Heat 94 Sixers 73
The Heat jumped out to an early lead in the first and led wire to wire. The Sixers shot just 4-20 in the first and the Heat led 19-13 after the opening quarter. In the 2nd quarter, Evan Turner had the hot hand for the Sixers. Turner had 10 points in the second and was the only bright spot in the quarter. In the second the Heat built their lead and continued to burn the Sixers especially on the fast break against the atrocious Sixers transition defense. The Heat led 49-31 going into halftime. The Sixers had too many costly turnovers in the first half that led to easy high percentage shots at the other end.
In the second half it was much of the same. D-Wade, Bosh and Lebron continued to dominate. The Sixers did an awful job on the help defense. I saw one play in the second half where D-Wade clearly burned Evan Turner and started to drive past him to the basket. I watched as Elton Brand and Andre Iguodala stood and watched and offered no help defense. In that situation, Brand or Iguodala has to slide down and stop the ball, it's simple basketball. The Sixers also got outplayed on the boards. If the Sixers put up a shot there wasn't even a body under the rim to even attempt to get an offensive board. Eventually the big three were just too much for this Sixers team to handle and they lost by a final of 94-73. The series will shift to Philadelphia on Thursday with the Sixers in a deep 0-2 hole.
Flyers 4 Sabres 2
The Flyers got to it right from the drop of the puck. They got a ton of pressure on Miller early and were able to get a lot of shots on goal. The Flyers cashed in on an early power play when Jeff Carter snapped home a nasty wrist shot to give the Flyers the early lead. Buffalo soon responded on the power play to tie the game at 1. Late in the first, Scott Hartnell was called for a crappy interference and delay of game call. The double minor gave the Sabres 4 minutes of man advantage hockey. The Flyers were able to survive a flurry of shots and close calls and kill off the power play that overlapped into the 2nd period.
In the 2nd, Briere scored off a Buffalo turnover. Hartnell passed the puck to a wide open Briere who was all alone in the slot. Briere's goal made it a 2-1 game that soon turned into a 2 goal lead after Nikolay Zherdev's goal. The 2 goal lead was short lived as the Sabres soon tied it on a late 2nd period wrist shot from Nathan Gerbe. In the third the Flyers got solid defense and more outstanding play from Brian Boucher who was overall solid between the pipes tonight for the Orange and Black. The Flyers burried an empty netter to seal the victory, take a 2-1 lead, and regain home ice advantage in the series.
Brewers 6 Phillies 3
The Phillies again got early scoring in tonight's game, unfortunately that was about it. The Phils provided little run support for Blanton who pitched 7 solid innings only surrendering 2 runs. Blanton did a good job of keeping his pitches down, and letting the defense behind him do work. Blanton also did a great job of staying away from that big inning. He gave up 2 RBI singles in the 3rd but that was the only real bad inning for Blanton. After Howard's RBI single in the first, Shane Victorino hit home Wilson Valdez home in the 7th to tie the game at 2. And after Madson gave up a run in the top of the 8th, Pete Orr hit Carlos Ruiz home in the bottom of the 9th to send the game into extras.
The 10th and 11th innings were uneventful. Jose Cantreras pitched a scoreless 10th and Antonio Bastardo a scoreless 11th. The Phils got a few base runners but were unable to win the game. In the 12th things got really interesting primarily because Kyle Kendrick struggled greatly. First he put the lead runner on, and then he air mailed an easy bunt hit back to the mound to put runners on the corners with no outs. Ryan Braun then hit a sac fly to give the Brewers the lead. Kendrick then gave up another sac fly and then an RBI single to Johnathan Lucroy to give the Brewers a 6-3 lead. In the bottom of the 12th the Phils tried to fight back. Victorino led off the inning and reached on a freak grounder that skidded under the glove of the shortstop. After Polanco lined out to left, Rollins then walked to put 2 men on with Ryan Howard up to bat. Howard lined out to short and Ben Francisco swung at the first pitch of his at bat to end the game in 12 innings by a final of 6-3.
So ends another wonderful day of sports in Philadelphia. Although 1 out of 3 isn't great, the Flyers victory was big and it is encouraging to see them playing better. Stay updated to the blog for continued Flyers and Sixers playoff coverage and of course all your news on the Phightin Phils.
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