Sixers Snap Skid

YOUR Philadelphia 76ers put together one of their best performance of this short season so far on Wednesday night in Toronto.

Elton Brand scored a season-high 25 points, Andre Miller and Andre Iguodala each had 18 and the 76er’s snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the Raptors 106-96 in the Air Canada Centre.

Willie Green scored 17 points and Marreese Speights had 12 for the 76ers, who won for the first time in four tries away from home

Chris Bosh had 30 points and 12 rebounds, but Toronto still lost for the fourth time in five games after starting the season 3-0. Jermaine O’Neal added 19 points and 11 rebounds, and reserve Andrea Bargnani scored 15 for the Raptors.

Next up for the Sixers are the Indiana Pacers on Friday night.

Sixers Season Preview

Yourrrrr Philadelphia 76ers open up a new campaign tonight against the Toronto Raptors (game time has been moved to 6pm due to the potential Phillies Game 5 with high hopes and great expectations coming off last season’s playoff run and off-season moves.

A Brand New Era starts tonight as free agent signee Elton Brand makes his debut.  Brand brings great optimism to the run and gun Sixers off their playoff run last year.  “Anything less then the 2nd round this season is a disappointment” Brand recently said.  Look for Band’s low post ability, more importantly combined with his defensive rebounding to spark the up tempo Sixers into even quicker outlets and fast breaks.  Throughout the season the Sixers will look to wear out teams with running style offense and intense defense.

The Sixers are one of the handful of up and coming teams in the not so JV Eastern Conference anymore.  They are in an Atlantic Division with the defending world champion Boston Celtics, and Toronto Raptor team that also was in last years playoffs, and added all-star center Jermaine O’Neal to form a nice front court tandem with power forward Chris Bosh.

This team has a nice mix of veteran leaders at the right positions, point guard Andre Miller is a floor general, with emerging young starts at other positions.  I feel the Sixers can live up to the pre-season expectations they’ve set for themselves.  While I do not see them beating out the defending champs for the division title, I think the Sixers will be in the 4,5 seed battle all season, advance to the conference semifinals losing to the repeat champion Celtics in a 7 game epic.

Final Record: 48-34, 2nd Atlantic Division, 5 seed in East