Hey, guess who isn't in town tonight? Yep. His team is though and god are they awful. Philadelphia has lost nine in a row, and are 2-10 away from home. Overall they're 5-16, which amazingly is only four game out of first in the Atlantic - pitiful.
Dwain Price has an article about Iverson today and there is no reason to think the Sixers will be any better once they find a trading partner.
Take away the 31.2 points Iverson averages, and the 76ers are left with Andre Iguodala's 14.4 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, Kyle Korver's 13.3 points, and Chris Webber's averages of 11.5 points and 8.7 rebounds.
Of course, when you say it like that you can make every team look bad. Take away the 24.5 points Dirk averages, and the Mavs are left with Josh Howard's 17.8 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, Jason Terry's 15.3 points, and Jerry Stackhouse's averages of 12.5 points and 2.7 rebounds.It makes a lot more sense to look at what players have averaged with Iverson inactive. Unfortunately for Philadelphia it doesn't really look any better. Igoudala has scored three more points per game, but that average is significantly boosted by a 27 points performance two nights ago. Korver's average has stayed the same and Webber has boosted his scoring by just three points as well. In the last three games the Sixers have scored 84, 79, and 81 points.
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Injury Update: Jerry Stackhouse could go tonight but the team wants to avoid using him in back-to-back games and will probably delay his return until tomorrow night. He'll be needed more against the Hornets than Philadelphia so that makes sense. According to Stackhouse the injury can only heal with time.
"There's no tears and no bleeding or anything like that," he said. "It's just one of those things where time is the best medicine."
Anthony Johnson hasn't yet had an MRI on his ankle, but the team expects him to miss a week to ten days. That would be about five games. But Anthony Johnson has himself on faster schedule.
"I heal pretty quickly. I really don't see myself being out too long."
He thinks he'll be back for Monday's game vs the Kings.---------------------
Avery Johnson has revealed that he wants to be getting a total of 20 rebounds out of Dirk and J-Ho each night. They average only 15.4 right now. In fact, they've only accomplished the feat twice - in the blowout loss to Detroit then in their blowout win over Denver.
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And David Moore has an article on the teams inconsistency.