As Jordan made clear yesterday, losing has ceased being a novelty and become an absolute necessity. The difference between being a contender in three years and five. The past few times out, the Sixers have brought their D game, especially Elton Brand, whose averaged 6.5 points and 2.5 rebounds in 24 minutes during April's four games thus far. Big ups to EB, who has really embraced #missionwtf. Sar-chasm aside, Eddie Jordan has stepped up his game and lost us 6 straight games and for that I am truly grateful.
I like the Grizzlies, who have tried to follow the Thunder/Blazers rebuilding process, but unfortunately being in the West leaves them out of the playoff race by a significant margin. Is it me or are there more terrible teams this year than usual? I did some quick quick research. There figures to be nine teams with less than 30 wins this season. Compare that to 7 teams in both '09 and '08, 3 in '07, and 5 in '06. If you can derive any meaning out of that, be my guest. Anyway, I like the Grizzlies and think that even without Rudy Gay next season, they could make a push for a playoff spot with improvements out of Marc Gasol, Mike Conley, and OJ Mayo, defensive help from Ronnie Brewer, and production out of Hamed Haddadi and Hasheem Thabeet, the centerpiece of Hasheem Thablog.
With injuries to Thaddeus Young, Jason Smith, Rodney Carney and coming off a back-to-back (as are the Grizzlies) that landed them in Memphis around 3 AM last night, this game should be lost. But there's still three games left for them to break our hearts as they've done on so many occasions during this forgettable year. However, with the emergence of Francisco Elson aka Frozone and his 2 points and +2 differential in 4 minutes of PT last night, we may be in store for a three game win streak to vault us into the top spot in the Eastern Conference, nay, the world.
In Philadelphia-related-but-non-Sixer-related news of the day, the Phillies are 3-1 and coming off an 8-0 shalacking of Jordan's, and by name, TAFKAMB's Astros. Jamie Moyer takes the hill tonight at 7 against Cy Young lock Felipe Paulino. Also, the Flyers are in some kind of intense race for the 8 seed against the Rangers. Check them both out on our sister blogs (no offense dudes), The Good Phight and Broad Street Hockey. If you're into some hockey friend rivalries, here's a good friend of mine's blog on the Flyers and another friend's Official SNY Rangers blog. Ooohhhhhh things could get heated. That's the most I've ever written about hockey.
Thread it here for the 7:00 Detroit/Charlotte game, then stick around if you'd like for the Mavericks/Kings Clippers/Warriors games that mean more to me than you do. I'm talking to you yosoysean. To pull a page out of Jordan's book, Go Sixers!