Tonight: The 19-15 Brooklyn Nets travel to Philadelphia to take on the 15-20 Philadelphia 76ers, at 7 P.M. at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The 76ers are 3-11 in their last 14 games and just ended an eight-game road trip, while the Nets are 5-1 in the P.J. Carlesimo era.
Watch & Listen: The game is broadcast on YES Network. Ian Eagle & Mike Fratello are on the call. The game is radio broadcast on WFAN.
Last Time: The Nets squeaked by the 76ers 95-92 in Brooklyn. Joe Johnson had 22 points and Andray Blatche had one of his best games off the bench.
Injuries: For Brooklyn, Kris Humphries is expected to play tonight. Jerry Stackhouse is expected to sit. For Philadelphia, Andrew Bynum has been out all season with injuries to both knees. Spencer Hawes is expected to play. Kwame Brown is questionable. (No, I mean to play.)
Projected Starters:
Brooklyn Nets: Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace, Reggie Evans, Brook Lopez
Philadelphia 76ers: Jrue Holiday, Evan Turner, Jason Richardson, Thaddeus Young, Lavoy Allen
Advanced Statistics
Brooklyn Nets: 103.9 offensive rating (10th), 103.8 defensive rating (21st), 90.43 possessions per game (29th)
Philadelphia 76ers: 99.4 offensive rating (25th), 102.9 defensive rating (15th), 93.12 possessions per game (23rd)
The Giant Elephant/Alleged Sexual Assault In The (Other) Room: As others have reported and we have passed along today, Andray Blatche was questioned by police about an alleged sexual assault that occurred in his suite at the Four Seasons Hotel last night. Blatche was not directly connected to the incident and was not in the room when the alleged assault occurred, but reports have surfaced that there were samples of date rape drugs in Blatche’s suite, as well as compromising pictures of the woman on Blatche’s phone.
Nonetheless, Blatche is cleared to play tonight, which bodes well for his involvement in the incident, but it’s becoming more and more clear that something wrong happened in that hotel suite that night. Whether or not Blatche was an innocent bystander — which seems to be the case — what’s more gut-wrenching is the strong possibility that a 21-year-old woman was sexually assaulted last night in Philadelphia.
But let’s not end on that note. There’s still a basketball game tonight, between Brooklyn and Philadelphia. The Nets have a chance to improve their record in the P.J. Carlesimo era to 6-1 and end the night just 3.5 games behind the New York Knicks for first place in the Atlantic Division.
Go Nets!
