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GAME TIME: History in the making

 **VOTE IGUODALA FOR ALL-STAR**

Happy holidays, and if you love basketball, then the Philadelphia 76ers have a gift for you as they play host to the Los Angeles Lakers in South Philadelphia tonight.

The home team will turn back the hands of time as they celebrate the last championship the city of brotherly love has tasted since the ’82-’83 season. Dr. J and Clint Richardson will be on hand as the current group seek to pay homage in the form of a win against the likes of Philadelphia’s own Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.

Wearing the best uniform in team history and playing their best basketball since the end of last season, Iguodala has the responsibility of scoring and playing defense on Bryant. It sounds like a tall order, but number 24 isn’t playing at full-strength due to a groin injury.

The Lakers are coming off an emotional road loss and if the Sixers run and play good to great defense they can head into tomorrow’s game on a 1-game win streak. The Lakers are the better team when their bench steps up as they can score points in bunches with Farmar, Radmanovic, Vujacic, and the ever changing, and surprising Ariza. Other than Bryant, the main point of the starters is the youngster Andrew Bynum.  He sometimes starts slow, but he always gets his in the end. Dalembert will have his work cut out for him, but he has been better than advertised as of late as this will be a match-up to keep an eye on.

Now as a fan of the game, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Kobe Bryant now stands 39 points from the 20,000 mark in his career. How sweet it would be for him to accomplish that in the place of his birth. Since winning the NBA title and the All-Star MVP, he hasn’t had really great games in Philadelphia. Going against his good friend Iguodala, look for him to try to get the mid-range jump shot going, which will open up his drive to the basket as well as his dish and kick opportunities.

No predictions on this game, but to take a page out of Rasheed Wallace’s book, I just hope that both teams play hard.

Note to the 76ers top brass: keep the old school uniforms; it’s a good look!

Peace.

Anthony Gilbert
AXG LLC
www.anthonyxgilbert.com

BONUS: Previously on Passion and Pride, Pacers Race By Sixers in Indiana | GameThink: “Dear Mr. Answer…” | Why Jim O’Brien is no longer in Philly in just 75 seconds | Sixers preview of their Pacers matchup | Memo to Management: Consulting with Larry Brown

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Jordan Farmar, Dr. J, Game Time, AXG, Vlad Radmanovic, 1982-1983 Philadelphia 76ers, Daryl Goins, Throwback Uniforms, NBA Championships, Anthony Gilbert, Clint Richardson, Andrew Bynum, Rasheed Wallace, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, Sasha Vujacic, Sam Dalembert, Julius Erving, Trevor Ariza, Andre Iguodala, Philadelphia 76ers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.