Well, the Sixers Made Things Interesting Last Night, Didn't They? At Least They Won.

If you can believe it, the Sixers actually started off the Philadelphia vs. New York weekend in sports with a game against the New York Knicks last night. For three and a half quarters, it looked like the Sixers were going to walk all over New York, but a 41 point fourth quarter for the Knicks took the game into overtime, where the Sixers were at least able to maintain composure and finish the game on a 17-0 run for a 141-127 win. The Sixers had five players in double figures, with Andre Iguodala leading the way with 32, to go along with 11 rebounds and seven assists. Apparently, he heard what I wrote about him after the first game of the season, because he's been playing much more like a leader since then. Yes, it's only been two games, but he's been impressive in both. That's what the Sixers need in order to be successful this year.

Last night certainly wasn't all good, though. The defense once against took a nap during a key stretch of the game, and allowed Al Harrington to score 42 points off the bench for the Knicks. Samuel Dalmbert fouled out in just 19 minutes, and though Marreese Speights played well in his spot, scoring 20 points and bringing down 10 rebounds, Sammy has to be able to stay out of foul trouble for longer than 19 minutes each game. Nothing can go well with your starting center fouling out in that short period of time. Lou Williams again looked decent running the point, and he scored 27 points to go along with ten rebounds and seven assists, compared to just one turnover. The young fella's taking care of the ball in this early season. That's what I like to see.

I just want to stress it one more time: the defense has got to play better during key stretches of games. This game last night should have never even had thoughts of going to overtime, but the Knicks kept plugging away, and before the Sixers could do anything, New York had put up 41 points in the fourth quarter. I can maybe understand giving up that many fourth quarter points if it's garbage time, but the Knicks were playing for the comeback. The Sixers seemed helpless to do anything good out there, and no one could stop Al Harrington or Danilo Gallinari, who put in 30. Either way, the Sixers still managed a win, and though there are some big issues that still need to be worked out, they've at least shown that they are a halfway decent team so far this year. There's still a long way to go, but they're making strides, and those will continue for the rest of the season.