Sixers To Make Predictably Bad Pick Tonight

The NBA Draft is tonight! While some teams are wheeling and dealing, the 76ers seem content to see who falls to them at the #16 spot.

The 700 Level links to John Smallwood, who writes about the 76ers’ awful draft history. And, yes, since the lottery, the 76ers best pick is Allen Iverson. Ignoring the recent picks who appear to be panning out at least somewhat, the second best is probably Jerry Stackhouse or Clarence Weatherspoon. Simply frightening.

(In other 76ers news, the team’s offered contracts to Iguodala and Lou Williams.)

The NBA Draft used to be probably the best off-season day in sports; now that it’s been moved to ESPN it is significantly less fun. Still, might want to tune in and see who the newest cager in town will be.

Sixers Predictably Pummeled In Game 2

Above: The Mo Cheeks face. We saw a lot of it last night.

Uh, well that was kind of what everyone expected. The 76ers got smoked by the Pistons in Game 2, falling behind by as many as 28 points before losing 105-88.

“This is tire country,” the Daily News‘ Phil Jasner writes. “And the Sixers had a blowout.” Rimshot!

The 76ers get a day off before playing the Pistons Friday night in Philadelphia; the big disappointment in the series so far is Andre Iguodala, who didn’t score in the first half last night and finished with 4 points. He is shooting just 5-for-24 in the series.

But, hey, Reggie Evans is upbeat. Just see what he has to say: “We’re going home, going to one of the greatest arenas in the NBA. We have to show them how we do it at home, come with our heads high. Our fans are waitin’ on us, and we’re waitin’ on them.”

Sixers loss to Pistons in Game 2 was inevitable [Daily News]

The 76ers Have A Winning Record (!)

At the start of the season, Kyle Korver was on the cover of the team’s media guide, Hip-Hop the rabbit mascot was on billboards (he still is) and Billy King was the GM. The 76ers have since even waived the suave European they traded Korver for.

Last night, the 76ers erased an 11-point lead with a 19-0 run in the fourth quarter against the Boston Celtics and beat the best team in the NBA, 95-90. Andre Iguodala scored 10 straight for the 76ers in the run; Boston didn’t score for almost seven minutes. After starting 18-30, the 76ers have gone 17 18-5 to climb above .500.

2008 has so far featured Eli Manning leading a game-winning drive in the Super Bowl, and now the 76ers winning 17 out of 22 games. I could have gotten better odds betting on Fan Man coming back to life and crashing into the Super Bowl.

After the jump, a sick Andre Iguodala steal and dunk.

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Hey, The 76ers Are Still Winning Games

Look! The 76ers beat the Suns for the first time since Dolph Shayes was on the team (or maybe since just 2002), in a 119-114 thriller last night out in Phoenix. Andre Iguodala had 32 points, including this half-court shot at the buzzer of the third quarter.

Our local hoopsters are currently 7th in the Eastern Conference and could really go as high as six. (This would allow the Sixers to avoid the Celtics or Pistons in Round 1, meaning they might win a playoff game or two.)

Editor’s Note: And if you’re reading this on the front page, you can apparently win a suite for a 76ers game, according to the ad at left. (I didn’t know, but that’s some nice synchronicity.) Neat!

76ers Open Season In Pointless, Boring Fashion

The 76ers opened their season last night with a big old boring 9-point loss to the Toronto Raptors in Canada.

The game mirrored what many expected from the 76ers this year; a little bit of effort, a couple of runs — the 76ers cut it to 1 in the fourth quarter — but in the end a not-so-close loss. Take what happened after the Sixers cut a 22-point deficit to 1 last night: It was 90-89, and the 76ers had the ball. But Iguodala turned it over and T.J. Ford found Andrea Bargnani wide open for three. Samuel Dalembert added to the fun by fouling Bargnani on the three-pointer, and suddenly it was 94-89.

Hey, maybe this year Mo Cheeks and the boys will actually get a high draft pick Larry Brown can waste! In news that actually led the post-game show, Iguodala didn’t get offered a contact. And as Phil Sheridan lets us know, he’s a star: “In the visitors’ locker room at the Air Canada Centre, he was assigned the oversize locker that goes to NHL goaltenders.”

Maybe the Flyers were under the impression they were the ones who needed to offer him a contact. After all, they could probably use him to go bust some heads.

Sixers Trying To Get Cute With All These ‘Wins’

It was kind of cute when, after the 76ers traded Allen Iverson, they went and beat the Knicks or whoeever. Hooray, the 76ers finally won, etc., etc.

What isn’t okay is that the 76ers can’t even tank a season correctly. Our local basketball squad has now won two straight after a double-overtime win over the Cavaliers last night. The 76ers are now 13-30 and aren’t even last in the division anymore! (Boston is 12-29.)

As such, here’s how the season will probably finish out: The 76ers will win a bunch in a row sometime next month and end up with the sixth or seventh pick in the draft and picking the next Sharone Wright. Or they’ll get the No. 1 pick and Larry Brown will trade it away.

Iguodala’s career best beats Cavs [Daily News]

Robbing Andre to pay Nate

Despite the Flyers and Sixers going undefeated this weekend (they were both 0-0), it wasn’t a great weekend for Philadelphia sports — although the Soul did win. Put simply, Andre Iguodala got screwed. Iggy (or Dre or AI2, take your pick) should have won the dunk contest.

Seriously. Look at where he is in the photo. You see how his head’s about to slam into the backboard? Yeah, he ducked and dunked on a reverse after taking a pass from Allen Iverson off the backboard. He dunked from behind the backboard. I seriously am still unsure of how it happened.

The trophy went to 5-foot-9 Nate Robinson, who did have some impressive dunks — including one over shortest-dunk-contest-winner Spud Webb, but if you dunk it from behind the backboard, you deserve to win. There was a rumbling that Kenny “The Jet” Smith changed his vote so Robinson would win, but that’s not true. He did, though, give Iggy too low of a score.

If you missed Dre’s dunk, video’s available at NBA.com, though it’s not really loading for me, so before it disappears, you can check out the dunk over at YouTube.

Dwarves suck (Politically correct title alteration by me) [The 700 Level]
Rim Shot [DN]
Win puts Soul in a tie for first place [Inky]

Quickies: Viva Italia!

• Ex-Penn prof Tracy McIntosh, convicted of sexual assault in 2004, is now heading to Italy for a new job after he’s freed from house arrest. Jesus. You get stricter sentences for underage drinking. [Daily Pennsylvanian]

• While you were watching the start of the AFC Championship (or not), Andre Iguodala was hitting a buzzer beater to rally the Sixers from 19 down and top the Timberwolves, 86-84. The Sixers scored only five more than Lower Merion native Kobe Bryant, who dropped 81 (!) on the Raptors in a Lakers’ win. Both these links have video, too. [AP via ESPN.com]

• Daily News TV scribe Ellen Gray is blogging from Hollywood and notes that, sometimes, IMDB is just as faulty as Wikipedia. [Ellen Gray in Hollywood]

• A fire in East Mount Airy that killed a 17-year-old girl and injured her mom has been ruled an arson. [Inky]

• When there’s nothing else to do (and, really, there never is in Bucks County), Democrats and Republicans argue over a sign about the Iraq war. Aren’t there any ribbon cuttings you guys can attend? [Bucks County Courier Times]