Ready, set, go! The Sixers paved the way to a victory last night on the road against Portland. The veteran presence of Allen Iverson and Elton Brand were surely felt with Iverson ending his evening with 19 points and Brand being the high scorer at 25. The beloved Sixers were also able to receive valuable contributions from the likes of Marreese Speights, Andre the Iggy-Dala and big Sammy “D” Dalembert. Speights was able to continue his tear on his way back from an injury with 14 points off the bench, which included a nifty alley-oop dunk in transition from Iguodala. Iggy had a strong evening with 14 points nine assists and seven rebounds. Wow, there’s the stocking, I mean stat stuffer. Dalembert scored 14 points as well and tallied eight rebounds and three blocked shots.

This is the kind of contribution the Sixers need on a nightly basis. Jason Kapnono was the only player to not see action due to the coach’s decision. The Blazers on the other hand, are playing with a few injuries to on their roster and are trying to find the right combination of players to fill in their roles. With the loss of Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla, and Rudy Fernandez, Brandon Roy is struggling to right the ship all on his own. Roy ended the evening with 24 points, which included a grouping of three, three point shots. Other than Roy, the highest scoring player on the floor was LaMarcus Aldridge who had 17. Other contributions chimed in at 11,11, and 10. Those were from the likes of Andre Miller, rookie Jeff Pendergraph and Steve Blake. Other than that, the Blazers are really searching for solidity.

For the game, the Sixers shot pretty well from the free throw line, going 11-for-16. Three point shooting was at 30% even with a 3-for-10 performance. Overall field goal shooting for the Sixers was overly impressive at 57.7% for the entire game, while holding the opposing Blazers to 42.2%. Among the 39 total rebounds the Sixers collected, 31 of those were on the defensive glass. This still indicates a need for better balance in the rebounding category.

Moving forward, the Sixers travel to Sacramento on Wednesday night and then will face the Clippers on Thursday. The road trip ends with the finale at Denver on Sunday, before returning back to the Wachovia Center for another bout with Washington. From the desk of the Sixers’ Fansided writer, peace, love and happiness and a Happy New Year!

Peace From The 570!