This Friday edition (Hence the Alison Preston pics) 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 Eastern Conference leading Boston Celtics. 

We’re not sure what to say about tonight’s game because even if the 76ers play as well as they did against Cleveland on Wednesday night (forgetting the last 5 mins. of course), the Sixers still will not win this game.  It should be noted that we held that opinion before it was announced that Iverson will not be making the trip to Beantown. 

One interesting thing we will be watching tonight is how rookie Jrue Holiday does against the C’s Rojon Rondo, one of the fastest point men in the League.  Jrue is bigger, plays tremendous lockdown D and has great fundamental defensive footwork, so we bet Jrue will try to get physical with Rondo and wear him down.  That is if he can stay in front of the super quick Boston guard.  We know Jrue will not shut down Rondo, we are just eager to see if he can hold his own.

For a little more insight into the Celtics team the Sixers face tonight, we turn to our man Zach Lowe from celticshub.com to answer two questions on the Celtics from us here at Philadunkia as well as provide us with two points of analysis on this Boston squad from an insider’s perspective.  A special thanks to Zach for giving us Sixers fans a ray of hope in his points of analysis section.

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This late, late 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, the injury plagued, but hot (won 4 of last 5) Houston Rockets who are the foes for game three of this five game home stand. 

It’s late on a Friday and we’re so frustrated with the Sixers that we don’t even know what to say about tonight’s game vs. the Rockets.  Look we know that despite all their injuries and drama, that the Rockets are still a good squad.  Trevor Ariza, Carl Landry (one of the least hyped rising players in the League), Shane Battier, Aaron Brooks, Kyle Lowry and Chuck Hayes (balling out his mind right now) can all play the game and play it at a high level.  But if we don’t pound the ball inside, get 25 out of Elton Brand a take home a W tonight against the Yao-less, T-Mac-less Rockets, well the Philadunkia staff may jump off the Ben Franklin Bridge.    

For a little more insight into the Rockets team the Sixers face tonight, we turn to our man Rahat Huq from red94.net to answer two questions on the Rockets from us here at Philadunkia as well as provide us with two points of analysis on this HOU squad from an insider’s perspective.

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This 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 and Eddie Jordan’s former team, the Washington Wizards.  This trip to the District of Columbia is the second game of a three game road trip for the Sixers. 

We feel like we’re writing this a lot lately, but the Wizards much like the 76ers have struggled mightily here at the start of the 2009-10 season and a lot of ills that have plagued the Sixers are hurting the Wizards efforts early on this year.  The Wiz struggles have mostly been associated with poor shooting (43% from the field), adjustments to a new coach and new roles for key players.  Sound familiar?

This is going to be a tough game for the Sixers to win.  Yes the Wizards are a mess and there is some infighting going on in the locker room, but Washington is athletic, potentially they can score from outside, the team certainly has a great set of bigs (Haywood & AJ) to compliment their perimeter shooting once that gets going and they also have a go to player for clutch moments in Gilbert Arenas.  Plus they are familiar with Eddie Jordan’s Princeton offense.  If you can even call what the Sixers have been running in the half-court offense a form of the Princeton offense.  It’s more like the adopted kid brother that nobody likes to Pete Carrill’s version of this “read-and-react” offensive scheme.  So the Wizards present a load of problems for the defensively challenged Sixers.  Still the Sixers showed signs of turning the corner against Cleveland and dare we hope possibly getting this season back on track.  So, there is a glimmer of hope that the Sixers can steal one down in the nation’s capital tonight

For a little more insight into the Wizards team the Sixers face tonight, we turn to our man Kyle Weidie from the Wiz faithful blog  truthaboutit.net .

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Was Elton Brand trying to make a statement on Wednesday night?  Let’s hope so.  Were Eddie Jordan’s harsh words earlier this week about Elton Brand “not being a 40-minute player” any more and that he might start Rodney Carney ahead of Brand meant to inspire better play from the former All-Star power forward?  If so, “genius” we say.  Could Mo Speights injury and resulting absence from the Sixers lineup produce something positive (a return to form by EB) in the long run?  Possibly.  We may never know the answer to these questions and we’re not sure we care either. 

What we do know is that if Elton Brand continues to play like a man possessed as he did vs. the Bobcats, the outlook for the Sixers in the 2009-10 season will be significantly improved from the preseason predictions.

Simply put Elton balled last night.  Brand had his mid-range going, he blocked shots, rebounded, made steals and dove on the floor for loose balls.  It was a thing of beauty to watch, but the scary part was the 76ers needed every ounce of Elton’s game to narrowly escape with a 86-84 W over the hopeless Bobcats.

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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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From what we are reading and seeing on the 76ers official Twitter account and hearing from people around the City of Brotherly Love, nearly all of the key members of 76ers 2009-10 roster were in town on Friday and working out together over at PCOM on City Avenue.

With training camp still 10 days away, it’s great to know that the team is already getting to work on learning new Head Coach Eddie Jordan’s Princeton offense.  The P’ton offense typically takes some time for individual players to learn because it is so different the offenses most NBA players have run during the course of their careers.  For a team to gel and become a cohesive unit within that offense is not a short process either because of the system’s read and react nature.

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In case you missed it…over the weekend for 76er Jerry Stackhouse got “Youtube’d ” by elite high school baller and soon to be University of Kentucky player John Wall. Wall’s flush on Stack’s head took place in a summer league game at the Greater North Carolina Pro Am. 

The NC Pro Am is no joke, so we wonder what an aging veteran like Stack is doing running the floor with a host of elite high school and college players as well as bunch of young NBA bucks. Getting embarrassed like this is certainly not going to help his prospects of finding an NBA job for 2009-10. Check out the clip after the jump.

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The Sixers/Nets team got off to a slow start in game two of the OPSL, and never really woke up, as they dropped Tuesday’s game to the Jazz, 83-68.

Chris Douglas-Roberts was the standout player for the Sixers/Nets (0-2).  The only player on the team with more than 6 points in the first half, he had 13 on 5-7 shooting in the first, ending up with a game-high 27. Of course as we all already know, Roberts plays up the TPK for the NJ Nets.

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76ers beat writer Kate Fagan on the Inqy is reporting that:

“An NBA source has confirmed that Stefanski has shopped power forward Elton Brand, last off-season’s blockbuster acquisition. That same source indicated Brand is unlikely to be traded because he has four years and $65 million left on his deal and has health concerns because his last two seasons ended in injury.”

WOW.

Lets forget for a moment that Brand was the Sixers key acquisition in the last off-season and that Stefanski broke the bank to sign him. Our question is after the disastrous start to his career in Philadunkia nation, what NBA GM would be stupid enough to trad for Brand and take on his gigantic salary that would leave any organization cap strapped.