Hey, we had to do something to make tonight’s Bobcats @ 76ers game seem exciting.  There’s more of this lovely lady after the jump. 

Now that we have your attention on with the post…

It’s time for another edition of Philadunkia’s advanced scouting series – “Fo’ with the Foes” — which thanks to the help of an accomplished journalist from around the NBA beat or blog world, previews upcoming 76ers opponents. 

Today’s edition of “Fo’ with the Foes” features tonight’s opponent, the Charlotte Bobcats who are coached (and more) by our old friend Larry “Play the right way” Brown.  Charlotte is a disaster on offense and with a record of 3-7, it’s possible the Bobcats have struggled worse out of the gate this season then our 76ers.  However, in acquiring Stephen Jackson from the Warriors the ‘Cats made a nice early season move to improve their lineup and things could start looking up for Charlotte very soon.  We especially love the fact that Brown came out and publicly assured everyone that he is used to this type of player (locker room trouble maker) and that he has no worries in acquiring Jackson.  It was like a flashback to the good ol’ days when Larry and Iverson were here in Philly together.  Man we miss that era.

Despite all the drama in the Sixers locker room right now (Brand vs. Jordan, Sammy D trade rumors and the Speights injury), we believe this is a game the Sixers could and should win.  After loosing two straight and four-of-their-last-five, they certainly need it badly enough, that’s for sure.  So let’s hope the Sixers come out with the appropriate level of urgency and put this one away early.  By the way Larry, if you’re looking for some basketball “played the right way”, then the Wachovia Center is not the place for you to be tonight.

For a little more insight into the Bobcats team the Sixers face tonight, we turn to our man Brett Hainline from queencityhoops.com

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WOW, as if the 76ers two L’s over the weekend weren’t enough pain and suffering, yesterday the Sixers broke the news via Twitter that Marreese Speights will be out until January with a partially torn MCL in his left knee.  The basketball gods really don’t like us here in Philadunkia nation as they just robbed us of the one bright spot for the Sixers so far in 2009-10.  Speights has truly been a joy to watch on the offensive end of the floor and has really been the only reason to tune in and watch the Sixers this year.

One thing is for sure, with Speights out of the lineup a couple of looming questions about the 2009-10 Sixers are about the get answered in the very near future.

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The 76ers capped off their lost weekend with a 94-88 loss to the Chicago Bulls.  The Sixers have now lost 5 of their last 7 and the team’s record has dropped to 4-6.  While none of the numbers we just rattled off are exactly great news, what was encouraging in yesterday’s loss to the Bulls was that the Sixers overall effort was significantly better then in Friday night’s outing vs. Utah.  Of course many will claim that’s not really saying much, as the embarrassing L to the Jazz was one the lowest moments for this group of Sixers that we can remember.

Still in our view the Sixers played hard on both ends of the floor yesterday vs. the Bulls and if they could have shot the ball better (42% from the field and 61% from the FT line on the night), they most likely would have pulled out a W in Chicago.

 
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The 76ers got absolutely worked last night (112-90) by a Jazz team that was missing three key players, including all-everything point man Deron Williams.  Ohh yeah did we mention that Utah was also playing their third game of a four game road trip. 

In today’s NBA that’s the perfect formula for a run-away W by the home team, but the Sixers defy all basketball logic and crapped the bed instead.  The boos that rained down from the stands last night at the Wachovia Center said all  you need to know about the Sixers efforts vs. the Jazz.  It was simply pathetic.

We really can not muster enough strength to write anything else, as the Sixers effort last night drained the life out of us.

As you may or may not already know, Deron Williams star point guard of the Utaz Jazz will miss tonight’s game for “personal issues” that the Jazz declined to elaborate on.  Even though the 76ers have struggled to beat a depleted Nets team twice this year, we have to believe that D-Will’s absence piled on top of the fact that the Jazz were already missing ex-Sixer Kyle Korver and CJ Miles, makes tonight’s contest a cliche “must win” for the Sixers.

Spencer Ryan Hall at saltcityhoops.com who helped us with our “Fo’ with the Foes” preview of tonight’s run at the Wachovia Center emailed us to say, “Scratch your DWill 40-10 prediction and replace it for 40-10 from any warm body the Sixers throw at Eric Maynor.”

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We’ve decided it’s time to revive our series of Philadunkia scouting pieces titled “Fo’ with the Foes”, which with the help of some accomplished journalists from around the country, preview upcoming 76ers opponents.  If you remember we began posting “Fo’ with the Foes” (The name is obviously a tribute to Moses Malone’s bold 1983 playoff prediction.)  pieces last year and we apologize that we kind of slacked on it so far this season.  Well now it’s back by popular demand.

The first edition of “Fo’ with the Foes” for the 2009-10 season features tonight’s opponent, the Utah Jazz.  With a record of 3-5, Utah is a team that has struggled out of the gate this season much like our 76ers.    Of course the Jazz actually have an excuse for their slow start to 2009-10 as their lineup has been devastated with injuries to key players.  In our view this is a game that Sixers could steal for a several reasons; again, the Jazz are missing a couple of key players, the tempo of the game should promote the Sixers run-n-gun nicely, so we’ll see little of the Princeton offense and tonight the Jazz will be playing in their third game of a four game road trip.  Deron Williams will probably go for 40 & 10 tonight against the Sixers non-existent defense, but that’s something the home team should be able to overcome. 

For a little more insight into the Jazz team the Sixers face tonight, we turn to our man Spencer Ryan Hall from saltcityhoops.com to answer two questions on the Jazz from us here at Philadunkia as well as provide us with two points of analysis on this Utah squad from an insider’s perspective.

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For the second time in less then a week the 76ers struggled to beat (82-79) a bad New Jersey Nets squad that had been further depleted because of injuries and illness to three key players. Now we could wax poetic about how Thad carried the Sixers in the first half or how Mo Speights was huge in the second stanza or that Sammy D’s defense and rebounding was key or how the home team struggled to make 3s or how AI9 was 4-14 and only scored 9 points which is unacceptable or how the Sixers executed a lot of nice screen & rolls; but we’re not going to do that today. 

There’s no sense recapping a game the Sixers should have won easily and didn’t because of the same ills that have plagued them in games 1-7 of this season.  We’ve been through that seven times already this year so you already know what we are going to write.  We can’t in good conscience simply recap last night’s ugly W when there are bigger issues looming on this 76ers team that threaten to turn the 2009-10 Sixers into the basketball version of the movie “The Perfect Storm”. 

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This one hurt bad right after the game last night and it certainly will hurt even more if the 76ers miss out on home court advantage in the post season or are left out of the playoffs entirely by a single game.  For a little over three quarters against the Suns last night, the Sixers played their most promising basketball of the 2009-10 season and this game was theirs for the taking.  On the offensive end of the floor, the home team was hitting on all cylinders as Iguodala, Speights and Thad all had solid nights.  Of course it helped that the Suns and their run-n-gun style were the perfect opponent to jump start a Sixers offense in desperate need of some energy and easy baskets.

However about midway through the fourth, the Sixers defense exited stage left and the boys in white wasted a great effort last night, letting this one slip right through their fingers.

 
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Heading in to Sunday’s matinee road game with the Detroit Pistons, we had no idea what to expect form the 76ers.  The performances against Boston and a severely depleted New Jersey Nets squad were unacceptable at best.  So we did not have much faith that the Sixers could go in to Detroit and get a win.  But if you examine the Pistons a little closer you’ll see they have struggled coming out of the gate in 2009-10 just as the Sixers have done.  Plus they were going to be without Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince, so suddenly we liked the Sixers chances of stealing a W on the road.

However that glimmer of hope faded quickly and here’s why.

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One would think after the weak, half-hearted effort the 76ers demonstrated during their embarrassing loss to KG & Company earlier in the week at the Wachovia Center that last night the Sixers would have come out fired up, laid the smackdown on an awful New Jersey Nets squad and given the home crowd something to cheer about.

Instead the Sixers played uninspired ball for close to three quarters and squeaked out a W against a Nets team that is mediocre when at full strength and last night was missing elite point guard Devin Harris, starting forward Yi Jianlian, and rising wingman Chris Douglas-Roberts.

We’re going to skip right to recapping the 4^thquarter where the Sixers finally pulled themselves together and managed to win this game.  We guess that is the most important thing to remember, the Sixers did get a win last night.  Then we’ll hit you with some notes from the other three quarters of garbage play and discuss some Sixers drama we see on the horizon.

 
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