The Sixers continued trucking along in the absence of Elton Brand with a relatively easy 108-91 victory over the Phoenix Suns Monday night.  The Sixers were led by their young power forwards - Thaddeus Young and Maresse Speights - who combined for 49 points, 12 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks in 54 minutes.  They did this against a Suns team which features a front court of Amare Stoudemire and Shaquelle O’Neal - not bad for a couple of young kids who wouldn’t be playing nearly as much if the big off-season acquisition hadn’t gotten hurt.

The Sixers had the benefit of playing the Suns on the backend of back to back games which limited Shaq to 21 points and Steve Nash to just 22.

A year ago this would have been a much better game to watch.  Since the Suns traded Shawn Marion for Shaq and canned Mike D’Antoni they haven’t been nearly as good or nearly as exicting as they were just 12 months ago.  Watching the 08-09 Sixers vs. the 07-8 Suns would have matched two fun and gun teams and the final score would have probably been something like 115-110.

Instead, this game matched two teams who both sabotoged their 08-09 seasons while trying to take the step from pretender to contender.  The Suns imploded their team by completely revamping their style of play when they acquired Shaq and then pushed D’Antoni out the door.  The Sixers ended up bringing in a power forward which didn’t fit their system when they had two perfectly good ones, much younger in age on their roster after finally having tons of cap space for the first time in years - as evidenced by tonight’s breakout games for both Young and Speights.

Andre Igoudola had another well rounded game and is looking more and more like the player the Sixers thought they were locking up over the summer.  Iggy chipped in 22 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists.

The Sixers are sitting two games over .500 with one more game before the All Star break.  Memphis visits the Wachovia Center Wednesday.  Highlights below.

The Sixers played a hell of a game tonight, but came up just short of upsetting the defending world champions thanks to a last second buzzer better from Ray Allen.   Allen was a thorn in the Sixers side in the 4th quarter - he hit 5 of 7 shots and scored 12 of his 23 points int he final stanza of Tuesday night’s game.  His three pointer with less than  0:01 remaining in the game stole what would have been a very nice win away from the Sixers and pushed two 2 games below .500.

The Andre’s both hit big shots in the final minute of the game to give the Sixers two point leads on two different occasions in the final 60 seconds, but both shots ended up meaning very little after Allen drained his game winner.   Here are some highlights courtesy of ESPN and some notes courtesy of yours truly.

HIGHLIGHTS

GAME NOTES

• Marresse Speights had a really impressive run in the 4th quarter with 6 quick points in just 6 minutes of action.   He added a rebound and steal and didn’t miss a shot in his limitd action.  Give the kid some more PT.
• Both Andre’s topped 20 points and turned in well rounded games.  Iggy had 22 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, and block.  Miller dropped in 21 points, 4 boards, 7 assists, and a steal.
• Elton Brand played ummmm 9 minutes and scored 0 points??? Where is the Elton Brand that played so well last week against the Rockets?  The Sixers were facing a Celtics team without Kevin Garnett and against the likes of Kendrick Perkins, Glen Davis, and Leon Powe, our big free agent acquisition only sees 9 minutes of rather in effective playing time?
• While Iggy had a great stat line, his +/- was by far the worst on the team tonight with -15.  For those of you unfamiliar with this stat, it means that during the 40 minutes Igoudola was on the floor tonight, the Celtics held a 15 point advantage over the Sixers.  This means that in the roughly 8 minutes he wasn’t on the floor, the Sixers held a +14 advantage over the Celtics.
• Reggie Evans meanwhile held a +14 +/- rating and was the only Sixer to reach double digits in rebounds with 10.  He also scored 8 points and notched 2 steals while hitting a very un-Reggie Evans like 6 of 8 from the free throw line.
• The Sixers really let this one get away.  Without Garnett in the lineup, the Celtics had almost no low post pressence tonight and the Sixers couldn’t capitalize.  The Celtics perimeter players combined for 72 of their 100 points.
• Slammin’ Sammy’s 14 points where actually a season high.  I’m sorry, but that’s just sad.
• The Celtics turned the ball over 20 times compared to just 9 turnovers for the Sixers.
• The Sixers are now 0-3 against the Celtics this year and have lost back to back games while leading going into the 4th quarter.

POST GAME QUOTES

• Tony DiLeo on not playing Elton Brand in the 2nd half: “His shoulder stiffened up a little. He said he could play if we really needed him. It was a situation where we just decided to throw Marreese (Speights) in there because his (Elton Brand’s) shoulder wasn’t quite loose enough.”
• Andre Igoudola on where the Sixers stand in comparison to the Celtics: “We should have won the game and we lost. We’re just trying to get wins right now. We have to play good ball no matter who we play. They didn’t have one of their Hall of Famers so there’s no excuse.”
• Doc Rivers on the play of Reggie Evans: “Give them a lot of credit. Reggie Evans turned the game around for them He came in and played with great energy. It looked like he got everybody else on his team going.”
• Ray Allen on his game winner: “We figured out we had a great chance to send the game into overtime. It was a tough situation for their (Sixers) defense because Paul had the ball and he was isolated and they were going to make it tough on him and that’s what I got to my spot. (Peirce) made a great play. I knew that I wanted to get to my spot. At least if someone was running out on me, at least I got to where I got my ball and my legs in the air. Again, Paul made the play at the right time.”

Thaddaddy of These Young'ins

Second year forward Thaddeus Young has been selected to participate in the NBA’s Rookie vs. Sophomore game, which will take place 2/13/09.  Young earned to nod by putting up solid numbers thus far in 08-09, averaging 13.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.1 steals per game.

Sixers rookie Marreese Speights was not as fortunate, and was snubbed from the rookie team.  Speights has averaged only 15 minutes/game, but has put up 7.9 points, 3.9 and .9 blocks per game.

Full rosters below: