Flyers win big, Cheeks fired, Sixers win, and Eagles preview

On behalf of Justin and myself, I apologize for our lack of posting on Friday, Saturday, and all day today.

We will start off with some good news. The Flyers trampled the Penguins on Saturday afternoon 6-3. Marty Biron looked very good but the main story was the Flyers power play. They were on fire scoring on 4 of 9 power plays. Mike Knuble had 2 off those PP goals, the first off a nice rebound and the second off a deflection of a Mike Richards slapper.

Philly is now 11-1-3 in their last 15 and are only 4 points behind the Rangers, who have also played 4 more games than the Flyers. Philly plays next on Tuesday home versus Colorado.

Now to the bad. Maurice Cheeks was also fired early Saturday and was replaced by Tony DiLeo. The Sixers were 9-14 at the time of his firing and were going to play the Washington Wizards that night. I don't think Cheeks should have been fired, especially only a quarter of the way through the season. I know they have been struggling bad and are having problems finding an identity but axing Cheeks was too hasty. We'll see in the long run what DiLeo will do for them. I'm not an NBA expert so hopefully Justin will give a full commentary on this event.


The Sixers played strong, beating a crappy Wizards team 104-89. Elton Brand scored 27 points to help the Sixers improve to 10-14 and snapping a 3 game losing streak. They play home against Milwaukee on Wednesday.

Now we are off to a short preview of the Eagles game Monday Night versus Cleveland. The Browns suck, but so did the Bengals and we all know what happened. Now the way they have been playing since that outing, especially versus a solid Arizona team and that incredible win versus New York, Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook should feast on this lowly Cleveland defense.

And defensively, Jamal Lewis has been a shell of himself and is easily gonna miss the 1000 yard mark for the 2nd time in his career. They should be able to stuff him all game. The advantages all swing in favor of the Birds. If they screw up, kiss the playoffs goodbye basically.

Here is what their picture looks like: That tie they have may actually help them. If they can match the amount of wins of the 6th place team, they will be the 6th seed because they will technically have one less loss. This is where the tie hurts them. Atlanta won today making them 9-5. A loss by them puts them behind the Eagles but since they have one more win than Philly, they can win out and take the 6th spot. Tampa lost today as well, giving them the same record as Atlanta but are still the number 5 seed. Dallas is going to beat New York (up 20-8 at the 2 minute warning) and become 9-5, staying ahead of Philly too. A win versus Cleveland will make Philly 8-5-1, which is huge.

Eagles prediction: 35-9