No Spencer Hawes? No problem. The veteran flung the team on his surgically repaired shoulders, posting a season high in rebounds and tying his season high in shots blocked. The minutes are a concern though, as the oft-injured 32-year-old played for 36 just two nights after going for 38 against Denver. This is a situation that bears monitoring.

Iguodala will dominate the highlight reel in this one—the alley-oop he took from Holiday in the third to push the Sixer lead to 58-51 stirred the crowd to near 2000-01 level bedlam—and with good reason. After his misadventures at the line on Wednesday, it was a nice bounce-back performance for Iggy, who also notched his 1,000th career steal in the second half.

We thought the soft-spoken Montenegrin looked a little out of his depth starting in Spence’s stead, but Doug Collins begged to differ, identifying his presence inside as a key to the Sixers strong second half.

Meeks hit a quartet of timely threes, but didn’t do a whole lot else. He didn’t need to. On account of the big three pointers. You get three points for those things after all.

Holiday continues to be a little too trigger happy for our taste — he’s taken 80 shots in the last five games — but on Friday, it was a defect more than made up for with his playmaking. He intercepted an inbounds pass early in the fourth and, without even turning his head, unleashed a canny no-look pass to an open Andre Iguodala as he strode down the court. He also did a better job of getting his teammates involved during the huge 3rd quarter run.

If Tony Battie were a horse, we’d have turned him into glue by now.

Williams delivered a game about as pretty as Madonna’s bicep vein and for the second time all season, he failed to hit double figures.
He failed to hit pretty much everything Friday. This didn’t stop him from trying.

On an evening when the other “Night Shift”- ers struggled, Thad decidedly did not. Coming off a season high in scoring, Young netted two fewer points on Friday, but on 11 fewer shots and in 15 fewer minutes than the loss to the Nuggets. Gotta love the hook shot. He seems to.

Evan Turner has become a winning proposition. When he’s good he’s very, very good, and when he’s bad…well, he’s not really that bad. ET struggled Friday—looking out of sync with the offense and not standing out defensively—but he got his rebounds, didn’t turn the ball over, and only missed three shots. He doesn’t hurt you.

Brand only played 21 minutes but still needs to be more productive especially in the shooting department.  He’s played well of late but Monday afternoon wasn’t his best day.

What more can you ask for?  He played great defense, he blocked shots.  He’s even added a complimentary jump shot to his elite athleticism.  When he plays like that, he looks like a star.  What’s just as impressive is his smarts and that he’s now making better basketball decisions.  A lot of the credit belongs to Coach Collins who seems to have helped AI9 become comfortable with his role on this team.

He got of to a sluggish start, but finished strong.  He took advantage of Andrew Bogut’s inability to play defense outside of the paint, including dropping two from beyond the arc.  Those 3-balls were a huge part of the Sixers play in the 3rd Q that put this game away.  However, there’s no doubt that he had more then a little trouble with Bogut in this game.

There is one reason Meeks is on the team. If he isn’t making 3 pointers, he’s useless. 1-6 from downtown just won’t cut it.

This is the Holiday the Sixers like to see.  He was a leader on the floor.  He got his teammates involved and still helped himself.  He played solid defense which led to open floor and transition opportunities.  Still it does concern us that Holiday is walking the fine line between a PG who can score and facilitate and becoming a single minded scoring point man.  However Jrue absolutely owns the ultra quick Brandon Jennings — he was 3-11 today and in 2010-11 shot an awful 29% vs. the Sixers.

He earned his 13 minutes because he gets down and dirty with the opposing big men.  Something that lacks from the rest of big compadres.

We have a sighting!!!!

Lou, provided his usual consistent instant offense.  Though, what was most impressive was his his 6 assists.  His ability to get others involved offensively shows maturity in his game.

You might call Young “Mr. Hustle and Flow.”  Though, against the Buck he was all hustle but had no offensive flow.  As usual, he battled for loose balls and provided his grit, but he just couldn’t find the bottom of the net today.

We had to assume that (A)  The rookie is in the doghouse or (B)  Collins was portecting “Big Nik” by not playing him against a dominant big of Bogat’s skill level (Collins admitted as much post game). 

Five games in six days for the 32 year old Elton Brand has to be tough on his body. Brand looked slow, out of it and simply worn down. But what can you expect from a player his age in a condensed season? There’s going to be nights like the one against the Wizards, where Brand’s legs are going to be heavy and he’ll struggle to perform.

Iguodala was great. He was aggressive from the opening tip, looking to create shots for himself on the offensive end and setting up teammates in transition. AI9 was in a good rhythm against the Wizards and he continues to excel pushing the ball for fast-break opportunities. Collins also praised his defensive efforts following the game.

Remember when Spencer Hawes came out really hot to start the season? Remember when he had four double-doubles in the first six games and was equally impressive in the other two contests? Yeah, I miss that Spencer Hawes. I guess we’ll just blame it on the nagging back injury.

Meeks went from scoring a career-high 26 points against Washington on Friday, to hardly being relevant the next night. His five points all came in the first quarter of the ball game.

I still can’t tell if Holiday taking 17 shots is a good or bad thing. The positive: He’s being aggressive and attacked the lengthy JaVale McGee at the rim several times. The negative: The 7-6 have plenty of guys that can score, maybe 17 shots is too high. It’d be nice to see him create more as a passer (averaging 4.5 assists heading into Saturday’s game).

In only his fifth game appearance of the young season, Battie showed why he rarely gets on the floor. Battie is simply a solid veteran guy who’ll warm the bench when Hawes and Vucevic are healthy. Tonight he received minutes once Collins felt uncomfortable putting Hawes in due to his back injury.

After a 19 point performance on Friday night, Lou-Will did not disappoint in DC. Williams was feeling it from downtown and connected on four long distance treys. He finished with a team-high 24 points and is the Sixers leading scorer on the season.

In the post game media questioning, Doug Collins mentioned only running a single play for Thaddeus Young the entire ball game. And yet, Young was still able to deliver with 18 points off the bench. When asked how he was able to score 18 while only being called upon once, “Just from having a natural feel for the game and knowing where the ball is at all times,” he explained.

Turner never got in rhythm on the offensive end and although he made a few good passes, he rarely looked to create for himself. Turner’s thigh looked to be the reason for his lack of production. ET said he caught a bruise from JaVale McGee’s thigh during a moving pick. Turner said “I’ll ice it and rest it and be good to go.” So Philly fans should not be concerned.

Just like Battie and Hawes, the rookie struggled to keep up with JaVale in the paint. However, he did grab a pair of offensive boards over him during the 2nd quarter.

No, the rookie did not accumulate any floor time in the contest, but he did get an assist in the locker room after Lou Williams shouted “Hey Lavoy, this chicken ain’t going to cut itself.” Allen promptly found the veteran a knife to eat with.