Sixers Play Their Best Game ... And Still Lose

Coming off the defeat of a pitiful Heat team at home on Friday, the Sixers continued their lively play tonight against the San Antonio Spurs. Unfortunately, it just wasn't enough. The Spurs walked out of Philly with a 99-85 win.

The Sixers fell behind big in the first half, and came out to start the third quarter down 20. They began the long road back by cutting the deficit to 13 as the third quarter ended, then shaved another 8 points off the lead before the Spurs hit a few key jumpers to put the game out of reach.

The Sixers showed a lot of heart in this game. Iguodala was hot early, and Steven Hunter and Samuel Dalembert were all over the boards late. It was probably the best game the Sixers could've hoped for against one of the elite teams from the West, but it wasn't nearly enough to win.

We've got co-players of the game tonight, Hunter and Dalembert. Take a look at the combined stat lines for the twin towers, first the good: A combined 22 points, 27 rebounds (11 offensive), 6 blocks and 0 turnovers. And now the bad: The two combined to go 9-30 from the floor. I've been wondering why Mo Cheeks has gone away from Dalembert after he's started the last half dozen games red hot from the field, I guess Mo's offensive philosophy is to feed the ball to the guy with the cold hand.

Also from the "curious coaching decision" column: Andre Iguodala caught fire with about 4 minutes to go in the second quarter. He scored 12 straight points for the Sixers, then picked up back to back fouls. Cheeks immediately took him out. Now I know you don't want Iguodala to pick up his fourth, but when the team is struggling for points (they only scored 41 in the first half) don't you think it's worth taking the chance of Iguodala picking up his 4th when he's the only one doing anything on the offensive end? Couldn't you just put him on someone like Bruce Bowen who basically sits in the corner on offense and waits for the ball to come to him, if you want to protect him from getting his fourth? File it away as another reason why Mo needs to go when this miserable season is over.