Sixers Take On Bucks In Matinee For MLK Day

In just under an hour the Sixers will take the court at the Wells Fargo Center to celebrate MLK day with a 2 p.m. tip off against the Milwaukee Bucks. The Sixers will look to continue their excellence at home having not lost at the Wells Fargo Center yet this year. The Bucks come in with a 4-7 record on the year. The reason the Sixers love the fact they are playing at home in this one is because the Bucks are 4-0 at home, but a dismal 0-7 on the road. After reading that stat, it sure seems the Sixers should be able to win this one at home. Here's how with two keys to a win:


Make Brandon Jennings a Jump Shooter: The Bucks' best player and point guard is Brandon Jennings. He is the kind of point guard with a score first mentality and will do anything to take the ball to the basket. He is one of the more exciting point guards to watch when he is on because he can do it all. He is also a very flashy passer of the ball, even though his assists per game of 5.3 is not that high. The thing the Sixers must do is make him shoot outside jump shots, preferably threes as he is shooting 36 % from three point range. Making him a shooter instead of a driver will be the key to limiting him and not letting him get to his average of 18.7 points a game.


Defend the Three: Milwaukee has two players on their team that can shoot threes pretty good and chances are you may have never even heard of them. They are starting small forward Carlos Delfino and starting power forward Ersan Ilyasova. If the Sixers defense lets them shoot the Sixers could have trouble in this one. It is tough to cover guys who play the power forward position who can stretch out and knock down a few threes. It is even a more difficult task for the Sixers with Elton Brand having to get out there and cover those kind of players. Another guy who can be deadly from three if he is on is second leading scorer Stephen Jackson. Although he is shooting just 31 % from three, when he is hot the guy will keep shooting and shooting with them continuously going down. The thing is that he is either really on and scores 20 plus or he is really off and shoots way to many shots to barely get to double digits. It is more prevalent to see the latter when it comes to Stephen Jackson so the Sixers just need to make sure he doesn't get off to a good start, and once that happens let him keep shooting.


It looks as if Bucks center Andrew Bogut will play in this one after sitting out last game with concussion symptoms. This will be a big lift for Milwaukee who is 4-2 in games that Bogut has played and 0-5 in games that he has missed. It looks like both Sixers who are banged up, Evan Turner and Spencer Hawes, will be giving it a go in this one. The Sixers should prevail in this one quite handily unless Brandon Jennings or Stephen Jackson has a huge game for the Bucks. Look for this one to be close for a while, with the Sixers putting on a bigger lead in the fourth quarter.