The Sixers cranked up their running game and simply kicked the ever loving crap out of the Knicks last night by a score of 124 - 84.Willie Green poured in 21 points on 9 of 14 shooting and Thad Young scored 20 points off of the bench for the young Sixers. Reggie Evans started at power forward last night, in order to give the Sixers a veteran defensive presence against Zack Randolph and Eddy Curry, but it hardly mattered.
The Sixers jumped out to a quick lead in this one simply by pressuring the ball and running. The Knicks looked slow and disinterested. You read blogs and such about how bad this Knick team is and how Isaiah has ruined everything he ever touched, but last night was just embarassing if you were a Knick fan. The Knicks are at 14th in the Eastern Conference and judging by what I saw last night, that is purely on merit. They suck.
The Sixers, on the other hand, played their new found running style to perfection last night. On the strength of 16 steals, the Sixers surged with 36 fast break points after playing a lack luster game at Minnesota the night before. They are all alone in the 8th spot in the Eastern Conference by a game over Atlanta.
As mentioned yesterday by Phil Jasner in the DN, Mo Cheeks got his deserved one-year extension. Mo has done nice work to this point; hopefully, GM Ed Stefanski can give him some talent to work with.
(Picture from Yahoo! sports - H. Rumph Jr.)
After being examined by Dr. James Kelly yesterday, it was determined that Simon Gagne should sit out the rest of the year in order to allow for his brain to heal from the 3 concussions he's sustained this year.
This obviously sucks for the Flyers to lose an elite two-way forward of Gagne's status, but if there is a silver lining to be taken, it's that the Flyers now know they need to get some offensive help before next week's trade deadline hits. I doubt seriously they'll be a player in the Mats Sundin or Marian Hossa sweepstakes, but a lesser forward like Brad Richards, Alex Tanguay, or even Ruslan Fedotenko may be something to look at as the Flyers will have Gagne's money off of the cap for the rest of the year.
Vandermeer Traded
The Flyers dumped Jim Vandermeer on the Calgary Flames for a 3rd round pick in the 2009 NHL Entry draft. The Flames got robbed. I loved Vandermeer's toughness in his first go-round with the Flyers, but he was just a turnover machine in his most current stint. Vandermeer may develop into a solid 5th or 6th defenseman, but he's going to have to regain his confidence. Right now, he looks like a confused player.
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