Sixers coach Eddie Jordan's return visit to his old charges in Washington will likely be somewhat short on sentimentality. Though Jordan did lead the Wiz Kids to four straight playoff appearances (the last three of which resulted in first-round exits), he was unceremoniously dismissed eleven games into their disastrous 2008 season after the team started the year 1-10. Jordan was likely less the problem than the fact that Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood were lost for the year, forcing bench losers like Darius Songaila and Dominic McGuire into all-too-regular minutes, as Washington ended their year a conference-worst 19-63.
Neither side is going to be feeling in too giving a mood these days, anyway, with both the Sixers (5-8) and the Wizards (3-9) limping out of the gate. Washington is a particularly testy environment these days, as Arenas and fellow all-star Caron Butler seem to be in a race to blame the other for the team's struggles and lack of chemistry, and underrated sixth man Mike Miller appears to be lost for the next month. With the returns of Arenas and Haywood, and the acquisitions of Miller and backup combo-guard Randy Foye from Minnesota, Washington was expected to be a playoff team this year in the East, but their record so far is only a game and a half better than the record that got Jordan canned last season.
However, the 3-9 is a little deceiving. Wraught with injuries in the early going, the team still managed two wins against contending teams (the Mavs and the Cavs), and all but two of their losses have come against teams with records .500 and better. It's still a very disappointing start, but the team has more than enough firepower that if they ever got their **** together, they'd be as dangerous a team to play as any in the Eastern conference. So Philly better be hoping that Butler posted something disparaging on Arenas's Twitter account before the game or something.
Speaking of us, the Sixers lost their second straight against Cleveland on Saturday, but in a way much less disheartening than most of us would have predicted. After getting down to an early 20-4 deficit, the team toughed out the bad stretch and made it a neck-and-neck game until the fourth quarter, when LeBron James put the game away. It was disappointing that the boys couldn't close it out, but these things happen when you're playing against the best player in the league, and it was a semi-acceptable loss.
It would be nice if the Sixers could keep a little momentum from their surge in that game, since even though the Wizards are no slouch, they might be our best chance for a win in an upcoming stretch that sees the team travel to Boston, San Antonio and Dallas, as well as making a brief stop at home to host the league-best Hawks. Stealing one here would be huge, as would continuing to get Thaddeus Young and Elton Brand back on track, the latter of which continues to look more and more like a player worth at least a fraction of the $80 mil we gave him. (According to NBA TV, EB was actually the #1 power forward in fantasy hoops last week--not as nice as actually winning games for us, but certainly something to build on).
7:00 tip from the Verizon Center. The Sixers and Wizards always seem to play entertaining games, at the least--though I think most of us would take a boring win over an exciting loss at this point. We can only afford so many moral victories a season.
Original Story:
http://www.the700level.com/2009/11/ba...
