Sixers Hope to Be Back to Full Strength Against Nets

By Sean Kennedy

Where Brooklyn at? Where Brooklyn at? Where Brooklyn at? Well, Friday night they’ll be at the Wells Fargo Center just four days after putting a shellacking on our hometown Sixers. However, hopefully the Sixers will be back to full strength as rookie phenom Michael Carter-Williams practiced both Wednesday and Thursday and said he felt ready to go for tonight’s game. His return would obviously be a huge boost for a club that went 0-7 in his absence. The Sixers have badly missed his ability to create turnovers on the defensive end, his playmaking ability offensively, and the sheer fact that his being in the lineup means reduced (and hopefully zero) minutes for the likes of Lorenzo Brown and Elliot Williams. With his jersey reportedly top 15 in the entire league in sales, you know plenty of people out there would be heartened by his return to the court.

The Sixers will certainly need all the help they can get against a Nets team that appears to finally be hitting their stride. Their win over Philadelphia Monday marked the 4th win in 5 games for Brooklyn at that point. They did since suffer a 113-107 loss to the surging Wizards on Wednesday, but the game continued to show some promising signs for the Nets. It was a vintage Paul Pierce game with 27 points on 10-12 shooting, as he looked the best he has outside the Celtic green. Also, Joe Johnson stayed hot with 20 points on 8-14 from the field, and Brook Lopez returned to the lineup to finish with 22 points of his own. Now back to being fully healthy, Brooklyn will surely put a hurting on the Sixers, unless both Carter-Williams re-gains his pre-injury form in a potential return, and the team corrects some of the defensive lapses that have plagued them in recent games. 

One other thing I want to comment on is the report that emerged regarding Thad Young asking Sixers management for a trade a few weeks back. I can’t blame Thad at all is this situation as he’s always been the consummate team player, consistently giving everything he has to do the little things to help the team win. It has to be incredibly frustrating to be put in a situation where not only is winning not happening often, but it’s not even really the top objective of your organization in the short-term. I hope the Sixers don’t trade Young, because he’s still young enough to be part of the next great Sixers team if the grand Hinkie vision comes to fruition. However, if Philadelphia does trade him, I would wish him nothing but the best in the future as he’s always been a joy to watch during his Sixers days. It will be interesting to see both his and the fans’ reactions now that his feelings have been made public and whether it has any lingering effect on his on-court production.