

[Coatesvillain]

I finally watched this game (work's been a killer), and I have to say the Sixers have become a very entertaining to watch play the game. And the fact that they're giving up 100 points isn't in anyway indicative of how well the defense is playing when it counts, and it's obvious that points will come when you hasten the pace of the game.

In this one, Darius Miles was a complete mismatch, we simply didn't have anyone who could match up with him. He was too tall for Iggy and Kenny, too athletic for Kyle, and too able a dribbler for Sammy. He won't be this good shooting from the perimeter either.

Iguodala stepping up and playing the way he did was incredible, every night you know you'll get full effort from him, but in this one he was looking for his shot often. This was just a flash, and I'm not going to go and expect consistency too soon offensively, but I can't wait until we see more games like this because he's capable of giving games like this often.

The most important part of the Sixers winning streak, is O'Brien waking up and realizing a few weeks ago to play Marc Jackson and Samuel Dalembert together, for a team that lacks size it works wonders. A bigger thing is, I have to commend O'Brien for the fact that (while he's still being criticized) he has found a consistent rotation and the team is benefitting from that.

Korver's three point stroke is better than before, he's really gaining from the extra rest.

Edit: 7500th post in the Sixers forum!

[BEEZ]

Originally posted by PhillyPhanatic!
I finally watched this game (work's been a killer), and I have to say the Sixers have become a very entertaining to watch play the game. And the fact that they're giving up 100 points isn't in anyway indicative of how well the defense is playing when it counts, and it's obvious that points will come when you hasten the pace of the game.

In this one, Darius Miles was a complete mismatch, we simply didn't have anyone who could match up with him. He was too tall for Iggy and Kenny, too athletic for Kyle, and too able a dribbler for Sammy. He won't be this good shooting from the perimeter either.

Iguodala stepping up and playing the way he did was incredible, every night you know you'll get full effort from him, but in this one he was looking for his shot often. This was just a flash, and I'm not going to go and expect consistency too soon offensively, but I can't wait until we see more games like this because he's capable of giving games like this often.

The most important part of the Sixers winning streak, is O'Brien waking up and realizing a few weeks ago to play Marc Jackson and Samuel Dalembert together, for a team that lacks size it works wonders. A bigger thing is, I have to commend O'Brien for the fact that (while he's still being criticized) he has found a consistent rotation and the team is benefitting from that.

Korver's three point stroke is better than before, he's really gaining from the extra rest.

Edit: 7500th post in the Sixers forum!

Great post Philly and this forum is what it is because of you

Much Props