Given what I saw last night, the statement isn't as crazy as it seems. OK, it was only a preseason game, but the Sixers were playing the team the pundits picked as the best in their division, the New Jersey Nets. According to the announcers, their coach intended this game to be a tuneup for his starters, and Kidd, Jefferson and Vince were playing along with Kritic.
The Sixers also intended for this game to be a tuneup-it being the last preseason game for the team.
Well it opened up as I figured with NJ opening up a lead and getting Samuel Dalembert into foul trouble. But when Steven Hunter came onto the floor, the Sixers started rebounding, playing defence, passing the ball, and outhustling the Nets on both ends.
They tied the game at halftime, and by the end of the third quarter, they had a 10 pt. lead and finished going away by 20.
The rebounding was even, but the Sixers forced the Nets into 9 more turnovers and had 5 blocked shots. Uncharacteristically for last season, the Sixers also had 31 assists as oppossed to 22 by the Nets. Iverson led the Sixers in assists with 12 and only scored 12 pts.
The Sixers had 6 players in double figures, with the highest scorer, Korver at 22, and the lowest of the double figure scorers, Iverson with 12.
It isn't logical to extrrapolate a win total based on one preseason game, but the Sixers haven't played that many, and a preseason prediction has to be based on limited information anyway.
So let me put it like this: If the Sixers play with the same effort and quality that they did last night, they will win at least 50 games and win the Atlantic division.