Just two days after the Sixers picked up an enormous win against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers, another championship team from the past decade in the San Antonio Spurs rolled (but picked first) into the Wells Fargo Center. Beating just about every big-name team that's come to town so far this year (with exception of the Miami Heat), the Sixers looked to lock up another marquee win against a top tier opponent tonight. The Basketball Gods and Tony Parker clearly didn't get the memo as the Spurs pick-and-rolled the Sixers to death on their way to a 100-90 win.

Just a few days earlier, Parker lit up the most athletic of point guards in Russell Westbrook meaning Jrue Holiday would have his hands full from the get go. It would be his duty to keep Parker out of the paint where he is without a doubt most dangerous. Everybody and their favorite Elmo doll knew that the Spurs were going to come in and utilize the lethal pick-and-roll combination of Parker and Tim Duncan as much as humanly possible, but knowing it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to stop it. This was the case with the Sixers tonight.

Right from the start the Spurs attacked with the P-and-R, mutilating the Sixers' top ranked defense in the process. Holiday, for some strange reason, was either attempting to go over the screen or didn't even make an attempt to get around the screen for the entirety of the first half. While Parker certainly has the ability to knock down the outside shot on occasion, he's infinitely more dangerous when he gets room to get to the basket. Once he got just a hint of hole to the paint, Parker would either force a big to collapse on him opening up the weak side for a cutter to collect an easy deuce, capitalize on the weak-side help by hitting the open man in the corner for an uncontested jumpshot, or just take the ball to the cup himself. Utilizing this attacking gameplan, Parker collected 37 points (on just 24 shots), 8 assists, and a total of 13 free throws (he made all 13).

The Spurs' P-and-R offense was certainly the death of the Sixers tonight but it wasn't the only factor that lead to a Sixer loss as another compliance showed its not-so-attractive face; long two-point jumpshots.

More after the jump.

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Tony Parker and the big men of the San Antonio Spurs brought their pick-and-roll dominance to Philadelphia tonight to collect a win against the Sixers.

What's the biggest reason for this loss, guys? Discuss.

Spurs vs 76ers coverage
	@
17-9		18-7
Location: Wells Fargo Center
Time: February 8th, 2012, 7:00 PM Eastern
Channel: CSN, NBA League Pass
Probable starters:
Tony Parker	PG	Jrue Holiday
Kawhi Leonard	SG	Jodie Meeks
Richard Jefferson	SF	Andre Iguodala
Tim Duncan	PF	Elton Brand
DeJuan Blair	C	Nikola Vucevic
Advanced Stats: (league rankings)
103.1 (7)	Off	104.5 (6)
100.0 (16)	Def	93.2 (1)
50.63% (5)	eFG%	50.12% (9)
48.94% (19)	deFG%	44.95% (2)
13.21% (4)	TOR	10.48% (1)
24.16% (26)	ORR	22.16% (30)
76.16% (1)	DRB	74.31% (11)
24.8% (25)	FTR	22.9% (29)
Mortal Enemies: Pounding The Rock

Injury Update: After playing the last two games, Spencer Hawes will be on the bench again tonight. On the brighter side of things, his MRI results on his back and Achilles tendon were negative. Elton Brand will be making his return after missing the last two games and will start alongside rookie Nikola Vucevic in the front court.

On the Spurs end of injury news, Manu Ginobili and TJ Ford remain on the bench as they have for the past month.

As good as the Spurs have been at home (13-1), they've been almost just as bad on the road this season by only notching 4 wins in 12 away games. Vegas knows this and has set the Sixers as 4-point favorites coming off a close win against Kobe and the Lakers.

Do you guys think Jrue will saddle up and put some Spurs on his Air Forces?

After announcing recently that it's no longer a Rookies vs. Sophomores game (written in the staaaaaaaaaaaars) and will instead be a fantasy draft out of the pool of first and second year players, the NBA has released who is actually getting their feetsies wet in said pool. Evan Turner, thankfully, is in that list, but Nikola Vucevic, sad face, has been left out naked in the cold without a towel. No running!

Pool references aside, it's unfortunate but not surprising that Vuce didn't make the cut, even though he's been better than a few of the guys who did. The list of people who got in below.

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Quick - somebody create an AndreIguodala4MVP account because we are officially in the Twilight Zone of media coverage of the Sixers. In Tom Ziller's weekly MVP power rankings, he has listed our very own overpaid role player who only scores points in the fast break and misses every foul shot he takes - at number 8.

Andre Iguodala is the best wing defender in the NBA right now, edging LeBron, Luol Deng and, in my opinion, Tony Allen. Philadelphia has the league's top defense largely because 'Dala allows almost no breathing room for his cover on an almost nightly basis. That's valuable.

Chew on that, why doncha. After exactly zero NBA GMs listed Andre as the best wing defender, he's finally getting some love in the form of "yeah, he's the best wing defender". It's about time. Check the list to see who he's listed behind, but he's currently in front of, well, every other player in the NBA save for 7 guys. Those of the majority include LaMarcus Aldridge, Russell Westbrook, and Blake Griffin. Cool.

Do you think Andre, with his 12.8 points per game, has any shot at a top 10 finish in the MVP voting? I don't, but that's not to say he doesn't deserve it. At the very least, he's a lock for the All-Star Game, right? RIGHT? Efficiency rules the day.

The 2012 Philadelphia 76ers do so many things well, it feels almost unfair to knock them for what they don't do well. Rebounding is an issue, interior depth is one as well, but the Granddaddy of them all is foul shooting. And until I took a look at the numbers, I didn't realize just how terrible things are in that department.

As far back as Basketball Reference can remember (1946), there have been only two teams with a winning percentage over .500 to average 20 or less free throw attempts per game and they've both been in the last decade. The San Antonio Spurs of 2008-09, who finished dead last in the league with 20.01 attempts on average, and the 2005-06 Phoenix Suns, led by Mike D'Antoni the year Amar'e Stoudemire missed the season, who also finished at the bottom of the NBA, with an average of just 17.99 free throws per game. Both teams, strangely enough, ended the season with a 54-28 record, a .659 winning percentage.

The Sixers this season have attempted 474 foul shots in 25 games for an average of 18.96 per outing. That only puts them 26th in the league. All of the other teams are under .500 except the Houston Rockets, who boast an even lower 18.64 FTs per game. The Rockets are 14-11, good for a .560 winning percentage thus far. What the Sixers are doing - shooting an abysmally low amount of foul shots, yet winning almost three-quarters of their games (.720) - is unprecedented in basketball history. Yes, they're a terrific defensive team, and yes, they're taking care of the basketball at an equally-historic rate, but if they don't get to the line more often, they will not get far into the postseason. In the more immediate sense, those numbers indicate that the rate at which the Sixers are winning is unsustainable.

While the Spurs lost in the first round to the Mavericks in the '09 playoffs, the Suns' unique offense under D'Antoni actually made it to the Western Conference Finals, where they also lost to the Dallas Mavericks (in a great series). The Sixers are equally unique of a team, but without the shooters the Suns have, it's extremely worrisome to think of what happens when shots stop falling for a few games. Getting to the foul line for free points (something only Louis Williams does reasonably well), is crucial to a team's long-term success because they will eventually go cold.

We'll see if the Sixers can find themselves at the stripe more as the season goes on or if they can keep defying the tremendous odds against them that this will not keep working.

It's no surprise that the Night Shift is growing in popularity and exposure. As the Sixers currently have the 4th best record in all of basketball, their Kings of the Bench are opening national eyes to what kind of depth this team possesses. Most recently, it's an article on the growing importance of the 6th man by Mike Prada over at the SB Nation hub.

Good coaches understand the need to find players who can change the pace of the game during those moments. But there's also a larger sea change at play. Last summer, Thaddeus Young was a restricted free agent. The 76ers could have let him find his market and match any offer. They could have noted that he only averaged 12 points and five rebounds last year and made him an afterthought in their plans. Instead, they moved quickly to lock him up to a five-year, $42 million contract extension that pays him like a starter. The 76ers recognized how many games he changed coming off the bench and rewarded Young's sacrifice with a new deal.

While I still take issue with paying Thad that much money to come off the bench and be below-average at several crucial aspects of basketball, Prada is right in his assessment of how the Sixers approached things. Rod Thorn and Doug Collins know they don't have the talent or, as of now the interest, to claim an all-world superstar and beat teams by going to them again and again. So they opted for depth, youth, and a defensive system that has made everyone look good.

Between Young, Louis Williams, Evan Turner, and Nikola Vucevic (and a growing case can be made for Lavoy Allen), the Sixers have the best bench in the league. I'd argue that between the four of them and Jodie Meeks, they've got five 6th men. Grammatically that doesn't make the most sense, but so many guys on the team play with the attitude that they're only going to be in for X amount of time - they need to make the most of it. In some cases, that means fadeaway Boss three-pointers with 20 seconds left in the shot clock.

But in the case of last night, and so many other times when Thad or Evan et al have put the team on their backs, having that many sixth men is the biggest reason why the Sixers have punted themselves into legitimacy.

According to Slam, the Sixers have assigned Craig Brackins to the Sixers D-League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws.

Brackins, the 21st overall pick who the Sixers acquired along with Darius Songaila for Willie Green and Jason Smith, averaged 20.1 points and 8.6 rebounds on 44% from the field and 24.7% from three point range in 18 games in the D-League last year.

Brackins has appeared in a total of 11 games in his NBA career, averaging 1.2 points in 5 plus minutes per game.