No Thaddeus Young again tonight against the Bucks

Another winnable game tonight against the 2-8 Milwaukee Bucks, but for the sixth game in a row, the Sixers will be down a starter--as soon as we got Michael Carter-Williams back from his bad feet, Thaddeus Young has gone MIA for undisclosed personal reasons, with his return date left to "he and his family." We're quite sure whatever Thad is dealing with is far more important than this upcoming crappy game between two crappy teams, but he will certainly be missed in the starting lineup, and we wish him back soon.

In his stead, Daniel Orton will be getting the nod at starting power forward for the second straight game. Playing Orton and Hawes together remains a somewhat odd choice, as both are fairly bulky center types, and k up you'd think athletic sub forward Brandon Davies would make for a far more seamless fit into Thad's role. But perhaps Coach Brown is attempting to build some sort of routine with his rotation, and doesn't want to jumble up Davies with a change in time and duration of minutes, so here we are going twin towers again tonight. Should be interesting for all concerned.

The potential redundancy up front certainly didn't seem to impact Spencer on Wednesday against the Raptors, as he had one of the best games of his career, going for 28 points (on 10-13 shooting, including 3-4 from deep) and ten rebounds and generally providing the only real spark the Sixers had in that decently miserable game. For the season, Spence is still averaging by far the best numbers of his career--16 and 10 on over 50% shooting (and nearly 50% 3-pt shooting), with three assists and nearly two blocks. Keep these numbers up, and Spence might win a handful of dudes their fantasy league, and perhaps win the Sixers a nice trade return come deadline time. It's nice not to have to hate you, Spencer Hawes. Pleasant really.