News and Features

Beyond the Bench: February 23, 2009

The 76ers are in New Jersey tonight for a tilt against the Nets. The Sixers are looking to get back on track and begin their three-game, five-day East Coast road trip with New Jersey, a team that has lost five straight games.

However, Head Coach Tony DiLeo knows that there are certain things the team has to do in order to pull out a victory tonight.

"We have to stop the penetration from Devin Harris and we have to get back in transition so he can't get any easy baskets," DiLeo said. "Then, VInce Carter can explode on any given night so we have to contain him and then in the last game, Brook Lopez really hurt us diving to the basket, so we have to be conscious of him."

The Sixers will have Andre Miller (right calf strain) available again tonight, after posting the team's first 30-point performance of the season on Saturday afternoon at Miami on 11-19 shooting from the field. DiLeo will look to Miller to get the team's fast-break offense back in high-gear.

"We want to get our fast-break points up a little bit, and our goal is to score 100 points a game," DiLeo said. "One of our keys is to be aggressive overall tonight."

EAST COAST ROAD TRIP: In an anomoly, the Sixers will be on the road all week, but will never leave the Eastern time zone. In fact, the team will actually pass through Philadelphia twice during this road trip with games at New Jersey, at Washington and at New York.

But Coach DiLeo sees a silver lining to being on the road throughout the rest of this week.

"It's an important road trip and an extended road trip, but I like it because we get some bonding time," DiLeo said. "We're travelling together, practicing and playing together. I think the bonding aspect of this trip is important for us."

One of the first team functions on the trip comes tomorrow, when the Sixers will pay a visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit wounded troops and their famillies. The team last visited Walter Reed in 2007 and the impact of that trip prompted a return visit this year.

CHATTER: Assistant Coach Jim Lynam will be on Comcast SportsNet's "Daily News Live" tonight at 6:05pm ... Anthony "Buckets" Blades of the Harlem Globetrotters stopped by the Sixers practice yesterday afternoon to chat with some of the guys, including Theo Ratliff, Willie Green, Andre Miller and Sam Dalembert ... The half-court shot contest at the end of practice today yielded no makes, although a 3/4 court shot by Green ricocheted off the bottom of the backboard and nearly hit Sammy ...