Courtesy of Mike Norton Cassidy – CHECK IT OUT!!!!
In our post last Wednesday we talked about how important this week was in determining if this 76er’s team could be considered for real or not. Well I think it’s been determined, THE 76ERS ARE FOR REAL, THE 76ERS ARE FOR REAL!!! The team finishes the week with a 3-1 record beating the Chicago Bulls at home, the Atlanta Hawks on the road and the Los Angeles Lakers at home, while losing to the Miami Heat at home. These are all real good teams and the 76er’s are as good as they are. The win over the Lakers is as big a win as there’s been in Philly for some time and although the boxscore doesn’t look that great they hung in there and played great D-E-F-E-N-S-E again. The BEAT LA, BEAT LA chant by the sold out crowd at the Wells Fargo Center brought back memories of the Spectrum and days gone by. The keys to the game are pretty simple. They played Doug Collins basketball, besides great defense the 76ers commited only 4 turnovers in the game, a team record. Unbelievable!! The Lakers out rebounded the 76ers by 55-30. The 76ers only had 3 guys in double figure scoring with Lou Williams off the bench with a tremendous 4th quarter and 24 points. Jrue Holiday added 13 and Andre Iguodala added 12. Maybe as important as any stat for the game, as we’ve discussed in every one of our posts the Lakers shot only 42.0% from the field and a 7-24 from 3-point land for 29.2%. It’s still about the defense and fundamentals of the game. For the Lakers, Kobe Bryant scored 28 points, 24 points in the 1st half and was shutdown in the 2nd by Iggy. Andrew Bynum had 20 points and 20 rebounds and Pau Gasol added 16 points.
You know what, it doesn’t matter!!! The 76ers are for real!!!!!!!