Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

1. How low (small) can you go?

With Dwight Howard and Glen Davis missing the game for Orlando, they are prepared to play small lineups for heavy doses of time. In response, the Sixers will start Thaddeus Young, who hasn’t started a game in over a year, and move Elton Brand to the center position. I like the adjustment for the starting five (I think it should happen more often in cases like this); however, I dislike that Nikola Vucevic could get a DNP-CD for the game, because Spencer Hawes will certainly play before him and the Sixers aren’t likely to bring two centers off the bench. Instead, the Sixers will play one of their small forwards as the backup at the 4, whether it’s Andre Iguodala or even Sam Young.

Daniel Orton, who is a pretty large but inexperienced guy, will start at center for Orlando.

2. Covering the shooters

Orlando takes more threes than any team in the league by a huge margin, 27 per game (New York is second, with 22.9 attempts per game). Three of their starting five players, J.J. Redick, Jason Richardson, and Ryan Anderson, are excellent shooters who need to be contained. Redick comes off screens more often than not, while the others are stand-still, but eadch requires attention. When Dwight Howard is in the lineup, his presence and demand for double teams creates openings for the 3-4 good these and other shooters accompanying him on the floor. When he’s not in the lineup, the Magic depend more on dribble penetration to create open looks, primarily from Jameer Nelson.

Like most games, Jrue Holiday is tasked with defending a quick point guard. However, his defensive performance tonight means more than most. If Nelson can’t create for Orlando, who can? So if Holiday can keep Nelson out of the paint consistently – which is doable for him – the Magic could have a rough time scoring.

3. Energy (Effort?) Conservation

If the Sixers play to their potential – which is a HUGE if – they can win this game with 6 minutes left in the fourth quarter. In that case, as the first of a B2B2B, they can get some of their key players rest. Orlando, at this point, is a shell of its former self. Howard is just that good. The Sixers can win this game fairly easily. Of course, if they conserve their effort from the get-go, then we could be in for another snoozer. I’m not sure there’s any room in between.

Credit: Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

With the lockout-shortened NBA season, teams have been forced to play 66 games in approximately 4 months. Having that many games is such a small amount of time means that players have little time to rest and relax in between games. The two day break the Sixers have right now is a welcome reprieve from the insanity.

However, the break ends tomorrow, and they don’t get another one for a while. Monday night marks the beginning of the Sixers’ second back-to-back-to-back of the season, an honor only 10 teams have had bestowed on them. In the first, the Sixers went 2-1, with two home wins followed by a loss in New York. The travel wasn’t awful, and the second game (against Sacramento) was a 27 point blowout. The tired legs seemingly arrived in New York at the time (I was on a work trip and missed the game, but from reports the Sixers just lacked energy throughout).

This trip is a little different. It contains the final home game of the year, versus Indiana, in the middle of games in Orlando and in Cleveland. The Sixers fly to Florida tonight, then board a jet after the game tomorrow back here, then another jet to Cleveland after the Indiana game. I haven’t traveled much, but I imagine that much flying in such a short time can wear on the human body. Add in that the first two games should be tough to win, and we could be in for a 1-2 or 0-3 stretch pretty easily, just based on the demands of the schedule. Orlando and Indiana have pretty good records, too.

Luckily, we also get some breaks. Cleveland’s in tanking mode – without their two best players, that’s a very winnable third game. Orlando will be missing at least Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu (and likely Glen Davis as well, if his injury tonight is as serious as it seems). And Indiana will be on a back-to-back of their own, flying from home. The Sixers also beat the Pacers earlier this year at Wells Fargo – it was the first game of the first B2B2B. So the games are still very winnable.

In all likelihood, the results will come down to whether the Sixers want to play well or not. That’s a question I have no answers for.