It’s not the worst thing for the Sixers, who should still probably be more concerned with the lottery standings than the actual National Basketball Association ones, to lose this game – they’ll have plenty of legitimately winnable ones coming up, and while the Lakers face a relatively tough run the next week or so (starting with a close loss last night in Indiana), every loss double-helps our odds come lottery night.
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ABOUT THE 76ERS (8-43): Philadelphia continues to investigate how to best utilize young big men Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel, and coach Brett Brown had Okafor playing center on offense and power forward on defense – vice versa for Noel – against the Nets. An Ish Smith layup on a runout was the only basket Philadelphia got over the next four minutes of game time, while a jumper from Crawford, a thunderous Jordan jam and a CP3 lay-in suddenly made it 84-82, Sixers. Crawford answered with seven of his own as the Clippers climbed within 23-22 late in the first quarter, but the Sixers pushed their advantage to 51-32 with 4:24 left in the first half, on a floater by Smith over Jordan.
Jordan also had 21 rebounds and three blocked shots.
NOTES: Los Angeles F Paul Pierce sat out Monday, after playing in the first game of a back-to-back Sunday….
Philadelphia nonetheless was ahead 88-85 in the closing seconds.
Already without injured starters Blake Griffin and Austin Rivers, Clippers coach Doc Rivers chose to rest Paul Pierce against Philadelphia.
“These are games we should be winning”, Philadelphia’s Ish Smith said.
Was that flawless execution on the game-tying 3-pointer from J.J. Redick? I mean, we got one the play before for Jamal (Crawford).
Philadelphia dropped to 8-44, but the 76ers’ resiliency impressed Doc Rivers. Down 10 to a team like the 76ers is never a place you want to be, but when you’ve just shot 34% from the floor and 27% from deep for a whole half, it’s not the worst place, either. “Even when we were up 19, we knew they were going to make a run”. “So you have to make the choice right away”. Los Angeles came back from a 17-point deficit in a 101-96 win over Detroit on November 14…. The Clippers defeated the 76ers 130-99 on January 2 in Los Angeles….
76ers: Allen Iverson was in attendance….
It was another encouraging performance from Irving, still returning to full strength after missing the first two months of the season as he continued to recover from the knee injury he suffered in the first game of last season’s NBA Finals. The Clippers also covered the spread in all eight of those contests, and are 4-0 against the spread in their last four trips to Philadelphia.
Clippers: At Boston Wednesday night.
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