Sixers News
Cheeks Shuffles Lineup
After two losses that have gone down to the wire, Philadelphia 76er head coach Maurice Cheeks finally decided to shake
things up in the starting lineup. "We just don't have enough energy when we play our first quarters," explains Cheeks.
"We really need to give Iggy some help on offence because our first unit isn't producing."
Cheeks has decided to insert his rookies, Rodney Carney and Hilton Armstrong into the starting lineup. Although it
is quite risky putting in players with only 2 games of NBA experience, Cheeks thinks that the Sixers have nothing to
lose. "We definitely need a shakeup. We're not scoring the way we want to be scoring and our fourth quarter execution
has been really lacking these past few games. I think that our younger guys can give us the energy and lift we need."
A perfect example of the 76ers' inability to produce would have been last game against Denver, when Iguodala was forced
to shoulder the team's offensive production. Iguodala managed to score 40 points on 16 of 24 shooting, but the second
leading scorer for Philly was Samuel Dalembert, who only had a mediocre offensive night with 11 points on 5 of 14
shooting.
Carney and Armstrong will replace Kyle Korver and Joe Smith in the starting lineup, both of whom have struggled mightily
these first two games. Smith has only scored 2 points in two games while the usual sharpshooting Korver has gone
through a cold spell, hitting 3 of his first 17 shots of the season. "I don't blame anyone else but myself for being
benched," said Korver, explaining his demotion. "These shots are the shots I normally take and I'm just not hitting
them."
Hilton Armstrong has been a solid rookie for the Sixers so far off the bench
Hodge's Injury Not Serious
Julius Hodge says that he's A-OK and ready to go for Philadelphia's next game against New York. The 6'7 guard injured
his wrist on a play where he collided with Denver Nuggets' centre Marcus Camby. Hodge landed akwardly on his right
wrist at the 5:44 mark in the fourth quarter and had to leave the game to get the injury examined. Hodge scored 5
points against his former team. The New York native's next game is against his home-town team, the New York Knicks.
"Nothing's broken, it was simply a bad fall, that's all," says Hodge. "The trainers say that I will be up and running
for next game. I just need to ice it down and rest it for a day or so. There's no doubt that I'll be ready to play
in New York. I'm definitely pumped to play in my home town."
Hodge will be playing the Sixers next game against New York
Sixers Get First W Against Struggling Knicks
(1-2) 106 
(1-7) 103Click on Logos for boxscores
November 17, 2006
Philadelphia managed to save themselves from getting back into bad habits after they survived a late fourth quarter
push by New York. The 76ers managed to get their first win of the season against a struggling New York Knicks team,
going 1-7 their first eight games and are now on a 3 game losing skid.
"It feels good to get that monkey off our backs and not worrying about when we will win our first game," Sixer point
guard Andre Miller said. "We played as a team and we didn't get down on ourselves when we lost our lead for a few
minutes."
The Knicks started off the game on a 15-5 run, but the Sixers didn't panic and chipped the lead down to 48-45 by half
time. Philadelphia managed to take a one point lead after Andre Iguodala hit a three pointer to make it 59-58 in favour
of the Sixers. Hilton Armstrong followed it up with two free-throws and Rodney Carney also hit a lay-up. Finally,
Samuel Dalembert capped off the 9-0 run with an alley-oop slam for a 65-58 Sixer lead.
Eddy Curry and Quentin Richardson did not let the Knicks die off, however. Richadson scored 14 points in the fourth
while Eddy Curry also had 13 to combine for 27 of the Knicks 33 points in the fourth. Q-Rich brought the Knicks within
4 after he nailed a three pointer to make the score 101-97 with 45 seconds, but Andre Miller was intentionally fouled
and made both free-throws. Curry made a jumphook at the other end and Miller was once again fouled, sinking both of
his free-throws. Q then missed a three pointer with 4.6 seconds left but Curry cleaned up the miss with a put-back
dunk to bring the Knicks to within 2. Miller made and missed another pair of free-throws to end the game.
From the top, left to right:
Pic 1: Armstrong had a nice game in his first NBA start
Pic 2: Steve Francis scored 8 off the bench, including this nice alley-oop
Pic 3: Iguodala still scored 20 points despite facing double teams
Pic 4: Louis Williams quietly got himself 8 points and 3 assists off the bench
Pic 5: Marbury passing nicely out of the triple team
Pic 6: Q-Rich led a late fourth quarter charge that fell short
