Philadunkia nation, that’s not a misprint.  Former 76ers point man Andre Miller lit up the Dallas Mavericks for 52 points last night and led the Portland Trailblazers to a 114-112 win in Dallas.  Miller who missed his first shot of the night was 22 of 31 from the floor and 7 out of 8 from the charity stripe.  Nearly half (25 points) of Miller’s scoring out-burst came during the fourth quarter and overtime periods.  ‘Dre scored the Blazers last nine points in regulation including the game tying bucket, a floating hook shot, with 14 ticks left.

As we all remember, 76ers GM Ed Stefanski decided against resigning Miller in July 2009 and cited the fact that he didn’t want to commit the years and money Miller was looking for on a soon to be 33-year old point guard.  Stefanski also noted that the organization felt it was time to give Sixer combo-guard Louis Williams a chance to start for the team at the point.  The Blazers gave Miller a 3-year, $21 million deal in which the first two years are guaranteed.  For Portland that was money well spent as Miller is averaging 13 points and 5 dimes a night and has been key in directing a team filled with young talent. 

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We have to give the 76ers (15-31) credit, for the most part, they played decently and hung tough last night against the defending World Champions and that was something we did not expect.  In fact we dare to say that if the Sixers could have taken better care of the rock (20 turnovers) and gotten a few more stops on the defensive end down the stretch, that they could have pulled off a major upset in front of the packed house down at the Wachovia Center.

But the reality is that the Sixers could not get those key stops especially against Kobe in the 3^rd quarter and that was enough to lead the seemingly disinterested Lakers to a 99-91 W last night.  Kobe who only had two points after two quarters of play was simply amazing to watch after halftime.  “The Black Mamba” went bananas in the 3^rd quarter (14 points), scored 22 total in the second half and threw in some lock-down defense as well to secure the victory for LA.

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This Friday edition of “Fo’ with the Foes” — Philadunkia’s advanced scouting series which with the help of an accomplished journalist from around the NBA beat or blog world, previews upcoming 76ers opponents — features tonight’s opponent the defending NBA Champions, the Los Angeles Lakers. 

What would you like us to say about tonight’s game against the World Champion Lakers?  We all know that the 76ers have little shot at winning this one and it’s just a matter of how bad the Lakers want to beat us tonight.  It doesn’t matter that this is game 6 of an eight game road trip for the Lakers.  It doesn’t matter that Ron Artest is hurt and playing the worst basketball of his career.  It doesn’t matter that the Lakers as a team are not playing their best ball right now (3-2 on this road trip; 7-5 over their last 12 games) .  Nor does it matter that Kobe has a broken finger on his hand that is causing issues with his shot.  The Lakers are simply a much, much better team all-around and despite all of the above “problems” LA should win this game easily. 

The Sixers one sliver of hope is the NBA’s version of the trap game theory.  The Lakers have a highly anticipated game at Boston on Sunday afternoon that will be broadcast to a national television audience.  So there is a slim chance that the Lakers could be looking past the lowly Sixers and ahead to their statement game against Boston on Sunday.  Maybe the Sixers get very lucky and LA totally sleep walks through this game and we can steal one, but it’s doubtful and here’s why…

Let’s pretend that by some miracle the Lakers sleep walk through the first quarter of the game and the Sixers are keeping this one close.  The moment the boos start raining down on Kobe from the Wachovia Center seats, the Lower Merion product is going to flip the switch, become “The Black Mamba”, hang a 40-spot on the Sixers terrible defense and carry his squad to the W.  Kobe lives to be heckled and booed — it motivates him.  He also loves sticking it the Philly fans every chance he gets.  This long-shot hypothetical situation would be just another opportunity for him to “cut out their hearts” down at the Wach and he would relish every second of it.  He’s Jordan-esque like that. 

For a little more insight into the Lakers team the Sixers face tonight, we turn to our man Kurt Helin from forumblueandgold.com to answer two questions on LA from us here at Philadunkia as well as provide us with two points of analysis on this Lakers squad from an insider’s perspective. 

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Obviously there are numerous trade rumors floating around the NBA involving just about everyone on the Sixers roster.  That’s how it goes in the NBA when you are a seriously underachieving team.  Now Ed Stefanski has publicly stated there are, “no untouchables” on the Sixers roster.

Dei Lynam at csnphilly.com writes that so many changes — trades, coaching move, a new GM — could hapeen with the Sixers in the next couple of weeks, that it’s hard to see what the future holds for the 76ers.

Kate Fagan of the Inqy, the only mainstream writer who has been critical of Eddie Jordan and the 76ers this season notes that based on the body actions and facial expressions she observed in the latest Sixers loss, that the team mentally “checked out” during the Milwaukee game.

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When you look at the list of issues the 76ers (15-30) had to overcome last night to have a chance at tying their game vs. Milwaukee with :08 left on the clock, you’ll realize it’s a stinking miracle they were able to stay in the game that long. 

Despite a very sloppy 1^st quarter, questionable personnel decisions by Eddie Jordan, a poor shooting night by Andre Iguodala (4-11; 1-5 on 3PA) and Allen Iverson (3-10), Jrue Holiday’s first bad night in forever, 18 turnovers and horrid three point shooting (2-14 for 14.3%); the Sixers somehow managed to keep this game close and had a chance to tie or win on their final possession.  That’s when the final knockout blow was delivered to the Sixers hopes of winning this game and it came in the form of an Elton Brand missed bunny.  

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This mid-week edition of “Fo’ with the Foes” — Philadunkia’s advanced scouting series which with the help of an accomplished journalist from around the NBA beat or blog world, previews upcoming 76ers opponents — features tonight’s opponent the improving Milwaukee Bucks who recently signed former Sixer Jerry Stackhouse. 

We’re not really sure what to say about the 76ers game against the Milwaukee Bucks (18-25) tonight.  On one hand, the Sixers recently beat a very good, but road weary Dallas Mavericks squad.  On the other hand, one could argue that the Sixers last two loses — @ Minnesota and vs. Indiana — were the two most disturbing Ls of the 2009-10 season. 

In addition to the Sixers inconsistent play, Milwaukee is a much different team since we beat them 99-86 back in October.  Obviously All-Star Michael Redd is out for the season now, but thanks to the play of Rookie of the Year candidate Brandon Jennings and big man Andrew Bogut, who has been playing out of his mind of late, the Bucks have not fallen off.  In fact during the month of January the Bucks have been playing some of their best ball and it’s come against the NBA’s elite teams.  The problem for MIL is that because of the recent level of competition they have faced, the improved play still has produced mostly gut wrenching loses.     

So the Sixers play continues to be inconsistent, they should be pissed-off about Monday’s terrible L to Indiana and they’ve had a day off.  Mean while the Bucks are an improving team, but one that suffered a heartbreaking loss at Dallas last night and should be tired. Vegas has installed the Bucks as a 3.5 point favorite which means this is an even match-up if the game was played on a neutral floor.  We’re looking at a coin toss here…Sixers.  One last point, if Jrue Holiday does not guard Brandon Jennings for the bulk of the night, Jennings puts up 40.   

For a little more insight into the Bucks team the Sixers face tonight, we turn to our man Jeremy Schmidt from bucksketball.com to answer two questions on Milwaukee from us here at Philadunkia as well as provide us with two points of analysis on this Bucks squad from an insider’s perspective. 

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We stated in our “Fo’ with the Foes” preview of last night’s game against Indiana that even if the 76ers were to defeat the Pacers and thus grab their first 3-game winning streak of the season, we still were not going to believe that this team had changed and was finally set to turn this season around.  So the fact that the Sixers lost Monday night to an absolutely terrible Pacers team and did so in ways that have plagued them all year, only further proved that we were correct in raising the white flag on the 2009-10 season last week.

The 76ers blew an 11-point second quarter lead and suffered just an inexcusable loss (Their second in the last four games by the way.) thanks to the usual suspects – horrific defense, questionable coaching decisions and poor shot selection / shooting.

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Today’s edition of “Fo’ with the Foes” — Philadunkia’s advanced scouting series which with the help of an accomplished journalist from around the NBA beat or blog world, previews upcoming 76ers opponents — features tonight’s opponent, the team the 76ers just defeated on Saturday night, the three-point shooting, defensively challenged Indiana Pacers. 

The 76ers and their new first-five should handle the Indiana Pacers again tonight and thus establish their first 3-game winning streak of the season.  However, even if the Sixers win tonight, we’re still not going to become believers in this team. 

The W over the Mavs on Friday night at first glance was impressive, but if you look deeper at that win, you’ll see that Dallas was road weary (4th game of a 5 game road trip), shot horribly — 39% on FGA and 20% on 3PA and got nothing from all-world forward Dirk Diggler (4-13 from the field).  So the Sixers caught a very good Mavs team on a completely off night.  In Saturday’s  win at Indiana, the Sixers played well, but defeated a horrible team in the Pacers that had an especially bad night (21 TOs that led to 27 points), even by the Pacers low standards.  So it’s going to take more then a second consecutive W over the lowly Pacers to convince us that the Sixers have righted the ship for the 2009-10 season.

For a little more insight into the Pacers team the Sixers face tonight, we turn to our man Jared Wade from  EightPointsNineSeconds.com to answer two questions on the Pacers from us here at Philadunkia as well as provide us with two points of analysis on this Indiana squad from an insider’s perspective. 

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One of the most frequent comments we’ve been hearing around the NBA about our Sixers this year is that they are a better team then their record. It is one thing that I don’t doubt about the team, but due to their lack of defense and killer instinct all year I had a hard time buying into this sentiment.

Last night however, the Sixers were a different team. They were a team that was seen only one other time this year in a road victory against the Portland Trailblazers. The Sixers beat the Dallas Mavericks 92-81 in a straight up rout which improved their record to (14-28) and dropped the Mavericks to (28-15).

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This Friday afternoon edition of “Fo’ with the Foes” — Philadunkia’s advanced scouting series which with the help of an accomplished journalist from around the NBA beat or blog world, previews upcoming 76ers opponents — features tonight’s opponent, annual Western Conference title contender, the deep and talented Dallas Mavericks.

This is going to be a nearly impossible game for the 76ers to win.  The Mavs are a very good offensive team with an arsenal of weapons and as we all know the Sixers are defensively challenged, which is putting it kindly.  The Mavs are also better on defense then most casual NBA fans seem to know, which doesn’t hold well for a Sixers team that often struggles to shoot the ball accurately  The Sixers only chance in this game comes with the idea that for the Mavs this is their fourth contest in a five-game road trip and fatigue may have set in.  Going back to Sunday January 17^th, the Mavs lost at Toronto, won at Boston on Monday and then won at Washington on Wednesday night, so there is an outside possibility that Dallas is road weary and the Sixers could steal one tonight.  However we see it as a remote chance at best.     

For a little more insight into the Mavs team the Sixers face tonight, we turn to our man Rob Mahoney from thetwomangame.com to answer two questions on the Mavs from us here at Philadunkia as well as provide us with two points of analysis on this Dallas squad from an insider’s perspective.

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