76ers-Nets Preview

By NOEY KUPCHAN
Posted Apr 09 2012 3:30PM

The scuffling Philadelphia 76ers could surprisingly soon find themselves on the outside the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Their upcoming efforts against the New Jersey Nets could go a long way toward determining whether they ultimately stay in.

Road-weary Philadelphia tries to avoid a fifth consecutive defeat Tuesday night as it faces New Jersey in the first of three matchups over a two-week stretch.

The 76ers (29-27) held a three-game lead in the Atlantic Division about a month ago, but have since dropped into a seventh-place tie with New York for the final two postseason berths in the East. With the Knicks on a roll and ninth-place Milwaukee looming right behind, Philadelphia needs to pick up the pace if it hopes to stay in the race.

The 76ers have been limited to an average of 83.0 points and 41.8 percent shooting during their skid, which reached four with a 103-79 road loss to division-leading Boston on Sunday. Elton Brand was limited to six points and Spencer Hawes had two as Philadelphia was outscored 59-41 over the second and third quarters.

"We are tied with the Knicks and they have the tiebreaker," Brand said. "Definitely bad right now and we need to get out of this slump."

The 76ers, losers of four straight and 11 of 14 on the road, play eight of their final 10 in opposing arenas - a stretch during which they'll see plenty of the Nets (21-37). These teams meet again Friday in Philadelphia before closing their season series April 23 at the Prudential Center.

While the 76ers might have originally been looking forward to what seemed like a softer portion of their schedule, facing New Jersey three times from here on out may not be easy.

The Nets had dropped eight straight to the 76ers before pulling out a 97-90 road win Jan. 25 behind 34 points and 11 assists from Deron Williams.New Jersey, winner of five of seven overall and a season-high three in a row at home, is coming off a 122-117 overtime victory over Cleveland on Sunday.

Williams had 18 points and 10 assists while Kris Humphries scored 16 to go along with 11 rebounds, but it was reserves Gerald Green and Anthony Morrow who shined brightest. Green scored a season-high 32 points and Morrow had 24 as the duo went 8 of 14 from 3-point range.

Signed as a free agent out of the D-League in late February, Green has provided a huge scoring boost for New Jersey, averaging 12.7 points and shooting 50.5 percent. He has six games of 20 or more points.

"When I'm on the floor, everyone's attention has to be on them. It makes my life a whole lot easier. I tend to get a lot of open shots," Green said.

"If I have an open shot and I don't take it, my teammates get down on me. They all tell me to be aggressive and take those shots."

Green should be in line for more key minutes with Gerald Wallace uncertain after suffering a strained left hamstring Sunday. Wallace came in averaging 17.6 points and 8.2 boards in his previous five games.

New Jersey has won 10 of its last 13 when allowing 100 or fewer points.

Hawes scores season-high 19 as 76ers beats Nets

By TOM CANAVAN
Posted Apr 11 2012 2:16AM

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) Instead of trashing his hotel room or moping after being taken out of the Philadelphia 76ers' starting lineup for the first time this season, Spencer Hawes channeled his frustration on the court against the New Jersey Nets.

Hawes scored a season-high 19 points and the slumping Philadelphia 76ers got a much-needed playoff boost from a revamped starting lineup with a 107-88 win over the New Jersey Nets on Tuesday night.

Sixers coach Doug Collins made two lineup changes, inserting rookie Nik Vucevic at center and replacing Evan Turner with Jodie Meeks.

"He told me before shootaround and obviously I wasn't happy," said Hawes, who had started all 27 games for which he was healthy. "I think anybody playing the game, you get news like that and you're not happy. There are two ways to go. You can sit there and sulk about it, or be a man, swallow it and then try to make the most of it."

Hawes did the latter. He hit 7 of 11 from the field, had eight rebounds and three blocks in helping the 76ers (30-27) snap a four-game losing streak and win for only the fifth time in 15 games.

The win gave Philadelphia a half-game over the Knicks (29-27) in the race for the No. 7 playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. New York had a late game in Chicago. Idle Milwaukee (28-29) is the ninth place in the conference.

"Spencer was fabulous," Collins said. "He was our ace of spades tonight."

Collins also said that having Hawes on the court with forward Thaddeus Young produces points. Young also had 19 while reserve guard Lou Williams had 20 on a night the 76ers got 62 points from their bench.

The loss eliminated the Nets (21-38) from playoff contention for the fifth straight season.

Kris Humphries had 20 points and 10 rebounds for New Jersey. Deron Williams added 14 points, six rebounds and five assists on a night that he was hounded by Philadelphia's Andre Iguodala and others who tried to double team him.

"We want to win as many games as possible," Deron Williams said. "We want to play the spoiler. It didn't happen today, but we still have them two more times."

The Nets were without forward Gerald Wallace, who strained his left hamstring, in the win over Cleveland on Sunday night.

The 76ers blew this one open late in the second quarter and in the third.

Elton Brand hit two free throws and a 15-footer to ignite an 18-10 run in the final six minutes of the first half that put the Sixers ahead 52-43 at the break. Iguodala had a drive and a windmill dunk in the spurt and Lou Williams added seven points, the final three on a running 3-pointer from in front of the Philadelphia bench at the buzzer.

Hawes had eight of his points in a third-quarter burst that allowed Philadelphia to build an 18-point lead. The 76ers led by as many as 23 points.

"This was a team that was a desperate team," Nets coach Avery Johnson said. "They are in a major playoff fight. They had another gear that they went to tonight, and we couldn't get to that gear."

Iguodala finished with 13 and Jrue Holiday had 14.

The only other Nets scorers in double figures were Johan Petro with 12 and MarShon Brooks with 10.

NOTES: Nets reserve forward Gerald Green played despite having a wisdom tooth extracted on Monday. ... Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov attended his second straight game. He toured his nearly completed new arena in Brooklyn earlier in the day. ... The game was one of three the Nets and 76ers will play in the final 17 days of the regular season. ... Philadelphia shot nearly 46 percent from the field despite making 2 of its first 12 shots. ... Meeks had five points on 2 of 8 shooting, while Turner had 2 on 1 of 4 shooting. ..The teams will play again in Philadelphia on Friday.

Notebook: Sixers 107, Nets 88

Posted Tuesday April 10, 2012 10:55PM

By Abe Schwadron, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Lou Williams, Spencer Hawes and Thaddeus Young came off the bench to spark the Philadelphia Sixers, who snapped a four-game losing streak by beating the New Jersey Nets in blowout fashion, 107-88. Williams finished with 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists, while Hawes and Young each scored 19 points and grabbed eight boards. The Sixers opened up an 18-point lead in a decisive third quarter during which Williams and Hawes each had eight, and Philadelphia's lead swelled to as many as 23 in the fourth. Nets forward Kris Humphries finished with a team-high 20 points and 10 rebounds in a losing effort.

QUOTABLE: "Spencer was fabulous, he was our ace of spades tonight and I just think it goes to show you when Spencer plays well and Thaddeus Young, I like those two guys together."
-- Sixers head coach Doug Collins

THE STAT: Deron Williams had as many turnovers (five) as he did made field goals. Williams racked up six rebounds and five assists, but was never in rhythm, struggling his way to 14 points on 12 shots. He was continually met in the paint by Philly's bigs, and had shots swatted away twice.

TURNING POINT: New Jersey hung tough throughout the first half, but after a Humphries dunk cut Philadelphia's lead to 40-39, the Sixers answered with seven straight points. Philly closed the quarter on a 12-4 run capped off on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Williams and took a nine-point lead into halftime.

HOT: Hawes, who made seven of his 11 shots, including one 3-pointer, and scored more points than in his previous three games combined. He clogged the paint on defense (three blocked shots), found open teammates (two assists) and ran the floor to get easy buckets.

NOT: First quarter shooting, from both teams. Through the first six minutes of the game, the Nets and Sixers shot a combined 4-for-23 (17 percent) from the field and scored a total of nine points. Even with markedly better shooting the remainder of the quarter, both teams wound up worse than 40 percent after one.

QUOTABLE II: "They had almost 50 points in the paint. So again, this was just a hustle game. They were a little bit more desperate than we were. I've seen it before."
-- Nets head coach Avery Johnson

GOOD MOVE: Whether it was simply the result of an inferior opponent or a genius tactical move, Collins' decision to bring Hawes off the bench and insert Nikola Vucevic as the starter paid off. Vucevic nailed a jumper for the game's first basket, and led by Hawes' energy, Philadelphia's second unit overpowered New Jersey in the second and third quarters.

BAD MOVE: While Philadelphia's revamped lineup paid dividends, New Jersey's did not. DeShawn Stevenson got a rare start in place of Gerald Wallace (still nursing a hamstring injury) and proceeded to score just three points in 25 minutes. Equally non-existent was sixth man Anthony Morrow, who shot 1-for-8 from the field.

NOTABLE: Gerald Green proved once again that NBA players are superhuman. Incredibly, Green played just one day after having a wisdom tooth removed. He scored eight points in 22 minutes of action.

WATCHFUL EYE: Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov was in the building -- the Nets are now 8-3 when he is in attendance.

QUOTABLE III: "We were in their situation about two years ago, and I know coming in to games with somebody in the playoff run, we just wanted to mess with them, mess with their playoff record or where they were in the playoffs."
-- Sixers point guard Jrue Holiday on not letting the Nets play "spoiler"

INSIDE THE ARENA: Sixers swingman Andre Iguodala (13 points, seven assists) threw down a pair of thunderous dunks in the second quarter. On the first, he rose up to finish an alley-oop from Young. Then, with three minutes remaining in the half, he drove the lane, cradled the ball and flushed with authority, eliciting cheers from the bi-partisan Prudential Center crowd.

UP NEXT: For the Nets, Friday @ Philadelphia, Saturday vs. Boston, Monday vs. Miami. For the Sixers, Wednesday @ Toronto, Friday vs. New Jersey, Monday @ Orlando.

• 76ers: --
• Nets: James, Lopez

• 76ers: --
• Nets: --

• Lead Changes: 2
• Times Tied: 6

• Arena: Prudential Center, Newark, NJ
• Officials: #61 Courtney Kirkland, #79 Kevin Scott, #9 Derrick Stafford
• Attendance: 15376
• Duration: 2:12