Sixers win game, lose Brand

Wow, first let me start by saying I've had an interesting day. It's began with two cortisone-like shots in my wrist and elbow and ended with a Sixers victory with a flurry of snow and an Elton Brand Dislocated/Seperated shoulder, depending on who you talk to, in between. 

First the snow. Why is it significant? Because I live in Vegas. It hardly rains here and never, ever snows. Well, today it did and no one knew how to react. Driving was a nightmare and I missed the entire game because of it. Luckily, I had a gut feeling I should tape the game when I woke up this morning. Normally I would be insanely upset that I missed a game and had to watch the recorded version due to anything, but I fully enjoyed the whole snow fiasco considering it will probably never happen again. Three inches here is like 10 feet of snow somewhere else. Check it out.

To the game. It wasn't as easy of win as I thought it would be. I knew the Bucks had talent, but one guy I didn't mention pre-game was that dude who's name I will never pronounce correctly. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, I believe. He was all over the place and was basically a replica of Andre Iguodala, ugly jumpshots and all. His defense was pretty impressive. He was also the player who took out Elton Brand, or at least stood there while Elton took out himself. More on that in a minute. The Sixers fought their way back into the game and pulled out a victory. 2-0 for DiLeo. Here's what I liked and didn't like.

Likes:

-Lou-Will is really back to his old self. He's getting to the rim, he's getting to the foul line and playing a meaningful role during the crunch times of games, just like last season. I think the biggest reason for his turnaround is consistent playing time. Early in the season Lou would get in for short bursts and try to do way too much. Now he's getting in the game for long stretches and doing his thing. 25 points on 17 shots tonight. Not bad, not bad at all. He led all scorers.

-Andre Miller. He's really ballin' as of late. He looks like the Andre Miller who led the team to the playoffs last year and I'm not sure whether it's best to roll with him as the point guard and extend him, or to trade him during his hot streak. I'm leaning toward the latter because I'm ready to get a little younger and let Lou take his shot at starting point guard to see what we have before making any drastic moves in the off-season.

-Tony DiLeo's substitutions. He's using a 9 man-rotation. He's giving everyone the minutes I think they deserve and he's not playing Ivey, Ratliff and Marshall. I love that he plays Lou a lot more than Cheeks did and the same with Speights.

-Mo Speights. M16 had 12-7 in 18 minutes tonight. He was all over the court, dunking on people's skulls, taking charges, snatching rebounds. Our boy put together a very nice game and the 17-20 minutes per game range is very fair for M16.

Dislikes:

-The Elton Brand injury. I haven't really read anything on it yet, but it didn't look good when it happened and it doesn't sound good either. If you've ever played basketball, you've been a part of the play where someone under the basket catches the ball and pump fakes, a defender falls for the pump fake, goes flying by and lands painfully on the court. That's exactly what happened to Brand, but he used his arm to try and soften his fall and dislocated/separated his shoulder. That sucks if he's out for the season, but it might allow Stefanski to unload Miller and/or Sam and look toward next season. We'll see.

-Andre Iguodala. I don't really want to get into it, but he was bad, really bad.

From Phil Jasner

Brand will have an MRI exam, but his long-term prognosis is unknown.

I'll wait on the tests to form my opinion on what the Sixers should do. Until then, peace love and happiness. I'm going to go make a snowball, throw it at someone, then play some Madden. Stay sexy.