Last time the Sixers and Kings faced off, the Sixers won fairly handily, taking the contest by a 116-106 score. Unfortunately, that result came with a big ol' asterisk: The Kings were playing without their entire starting back-court, rookie sensation Tyreke Evans and scoring machine Kevin Martin, a solid 45 ppg between the two at the least. Tyreke has been back in action for weeks now, and K-Mart is returning for the first time tonight from a wrist injury that saw him sidelined since the fourth game of the season. Great.
Both teams are coming off losses, with the Kings getting blown by Orlando and home and the Sixers dropping a last-second affair to the Knicks at the Wach. With both teams now finally healthy (seriously--no injuries even listed on the Sixers' Yahoo Sports page!), they're now both basically out of excuses--although only one of these teams was expected to win more than 25 games this year to begin with, so the pressure is far more on the Sixers in the upcoming months, Or at least it would be, assuming more than hundred people in the city still cared.
I've been noticing an unfortunate late-game trend for the Sixers this year, which functions as an interesting analogue to an ailment they were suffering from last year. You remember how in '08-'09, the team kept losing on buzzer beaters shot by the opposition? Tony Parker, Dirk Nowitzki, the Devin Harris half-court dagger? That was heartbreaking, but what we have this year might be even worse. Now the opposition goes ahead in the final minute, but gives us more than enough time to take the lead back ourselves--which by my count, we are now I think 0-5 in actually doing, including bad bricks by Lou Williams, Andre Iguodala, and now Rodney Carney. It's not as instantly devastating as the buzzer-beater barrage, but in the long term, it's significantly more discouraging and depressing.
7:00 tip from the Wach tonight. A win tonight, and I promise I'll be a lot less despairing before the Minnesota game.
Original Story:
http://www.the700level.com/2010/01/ke...
