At a Medium Pace: Sixers Vacillate Between Shooting for the Gutter and the Stars Against Indiana

6-5. Yes, believe it or not, your Philadelphia 76ers have a winning record for the month of January. It's hard to feel too exalted by that fact, given that the competition hasn't been particularly strong, that the wins have occasionally been underwhelming, and that the team's record in its first two months was so bad that any sense of improvement is almost completely masked by what is still a very obviously losing record. But once again, this is the Eastern conference, and 35 wins might very well end up being the buy-in for the playoffs. If the Sixers continue on that slightly plus-.500 pace, going 20-19 for the rest of the season, they'll certainly have a shot at it. (Whether or not that's a good thing is, of course, a matter for debate).

Tonight, we get yet another highly-decent chance to string together three W's in a row, a feat which has thusfar eluded the Sixers this season. Facing the Indiana Pacers at home, a couple days after beating them on the road (thanks to solid performances from Elton, Iverson, and for the second straight game, Thad off the bench), hopefully the Sixers continue to play with the energy they appear to have gained from the recent adjustments in their rotation. Hey, whatever it takes, although a little assistance from our top scorer--Andre Iguodala, who continues to contribute in myriad other ways, but who has scored in the single digits 4 times in '10 after only doing so once in the last two months of '09--would probably go a long way towards ensuring the triecta as well.

7:00 tip from the Wach. If the team can't win tonight and get a very, very reasonable third win in a row, and gain some ACTUAL MOMENTUM--you know, that stuff that makes you feel like your team is really moving in a direction, perhaps even a positive one--I'll start to listen to pro-tanking arguments a little more seriously. And start calling for Coach Jordan's head/suit on a platter.