The New York Knicks will be looking for answers Saturday night when The Answer comes to town. New York is off to a 3-8 start under new coach Larry Brown while one of Brown's former teams, the Philadelphia 76ers, has followed the lead of Allen "The Answer" Iverson to an Atlantic Division-leading 7-6 mark.
The record was much more impressive (6-3) before the Sixers dropped three of their last four games. The club began the year with three straight losses, won six in a row and now is in another tailspin with the latest loss coming in Milwaukee Wednesday night by a 108-97 count.
The Sixers have had two days off to think about that one and get set to take on the Knicks. Philadelphia is 2-3 on the road this year with its last road win coming a week ago Wednesday over woeful Toronto 121-115. The Sixers then lost at Miami 106-96, let a lead slip away the following night at home versus Cleveland in a 123-120 loss then defeated New Orleans/OKC 103-91 at home before the Milwaukee loss.
Iverson, averaging 32.8 points/game on the season, scored 45 in the loss to the Bucks. Chris Webber had been averaging 20 points/game for the Sixers but scored just 11 in the Milwaukee loss. Webber has also been pulling down 10.1 rebounds/game as the Sixers have played the entire season without starting center Samuel Dalembert.
Despite its winning record Philadelphia is getting outscored by an averaged of 105 pts/game to 103.9. It is losing the battle of the boards, too, by better than five per game: 43.5 to 38.3.
The Knicks numbers are nothing to brag about either as you might surmise from their 3-8 record. In their defense they have played just three of their first 11 games at home and are 1-2 in those contests. They scored their first home win of the season Sunday when they beat Portland 103-92 but then went back on the road and were beaten by the Charlotte Bobcats Wednesday night 108-95.
For the year the Knicks are being outscored 92.1 to 88.8 which is not bad considered the amount of road games they have played. They are winning the battle of the boards 43.6 to 41.0. They need to find more scoring pop though as right now pointguard Stephon Marbury is the team's leading scorer at 16.3 points/game. He leads in assists as well with 6.5/game but that too will need to go up if the Knicks are to improve on their woeful 43.2% field goal shooting.
Rookie Channing Frye is the Knicks second leading scorer with 13.1 points/game and Jamal Crawford third at 12.8. The Knicks have yet to get what they envisioned from off-season acquisitions Eddie Curry and Quentin Richardson.
This is the first meeting of the year for the Knicks and Sixers. The Knicks had their way last year, winning three of the four games and going 4-0 ATS. Here at home the Knicks won 96-88 and 113-101. Both times they were favored by three points. The Knicks have won and covered the last four at home versus the Sixers.
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