News broke today that Elton Brand's dislocated shoulder will sideline him for the next month. The timetable for his return is much shorter than I anticipated. It looked pretty nasty and I'm pretty sure it's the same injury that caused Dwyane Wade to leave the court in tears and a wheelchair. Given, Wade's was probably a little more severe, I think a  mere month of missed action for Brand is a bit optimistic. Whether the Sixers are without Brand for a month or a little longer, things are going to be change. After all, he is considered to be the team's best player and the Sixers have him locked up for the next five years to a tune of 80 million--I'm sure you've heard.

I like Elton. I feel bad for the dude. But in all honesty, I think this helps the team more than it hurts, at least in the short term. That may sound absurd, but hear me out.

First off, the Sixers will get back to their run n' gun style that sent them on that surge into the playoffs a year ago. This team was constructed for that kind of basketball and from the sample size DiLeo has shown in his two games as head coach, I fully expect them to run like crazy with Brand out.

Secondly, it gives Ed and the front office a little flexibility. They, along with all their fans, came into the season with monster expectations. Well, as we all know, things haven't went according to plan and at 11-14 the Sixers we're kind of stuck before the injury. Do they sacrifice young talent, draft picks and maybe the team's future to win now? Or do they abandon ship, get rid of Andre Miller and/or Sammy D, get the young guys some reps and look towards next year? After watching this team for 25 games (24 since I missed one) I was leaning toward the second option. Now that Brand is out for a month and maybe longer, I think the logical thing to do is give Lou-Will a chance to run the team, see what they can get in return for Andre Miller and Sammy D, evaluate the roster and figure out where to go from here. Because obviously this team as constructed isn't going to contend anytime soon.

Elton's injury also allows Speights to get a lot more minutes, whether he starts or not. M16 has really shown what he can do in limited action this season and I'm anxious to see what he can do in the next month.

That brings me to the starting lineup without Brand. There are a couple options. Here they are. Tell me which one you would prefer. 

1. PG- Miller

SG- Green

SF- Iggy

PF- Speights

C- Dalembert

2. PG- Miller

SG- Green

SF- Iggy

PF- Evans

C- Dalembert

3. PG- Miller

SG- Green

SF- Iggy

PF- Thad

C- Sam

My preference is number 1, simply because I like the Lou-Thad combo coming off the bench and Speights is obviously an upgrade over Evans. I have a feeling DiLeo agrees with me. Last time Brand was out with a hamstring injury, Speights started. Albeit it was under Cheeks, I assume DiLeo will make the same switch, unless he really wants to go small and start Thad, but I prefer him off the bench.

We'll see tomorrow night in Washington.

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.

Cavs 88 Sixers 72

To be completely honest, this was one of the most boring games of the year. The Sixers kept it close for the first 12 minutes. The score was 25-25 after the first quarter, but you never got the sense that the Sixers were actually "in" the game. From then on, the game was not entertaining at all.

No one expected the Sixers to win this game. Even I predicted them to lose by 14, so the 16-point loss went according to plan. I'm not going to pull the old, "Disappointed" card anymore, because along with everyone else, I've lowered my expectations and a blowout loss to one of the top three NBA teams on the road doesn't surprise me or disappoint me. They went into Cleveland. They suited up. And they lost. Like a donut-filled, flat-top wearing man once said, "They are who we thought they were."

Here are some quick observations:

-Andre Iguodala continues to trend upward. The jumpshot is looking smooth and he's getting to the rim again.

-Andre Miller isn't completely killing the team by taking 40 shots a game anymore. He was off tonight, he realized it and stopped shooting. Good for you Andre.

-Willie Green played well. Bravo Willie.

-Dalembert played decent. Don't mistake decent for good, because that he was not, but I'll give him decent.

-Thad played much better tonight.

-Elton Brand looked horrendous once again. He's not healthy. I'm 100% sure of that. Can we have a refund?

-Speights got two minutes. If we are going to keep losing at least play the young fella Mo.

-The Sixers missed Lou Williams tonight, who sat out with the flu. It was disappointing because he has really been turning it around as of late.

What a sorry start to the weekend, but hey, I'm excited. I'm done with school. Christmas shopping it is. Tomorrow night the Sixers play the Wizards in Philadelphia. It's a very winnable game and I expect it to be close and entertaining. That's all for tonight, but I want to leave you guys with a YouTube clip I discovered today. It's a nice way to get your mind off the Sixers.

Here it is!

Player of the Game: Iggy

Box score

Record: 9-14 (As FuqaManuel predicted. Congrats FqM.)

Favorite Open Thread Comment: "BIlly King was the anti-christ."-Sexy T-Rex

It's been a while, so this might get ugly. I'll probably spurt off into a couple of tangents. Bare with me. 

Today, December 11th, marks the end of my finals which means I have a month free of papers, exams and all the stuff that goes along with college. Yes! The past week or has felt like hibernation. I've barely turned on my TV. I've barely used my computer for pleasure (I love to re-read my post to find dirty sounding sentences, and leave them in regardless). I've been buried in papers, finals, work and working out. Last night I weened my way back into the sports world and it was like I never left. The Sixers continued their disappointing season with another loss (which I'll get to in a second) and today I reluctantly turned on ESPN and find out Romo and T.O. are having a conflict. Awesome. I don't like ESPN anymore and I have my reasons.

Anyway, today begins the four-week vacation I've been anticipating forever. My work hours will be bumped back up to 40 a week and I'm going to try and hit the gym before the holidays, so I'll still be a busy dude, but not nearly as busy as I have been for the past week or so. Why do you care? Well, you might have noticed Liberty Ballers has been lonely during finals, but I'm here to tell you that I'm going to be posting much like I was before finals and I'm going to do everything in my power to improve the site before school starts again. I'm going to attempt to add new features, possibly a  new writer (Please don't ask me; I'll ask you), a skilled graphic designe who's also a Sixer fan (That's going to be difficult) and whatever else I can think of along the way.

The only bump in the road during next four weeks will be the week of December 21-27. I'll be in Connecticut, yeah Connecticut, celebrating Christmas with my family. I'll probably bring my laptop, but I know from experience, every year, the week that I'm there usually means no TV, computer or sports for me. I'll do my best to update the site everyday, but I can't promise anything. This could possibly be an audition for a writing position with Preview/Recap FanPosts. The games I'll miss are @ Boston and @ Denver.

Now to the Sixers, who sit at 9-13. Here are some observations I have what's been going on lately.

Andre Iguodala has really been rounding into form as of late. His line for the month of December looks like this: 21 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 53% shooting and 79% from the foul line. He's still turning the ball over too much and shooting poorly from beyond the arch, but I'll take 21-8-5 from Iggy any day. His last game was the most impressive. He nearly played a perfect game, guarding LeBron, taking smart jumpers, making smart passes, limiting the turnovers and rebounding the basketball. Hopefully this trend continues. 

(Random: I still haven't turned off ESPN, and Thank God I didn't because I just got marriage advice from Michael Wilbon, "Threesomes keep it interesting." Thanks Wilbon.)

Andre Miller is looking like the player who balled himself into a career year last season. I'd bust out some numbers for you (actually I probably wouldn't because I'm lazy), but why do that when I can just hook you up with a link from my boy, Brian's website. Miller's getting his legs under him.

Cheeks is fighting for his job by changing rotations and changing starting lineups. He's done a few things I've liked, like moving Thad to the bench and Willie into the starting lineup. Don't get me wrong, I'm the biggest Willie Green hater there is, but this lineup is beneficial because it allows for the Lou-Thad combination to come off the bench and provide spark to the second unit and it allows Andre Iguodala to play his natural position. And I don't know if you've noticed, but Iggy at small forward is a lot better than Iggy at shooting guard. I'm also a fan of Cheeks playing Donyell more. He's shown he can rebound, play solid defense and shoot the three. He deserves to be in the rotation. 15-20 minutes should do the trick.

Speaking of Thaddeus, he's really struggled lately. He's finally starting to look like the 21-year-old, second year player that he really is. In December Thad is averaging 8 points, shooting 33% and 14% from downtown.

Elton Brand has been injured and I hope that's the reason he looked like Reggie Evans last night. Six points on 27% shooting and seven turnovers is not going to cut it. He keeps saying he's healthy, but he looked far from it against Cleveland last night.

Sammy D sucks and is slowly losing his job.

Lou Williams is back to the old Lou Williams. He's scoring, he's playing a better point guard and he's doing most of his damage in crunch time--the fourth quarter. He's shooting 48% and scoring 14 points a game in December. He's not necessarily shooting jumpers better, but he's getting to the hoop and finishing around the rim. His free throws attempts have also doubled.

Speights fever has tailed off. He's still a monster talent, but he's going through some growing pains. I'm not too upset about his playing time, but he should definitely get the nod over Theophilus Ratliff in most scenarios.

The Sixers are 9-13 after 22 games and I've revised my season expectations. My expectations are now much like last years. If we get in the playoffs we do and if we don't we don't. If we get in and make some noise, I'll be geeked, but I don't expect the Sixers to contend for a championship anytime soon. For the last 3/4 of the season I want to see growth from players like Lou, Iggy, Thad and Speights. I want to see the coaching situation to be resolved. I want to see one of Ed's "plans" put into effect, whatever that might be. And I want to see the Sammy D, Andre Miller situations resolved.

Tomorrow night they get another shot at King James and the Cavs, in Cleveland. Good luck Sixers; your going to need it.

Wow. I have mixed feelings about this game. I just finished watching the recorded version (apparently it wasn't blacked out) with one of my good friends, who so happens to be a Lakers fan. There's nothing like talking up players like Marreese Speights, saying things like, "Watch, you'll see, he's something special." I am now going to live that down until the rematch in Staples. Marreese backed me up with a scoreless five minutes and four personal fouls game. Thanks Mo. 

As for the game, I thought the Sixers played very well as team, much better than I expected. The Andre's carried the them, but it wasn't enough to beat a very, very good Laker team. Iguodala built on his season-best performance with his second straight 19+ point game. His jumpshot is looking smoother and he's starting to get to the rim like he used to. I really think the minutes he's getting at small forward have been beneficial. As for the other Andre, Andre Miller played an outstanding game. I usually don't have many nice things about Miller, but tonight, he was by far the Sixers best player. He was an efficient 11-21 from the floor, scoring 26 points. He also has eight rebounds, five assists, two steals and only one turnover. He played his best game of the season and I was very pleased with what I saw. 

Besides the Andre's play, the Sixers also cut down on their turnovers, committing only 12 and shot a solid 48% from the floor. The bottom line is, the Lakers are a much better team, and they proved it tonight. Besides the fact that Elton Brand looked more like Reggie Evans than Elton Brand out there tonight, which I'll get to in a second, I thought the Sixers played outstanding (Ok, not outstanding, but better that they've played all year against a good team) basketball. The problem is, they still lost by 12 points. Kobe Bryant was ridiculous. I can't put in to words how good he was tonight. Every time the Sixers would make a run Kobe would answer. The crowd said it best at the end when they chanted "M-V-P". 

Another observation I made about the game in general is the fact that it was horribly officiated. I usually don't complain about the refs, but I think this was a poorly officiated games, for both teams.

On to Elton Brand. My God. He looked like a boy among men tonight. His line of three points and five rebounds is not why Stefanski paid him the big bucks. I'll just chalk it up as a bad night for EB, but I sure hope he shows a little more in future games against contenders like the Lakers. My friend, who I watched the game with actually has him on his fantasy team. He was disgusted, to say the least.

Before writing this recap I looked at the box score for the first time and I was shocked to see that Thaddeus had 17-8. During the game, there were a couple of plays were I found myself saying, "Thaddeus! What are you doing?" I don't know if it was like that for anybody else, but his 17 points didn't seem like a meaningful 17 points. And here's a random observation on Thad, he reminds me a lot of Lamar Odom. I think that's his ceiling, a rich man's Lamar Odom.

Lou, Ivey and Green pretty much sucked. The game completely changed when Andre Miller was spelled by one of these guys. Lou is not a point guard, the real Royal Ivey showed himself tonight and Willie Green is still Willie Green. Lou dropped 15 in the fourth quarter, very reminiscent to last year, but that was with Andre Miller at the point and Iggy at the three. I'm very intrigued to see a Lou-Thad switch in the starting lineup. Thaddeus wouldn't be getting demoted, but it would allow both Lou and Iggy to play at their natural positions.

As for the Speights-Dalembert lineup switch, not so fast my friend. Dalembert played a very solid game tonight, nothing spectacular, but solid and Speights didn't look good at all. Either the team rolls with the vets like Miller and Dalembert or goes the other direction and trades one, the other, or both. As of right now, Speights isn't ready. I'll admit, tonight I jumped off the "Bench Sam, start Speights" bandwagon an I'm going to stay off for the time being. 

I'm not sure why Theo was playing though. I'd much rather see Speights or even Evans over him. The team was -18 with him on the court.

Overall, I'm happy with the Sixers effort and performance tonight. The Lakers are legitimate championship contenders. The Sixers aren't, at least not yet. Tonight's game was a building block. Normally that's not the case after a home loss, but besides Elton Brand's suckfest, the Sixers played well. They even played some solid defense. Some of the shots the Lakers made were indefensible, especially Kobe's.

Player of the Game: Andre Miller

Box score

Record: 8-11

Favorite Open Thread Comment: "i watched the interview during DNL today and he mentioned the fact that he likes to plan. He said that he has a plan if the team keeps under-performing and he has a plan if they start to roll. He did say that he has not yet decided after how many games he should pull the trigger if the team is still under-performing. I also like how he says he is also a fan. It seems like too many execs today aren’t really fans of the team, they just work for them."-Ben16

So, I just opened the door and found a nice little UPS package sitting on the ground. I've been dealing with packages all day long, so it wasn't what I wanted to see. Then I opened it up to find myself starring at a new pair of shoes! Sweet! These aren't just any shoes, they're Elton Brand's signature shoes. Kathleen Neuman of Converse was nice enough to hook me up with a pair, and I greatly appreciate it. Here's a video with Elton and his kicks.

Here's a picture of my pair. Hopefully this is the break Sixers fans have been waiting for. As of right now the Sixers are 0-0 with these bad boys in my possession. Let's see if they don't start bringing us some luck, starting tomorrow against the Bulls. Again, thanks Kathleen!

Man, I don't even know where to start. The Sixers sucked in the first half, but were somehow still in the game. Then the Magic started sucking in the second half and the Sixers took the lead. (In depth analysis, I know.) And in the end, Rashard, or Rasheed Lewis, as Hubie Brown likes to call him, hit a corner three pointer to give the Magic a two-point lead. Thaddeus Young left him, bad perimeter D yet again. The game wasn't over though. There was still 4.7 seconds remaining, which is plenty of time to get a clean look at the basket. Plus, the Sixers can call timeout and advance the ball right? No. Mo Cheeks decided to leave zero timeouts for the end of the game. Surprise. Regardless, 4.7 seconds is a reasonable amount of time to dribble the ball up court, make a pass or two and get a good shot off. That's far from what happened. The Sixers supposed veteran, savvy, point guard decides to dribble for a total of 1.7 seconds before throwing up a contested half-court shot with 3 seconds remaining. Don't believe me? Take a look at the picture above, courtesy of my iPhone. It was a bonehead move, but I can't blame the loss on a single play, because there were plenty of other reasons Philly lost, and they are the same reasons why They've been losing games all season.

-Bad perimeter defense. 

-Nonexistent three point shooting.

-Lack of offensive sets.

-Horrendous coaching.

-Substitutions.

-Bench play, even though they did better tonight.

Bottom line is, the team has a ton of issues and they were lucky to even be in the game tonight. It's going to take some time to fix these problems and most people on this blog think firing Cheeks would resolve, or at least improve all of them and I really can't disagree. I'm not 100% on the "Fire Cheeks" bandwagon just yet, but I mean, how much more mediocre basketball does Sixers management have to see before making a change. This team obviously has some talent, but aren't showing it right now. Is that the players' fault or the coach's? It remains to be seen.

My two favorite things about this game were the play of Elton Brand and Marreese Speights. Brand had a really nice second half and put the team on his shoulders for stretches of the game. He's starting to show signs of the old EB. And Marreese Speights, wow. I predicted a big game for M16. I just felt it. Hubie Brown put it best when he said, "It's just his night." In 13 minutes Speights dropped 12 points, grabbed three boards, had a nice steal, took a charge and hit a half-court-buzzer-beater. Hmmm, maybe he should get some more playing time, just a suggestion.

By the way, Hubie is a lame announcer, but he was entertaining. He was eeriely aroused by Dwight Howard's body and uttered the sentence, "I like Willie Green." Your a bad man Hubie. 

I'm sure I'll have some posts up tomorrow, but if not, or if everyone's too busy to comment, have a happy Thanksgiving and don't do anything I wouldn't do.

Player of the Game: Elton Brand

Box score

Record: 7-8

Favorite Open Thread Comment: "Dwight Howard has the most beautiful arms/shoulders in the NBA. Like a greek god. And no, I am not gay."--FuquaManuel

This game could be bad, real bad. One of the Sixers biggest weaknesses is their perimeter defense and tonight one of the best 3-point shooting teams come to town. This is the second matchup with the Magic this year. If you don't remeber the first one, here's a quick recap: Dwight Howard got in foul trouble, the Sixers couldn't capitalize and got embarrassed on national TV. They only lost by 10, but the score could've been much worse.

Here's the good news. That loss was in Orlando. Tonight's game is in Philadelphia and the Sixers play significantly better on their home court than they do on the road. 

More good news. Today's my Friday, and hopefully everyone else's Friday. This game comes on the eve of my second favorite holiday of the year. Here's to the Sixers giving me and everyone else an early Thanksgiving present. The Turkey just won't taste the same without one.

And since Thanksgiving is near I'm going to forget about the poor coaching, Willie Green, the bad perimeter defense and the mediocre record. I'm going to be thankful for what we have.

-I'm thankful for Ed Stefanski. In the time that he's been here, he's done a superb job of building this team. He has a genuine passion for Philly sports and most importantly winning.

-I'm thankful for Andre Iguodala. Most people think he's having a down year, but he's contributing in different ways. He's also very fun to watch. The dunks are electrifying.

-I'm thankful for Thaddeus Young.

-I'm thankful for Marreese Speights.

-I'm thankful for Lou Williams, even though he's disappointing me right now.

-I'm thankful for Sammy D's blocked shots.

-I'm thankful for Reggie Evans hustle.

-I'm thankful for having players with cool first names like Thaddeus, Marreese and Theophilus on the team.

-I'm thankful for Elton Brand.

Check out Third Quarter Collapse for post game reaction to Mo Speights posterization of Superman! I feel the power of M16 coming on. He's having his coming out party on ESPN!

TV: ESPN

Record: 7-7

Prediction: (Does his best Lee Corso impression and puts on his Hip-Hop headgear and predicts a Sixers upset baby! *Crowd goes wild!*)

101-95 Sixers!

This is an open thread.

via assets.espn.go.com

Big win. It was far from pretty, but the Sixers stepped up when it counted. The vets--Andre Miller, Andre Iguodala and Elton Brand led them down the stretch to a tough victory and avoided a huge letdown in a home game against the Clippers. 

Twelve games into the season, this is the Sixers' identity. I have watched each game, feeling disappointed nearly every night. After watching last night's game, I'm done being disappointed. For whatever reason the Sixers aren't the team I thought they would be. That could be because of my unrealistic expectations or the simple fact that they are not playing up to their potential. Either way, they are who they are until further notice.

The Sixers M.O. is to come out in the first quarter and play well, led by Thaddeus Young. Everyone seems to be on their game for the first 8-12 minutes. Then the second unit comes in, the opposing team makes a run and the rest of the game is a grind. That is exactly how tonight's game went, but the Sixers' showed a lot of heart down the stretch and came out with a win. It wasn't pretty, but they got it done and you know what, I'll take it. Normally I would be very frustrated by a win like this, but I'm not for two reasons. 

1. This is the reputation this Sixers have earned for the first part of the season and until they put together a stretch of really good basketball, I won't expect any easy wins, even against 2-9 teams at home.

2. I saw some encouraging things. I feel like this season has been full of negativity and pessimism. From here on out I'm going to look at all the positives and roll with 'em and tonight I saw quite a few.

Things I liked:

-Thaddeus Young gets better every game. He is exciting to watch and my man-crush continues to grow. However; he disappeared in the second half, again. I can't figure out why he flames out in almost every game, but if it's because Mo isn't running any plays for him, he needs to start. Our half-court offense isn't very good as is, so run some plays for Thad.

-Andre Iguodala played a fantastic game in my book. He still didn't shoot well and have five turnovers, but he was a playmaker the entire game. He played great defense down the stretch. He came up with a huge "and 1" at the end of the game. He had 12 assists, most of them being beautiful fastbreak passes. He continues to rip rebounds away from bigger players. I loved what he did tonight.

-Andre Miller played much better. He's not shooting as much as he did in the beginning of the season and is starting to run the offense better. Not good, but better.

-Throwback uni's.

-Marreese Speights was all over the place. He made some open jumpers, he took a charge, showed energy on the glass. He's still raw, but a monster talent.

Things I didn't like:

-Reggie Evans playing at all. He just doesn't do the same things for the team as he did last year. Speights can give the team everything Reggie can, and much more. Reggie is an offensive liability and has been playing poor defense this season. His minutes have been gradually declining since Speights emergenc e, but I'm greedy and want to see Speights take all of his minutes.

-Lou Williams has lost all confidence. He can't score. He can't pass. He can't play defense. He's in a major slump right now and needs to find a way to snap out of it. Slumpbuster.

-Elton Brand looks so awkward. His favorite move is to ram his shoulder into the defender and put up a fadeaway jumper. Yes, he had 5 blocks. Yes, he hit the go-ahead shot, but he is shooting 42% on the season and is averaging 3+ turnovers a game. The Clippers announcers mentioned many times that he didn't look like himself. That's interesting, because these are the guys who watched Elton for many years. They aren't very good announcers, but I'll take their word for it on this one. To be honest, I barely watched Brand prior to this season. If they say he doesn't look the same and continue to reiterate the point, I believe them. I'm starting to believe he's not all the way back from the injury. It would also be interesting to check out ClipsNation reaction to Brand.

Random Thought:

-We need a backup point guard.

Again, it wasn't pretty, but I'll take it. Next up is the Golden State Warriors.

Player of the Game: Andre Iguodala

Box score

Record: 6-6

Favorite Open Thread Comment: "Did that ralph waller idiot just call him sprites?"--jemagee (Yes, he did, like a thousand times and it really pissed me off.)