Fresh off Saturday's 98-87 thumping of the Hawks in Atlanta, a brief road interlude on what would otherwise be a 10 game homestand, the Sixers return home to take on the Lakers for the final three games in the friendly confines of the Wells Fargo Center before playing 7 of their next 8 on the road.

The next three games will all be against quality opponents with the Lakers, Spurs, and Clippers coming into Philly, even if the Lakers are somewhat struggling at the time. The Lakers have gone 4-5 over their last 9 games.

That being said, the Lakers present some tough matchups for the Sixers inside, and this will be one of the games playing Thad at the 4 will be challenging. As much as any time in recent memory, this game is less about stopping Kobe Bryant and more about stopping Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum down low.

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UPDATE: Spencer Hawes says he's playing tonight!!!

DOUBLE UPDATE: Elton Brand is OUT with a sprained thumb. Lavoy Allen will start in his place.

Less than 24 hours after completely falling apart against the Miami Heat in the 4th quarter, the Sixers scurry to Atlanta to face the Hawks team they beat two weeks ago. If you recall, the Sixers mounted a 51-29 second half bruising to down Atlanta minus Al Horford. Well, they're still without Horford and will be for a while, but the team hasn't been suffering as much as previously thought.

Tied with the Sixers for 4th in the East with a 16-7 record, Atlanta has won 7 of its last 10 games, riding some pretty stellar play out of Jeff Teague, selected only two picks after a certain Jrue Holiday in the 2009 NBA Draft. Teague was held mostly in check by Jrue last time the teams met, scoring 12 on 10 shots and 6 assists to 2 turnovers. He did pester Jrue on the other end though, forcing 5 turnovers from the normally conservative Holiday.

Though the boys are certainly winded from chasing LeBron James and Dwyane Wade (and Mike Miller, Norris Cole, and Mario Chalmers), at least Elton Brand and Nikola Vucevic didn't play too many minutes. It'll be interested to see what a rested Vuce can do tonight, though there's no telling how much Collins will play him. The Hawks interior is extremely vulnerable and taking it to the basket will be a big key to winning the game.

Here's hoping for a big game from Thaddeus Young, who always seems to be pesky on the offensive glass against Atlanta. Who else is primed for a big night?

The 16-6 Philadelphia 76ers will square off against LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat tonight at the Wells Fargo Center. The Heat own an identical 16-6 record and have already beaten the Sixers once this season, by a final score of 113-92, in easily the Sixers worst loss of the season.

The Sixers are fresh off their biggest win of the season – a 98-82 win over the Chicago Bulls – while the Heat are coming off a bad road loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in which LeBron dropped 24 first quarter points and 40 total. The Heat led the Bucks by 17 following LeBron's amazing first quarter, but only scored 54 points in the final three quarters combined.

As well as the Sixers are playing recently the Heat have had their number since forming "the big 3" of LeBron, Wade and Bosh. Since the beginning of last season the Heat are 8-1 overall against the Sixers, including the playoffs. The lone Sixers victory came in game four of the playoffs when Lou Williams hit a game-winning three pointer.

Both teams will be playing on a full day's rest, but unfortunately this has letdown game written all over it from a Sixers standpoint – coming off an emotional victory – and the Heat will be looking to avenge their loss to the inferior Bucks on Wednesday.

Despite the odds stacked against them this Sixers team has defied the odds all season and certainly surprised the everyone. Their recent win over the Bulls has proven they can compete with the cream of the crop in the Eastern Conference, especially on their home floor, where they enjoy a conference-best 12-2 record.

Luckily, the dynamic of "who have the Sixers beaten" is behind us ... for now, but this is another big test for the Sixers and their quest for national recognition. A win against the Heat, following wins over the Magic and Bulls, along with a damn-impressive 17-6 record with more than a third of the season would certainly put few more butts on the ever-growing bandwagon.

Looking back at the advanced box score from the last time these two teams met, the Heat absolutely murdered the Sixers in the crucial areas: points in the paint, rebounding and free throws. The Sixers were already without Spencer Hawes and playing in the second game of a back-to-back, on the road, but things really took a turn for the worse when rookie center, Nikola Vucevic – who was making his first career start – went down with a leg injury. The Sixers were only down six when Nik went down midway through the third quarter, but went on to lose by 21.

Vooch hasn't played since, but will be available tonight. Although the emergence of the newest Night Shift member, Lavoy Allen, may keep Vucevic pinned to the bench, stuck listening to The Boss tell him stories about dates with robbers to Mickey D's and some stuff.

Allen played a career-high at the time, nine minutes, against the Heat and has been improving ever since. His last game, against the Bulls, the ESPN-dubbed NBA's worst player scored a career-high 15 points along with 6 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals in 26 minutes of action.

The Heat were without a key part of their team last game as well, as Wade missed the game with an ankle injury. He'll play tonight and will likely be checked by Jrue Holiday, who played tremendous D on Derrick Rose last game. LeBron will be checked by the best perimeter defender in the NBA, Andre Iguodala, for most of the game. Wade and LeBron are going to "get theirs" regardless of who covers them, but no duo in the NBA can guard them as well as Jrue and Andre from an individual standpoint.

The keys to game will be preventing the Heat from beating the Sixers around the basket again. The Sixers have to rebound better, level out the free throw discrepancy best they can and limit the Heat's points in the paint. Both Chris Bosh and Joel Anthony – of all people – went off against the Sixers last time. Hopefully Brand, on full rest, along with the emerging Lavoy Allen, the healthy Nik Vucevic, the old Tony Battie, and if necessary, Sisqo Elson, can hold their own against the Heat in the paint and on the glass.

Vegas has declared the Heat two point favorites for this contest. As much as I'd like to convince myself the Sixers can pull this off, I just don't see it. I predicted they'd beat the Bulls but the Heat are a completely different animal and they should be hungry, coming off a loss. I'll be rooting hard for the home team, obviously, and I've been wrong before, so let's hope I'm wrong tonight.

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Tonight the 15-6 Philadelphia 76ers will host the team with the best record in the NBA, the Chicago Bulls, in a game I've had circled on my calendar for a long time. As we've discussed ad nauseam, despite their 15-6 record and 4.5 game lead in the Atlantic division, no one believes this Sixers team is as good as their record or superlatives say they are.

The Sixers are destroying bad teams, sure, but they have yet to win a close game (1-4 in games decided by 7 points or less) or defeat an elite team. Beating the Blazers in Portland would've been impressive. They lost. Beating the Knicks in The Garden on the third game of a tripleback would've been impressive. They lost. Beating the Nuggets would've been impressive. They lost. Beating the Heat in Miami on the second of a back-to-back would've been damn impressive. They were blown out. Their only semi-impressive wins were against the Pacers (without Danny Granger), the Hawks and Monday night against the Magic. Normally beating the Magic would qualify as an impressive win, but that team is visibly in shambles and losing to everybody these days.

The Sixers still own the league's weakest schedule and severely lack a marquee victory to hush the "they haven't beaten anybody" whispers, which grow stronger with every game. A win tonight, against Derrick Rose and the Bulls, would certainly qualify as a marquee victory. Are the Sixers up for the task?

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The 14-6 Philadelphia 76ers will host Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic tonight, in the first of a tumultuous two week stretch where the Sixers face opponents with a combined winning percentage of .634.

Despite their 12-8 record, the Magic have been playing awful basketball as of late. They've lost three consecutive games and four of their last five. In their four losses – which included a 56 point stinker against the Celtics, a blown 27 point lead against the same Celtics and a 26 point loss to the lowly Hornets – the Magic were outscored by combined total of 377-291.

Adding injury to insult, the Magic will be without the services of starting point guard, Jameer Nelson, who will miss the game with concussion-like symptoms. Unfortunately, the benefit of playing the Magic sans Nelson isn't as big of an advantage for opponents as it's been in previous years, because his PER is under 10 this season and his true shooting percentage is .468.

The Magic will also be playing the second game of a back-to-back and Spencer Hawes will probably return to the starting lineup after missing the past seven games with injury. The stars are aligning for a Sixers win and good start to this tough stretch. Then why am I worried?

Make the jump.

Update: Spencer Hawes has been ruled OUT and Nikola Vucevic is a game-time decision.

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With the Sixers set to play the Bobcats tonight in Philly, I emailed Ben Swanson from the puntastic Rufus on Fire (say it out loud, you'll get it) for a blurb about the Bobcats because, honestly, I've seen exactly zero minutes of Charlotte this season save for a few clips of Kemba Walker and Bismack Biyombo doing what they presumably do. From what I gather, they're significantly worse than a nosebleed but not quite as bad as having your eyebrows sawed off with a machete. Lucky for me, Ben answered with a nice thing. That thing is below. Play with it. Learn from it.

The Bobcats are the suckiest right now.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean they're not really freaking terrible at other times, but usually they're less so. Charlotte's starting lineup has been demolished by injuries as of late, with D.J. Augustin sustaining some kind of crack in his big toe, Gerald Henderson's lower back problems after a Jared Jeffries hard foul, and Corey Maggette's strained hamstring. Enter Kemba Walker, Matt Carroll, Derrick Brown, Tyrus Thomas and DeSagana Diop.

I really don't know what else to say. There is no way in hell the Bobcats win. Not only are those starters injured, but so is the Bobcats most efficient scorer, D.J. White. Byron Mullens will play, but has a bruised right hand. And Reggie Williams is still out while he recovers from knee surgery.

The Bobcats are simply awful on both sides of the court. They settle for jump shots, as shown by their No. 1 ranking in field goal attempts between 16 and 23 feet out. Ball movement is inconsistent and inefficient. The Bobcats only scoring threat is Kemba Walker, who has been nearly exclusively taking the ball on isolation plays. But how much can you blame him with the players that surround him, my god.

On defense, they have a major hole in the paint. Perhaps moving Mullens back to the bench alleviates that a little, but Gana Diop is slow-footed and still slightly out of shape. He's not going to fend off opponents from getting into the paint at all. And so the Bobcats become forced to overcompensate for opponent's dominance on the boards and getting to the rack, which opens up the perimeter game.

In conclusion, the Bobcats were beat by the Wizards by 17. And that Bobcats roster was better than the one that will play the 76ers tonight.

That's the kind of optimism I like to see from a Bobcats blogger! I miss the good old days. Catch my disease over at Rufus on Fire (say it again) to see what I said about the Sixers. See ya'll tonight for thread. Francisco Elson will be guest-starring. How many points do you estimate the Sixers will win by and, more importantly, how many minutes will Cisco play?

After suffering, by far, their worst loss of the young season, the Philadelphia 76ers will look to bounce back in a big way tonight against the Charlotte Bobcats. The Bobcats own the NBA's worst record at 3-16, along with the league's worst road record at 1-9. They've lost six consecutive games, including a beat down at the hands of the lowly Washington Wizards their last time out.

Adding injury to insult, the Bobcats are also a banged up bunch, missing D.J. Augustin, Corey Maggette and Reggie Williams with various ailments.

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The 12-5 Philadelphia 76ers have been blowing out lesser competition on a nightly basis this season, especially on their home floor (Big Macs). Tonight should be the same old story when division foe, the New Jersey Nets, come to town.

At 5-13 and 3-8 on the road, the Nets are a bad team. They're already without starting center, Brook Lopez and second year swingman, Damion James with serious injuries, and tonight they will probably be without the services of impressive rookie, MarShon Brooks. Brooks was averaging 15 points and 5 rebounds in 30 minutes per game before suffering a sore Achillies.

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