Sick For the Big Win: Sixers Look to End Losing Against Phoenix

Last night's overtime defeat at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder
was either a crushing loss or a feel-good moral victory, depending on
how you look at it. I personally opt for the latter—sure, if Dorell
Wright makes a wide-open sixteen-footer with a half-minute left (or if
Jason Richardson was in the game to take it instead), we probably win
that one and get our best win of the season, which is tough to now do
without, especially with the Andrew Bynum news (now out indefinitely,
don't even ask Tony DiLeo when he'll be back) constantly getting worse.

But
still, the guys fought so damn hard—particularly Evan Turner, in
All-Star form with his 26 points, five boards, four dimes and excellent
second-half defense on Russell Westbrook, and Thaddeus Young, grinding
out perhaps his best-ever game as a 76er with his 29 points, 15 rebounds
and four assists—that it's hard to begrudge them for losing in OT to a
much better team with two of the ten or so best players in the league
going off for 30+ points each. The battle was impressive, and without
Bynum, this is who we are again—a mid-level team that can occasionally
claw their way into down-to-the-wire finishes against the league's
elite, but will still lose the great majority of them.

Depressing
as it is either way, the Sixers get a chance to finish the week on a
positive note, at home against the Phoenix Suns. The Suns have been
slightly less miserable than expected in their first year after parting
ways with two-time MVP point guard Steve Nash, scrapping their way to a
6-7 record—though like the Sixers, they've had a pretty soft schedule
early on in the season. If the Sixers bigs can get a handle on the Suns'
bruising Luis Scola / Marcin Gortat frontcourt, and Jrue can take care
of business in the back court against emerging point guard Goran Dragic,
Philly should hopefully be able to take care of business in this one.
Of course, after those Pistons and Cavaliers losses, clearly nothing is
as good as in the books with this team.

Early 6:00 tip from the
Wells Fargo Center. Looks like we'll have J-Rich available in this one,
despite him missing the second half last night after re-spraining his
ankle. As the man says, Andrew Bynum is not walking through that door,
so until we figure out what the next step is, we gotta continue to get
the wins where we can.