The Next Seven Games

How exciting! Sixers have been beating teams with relative ease. Most of the teams they have faced are not good. While the wins may not seem as valuable as beating good teams, last season’s Sixers would be barely beating them. This season sees the Sixers doing what great teams are suppose to do; win games that they are “suppose” to win, at least by paper stats. Still, there are skeptics (including me) that are waiting until they face and beat good and great teams before saying the Sixers are for real.

Well the next 7 games should be a great indicator of where the Sixers stand with the good and great. They face the Magic, Bulls, Heat, Hawks, Lakers, Spurs, and Clippers. All of them are home games except for a visit to Hawks. I’m sure they will play well during this stretch. Why? The way the Knicks in that last night of their first back-back-back. They were in New York. They were tired and faced terrible officiating. While Collins didn’t use any of those excuses, I really think that loss came to those three main factors. Not like the players play these types of games often. The way they fought convinced me they would win their division. The way they never gave up made me very happy.

The Sixers have been a team that never knows when to quit. This is something that really can’t be called as negative. Even the 09-10 season, I saw some fight in the team. These guys always try to make it a game, against all odds. If they play that way for the next 7 games, I don’t see why they would win less than 3 games. Yeah, that’s right. I expect AT LEAST, 3 wins out of the 7. I’m using the Knicks game, their never say die spirit, and the fact that they are a much better team than last year as my foundation of this faith. Perhaps I’m too optimistic. Fine.

The Sixers hung with the Heat before a 4th quarter collapse got them blown them out. Even then, Sixers still managed to overcome a 20 point deficit to bring it within single digits before finally losing. That kind of fight will serve them well into this stretch.

The injuries are the only problem the Sixers have that is keeping me from believing 100% that Sixers can mange 3 wins. Hawes and Vucevic have been impressive and are needed. Lavoy Allen has been good for this team but it’s not going to be enough. Now, Sixers don’t want to rush the guys back too early. The result could be more harm than good. I want you to know that my prediction comes on the fact that these two players are injured though. Yeah.

So where are the possible victories coming from? Let’s go in order, first looking at the Magic. While Dwight Howard would eat our “front court” alive, Magic have had some problems getting Howard consistently involved. Plus, we all know the Magic isn’t playing as well as they could. The game vs the Bulls seems like a loss. The game vs the Heat may result in another loss though. Hawks game is winnable. The Lakers actually can be beat by this team. Might be close finish but Sixers have a real chance. Spurs are old but I watched their bench score the team’s last 40+ to erase a 18 point deficit. The Spurs still lost but that performance from the bench was amazing. Sixers could have trouble if the bench explodes like that. Still, Sixers have a chance. Clippers shouldn’t be that good either. Sixers should be able to pull out a win there too.

None of the games will be easy. The two easiest I see are vs Hawks and the somewhat over hyped Clippers. But, like I said, if the Sixers play hard every night, don’t be surprised to see the wins stack up.