For all the press's hemming and hawing about the new-look Heat's struggles this season (from this corner included), there have been a healthy number of games where the Nicknameless Bunch have actually put in work. One example would be in the Sixers' home opener this year, where Dwyane Wade scored 30, James Jones went 6-9 from beyond the arc and Miami outscored Philly 31-13 in the third quarter on their way to a 97-87 victory that wasn't as close as the final score indicated. Amidst their lowest ebb of the season thusfar, the Heat hope to use our Sixers as a rebound game (possibly in more ways than one), and given the way the team's been playing recently, it's hard to really blame them. After Tuesday's brutal loss to the Wizards, the Sixers decided to take the suspense out of it early on against the Raptors on Thursday, falling behind by 15 after one and never really cutting into the lead any afterwards. There were some nice overall stat lines from Jrue Holiday (17 points, seven boards, six assists) and Andre Iguodala (17 points, eight rebounds, six assists), but Evan Turner was invisible (Two points on zero shot attempts in 16 minutes) and Lou Williams was downright self-destructive (Eight points on 1-11 FG). The Liberty Baller that had the best night was actually ex-Sixer Reggie Evans, who had 12 points and a staggering career-high 22 boards for his new friends up north. Just haaaaad to rub it in our (and Spencer Hawes's) faces, didn't you, Reg? Tonight's game is the crew's third of four this week, with the final contest another (supposedly) winnable home game vs. the Nets tomorrow night. "I think we've shown that we can play with most anybody," said Coach Collins recently when addressing the team's 3-12 record. "We've just got to do a better job of closing them out." I don't even know if it's worth the effort to try to take issue with Collins's definition of "play with," and wonder if the lack of "closing them out"-ability negates it entirely. Frankly, at this point, a little self-delusion might not be the worst thing for this team. 7:30 tip from the American Airlines Arena. With the added double-whammy of taking another swing at the Miami Heat pinata, it wouldn't be the worst time for the team to pull off a feel-good upset road win. But if you're banking your Thanksgiving Friday night on that possibility, I suggest your hopes for this team badly need recalibration.
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