Marcus Hayes reporting in Orlando ...

Second-year Sixers forward Thaddeus Young might have taken offense to the Magic’s stated strategy on the final play Sunday night.

With just under 15 seconds to play in the tied game, Rashard Lewis, guarded by Young, set a screen near the top of the key for Hedo Turkoglu, who was guarded by veteran stopper Andre Iguodala. Turkoglu said afterward that the Magic’s strategy was, whoever wound up being guarded by Young would take the last shot.

The Sixers switched. Young took Turkoglu. Turkoglu hit a game-winning three-pointer over Young with 1.1 seconds to play.

Young dismissed the diss.

“I kind of actually figured it out. In the games like that, I know they’re going to find the young guys and go at them. It happened last year. It’s nothing big,” Young said today.

So, he’s not upset at the perception of him being the target?

“Mad?” he asked. He looked away and gave a little nervous laugh. “Not really. Being a second-year guy, you know they’re going to come at you a little bit. Sometimes, young players make slip-ups and don’t do some of the things that vets do. Right now, I’m not looking at it as anything bad.”

Like his coach, Young spun it as more of a compliment to Iguodala.

“We all know Andre’s a great defender. A lot of guys don’t like playing against him because he’s very active,” Young said. “A lot of guys don’t like playing against me.”

Those guys apparently are not in Orlando.

To read the initial comments and about the war of words from today's Daily News, click here.

*

From the mouth of Stan Van Gundy:

On the chess mismatch: “Look, Tony’s made some good moves. I haven’t done a damn thing.”

On injustice: “You couldn’t have a more obvious travel than Lou Williams’. And then we got a really tough call on Miller’s drive. Hopefully, that stuff doesn’t affect it, either.”

On knowing his enemy: “They haven’t done anything to surprise us. Maybe if they came with a quintuple-team, that would surprise us.”

Marcus Hayes reporting ...  

ORLANDO – Magic center Dwight Howard said he will visit an eye doctor later today to examine his right eye but he doesn’t expect his vision issues to cost him any game or practice time.

Howard was slapped across both eyes by Samuel Dalembert on Sunday in Game 1 of the teams’ first-round playoff matchup.

The Magic called a timeout to let Howard regroup. Howard then converted the two free throws and left for the next 4 minutes, 49 seconds. After the game, Howard said that his eyes hurt.

Today, he told the Daily News that he suffered no pain or blurriness in either eye but was seeing spots in front of his right eye when he closed it.

“Just when I close it, it’s a whole bunch of flashing lights and stuff,” said Howard. “I’m not worried.”

His right eye was red. His left eye was clear. Howard said he was experiencing nothing unusual in his left eye.

On Sunday, he said, he felt a pulsating sensation when his eyes were open. That symptom receded by today.

After shooting free throws with coach Patrick Ewing for 90 minutes, Howard said he doesn’t expect to miss any practice or game time. The teams meet again here Wednesday night.
 

The Boston Celtics will be without Ray Allen tonight against the 76ers.

Allen was suspended by the NBA for one game without pay for elbowing Cleveland Cavaliers forward
Anderson Varejao in the groin Sunday.

The incident occurred with 5:05 remaining in the third quarter of the Celtics' 107-76 loss.

Boston also will be without Kevin Garnett, who has been banged up and likely out until the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the Sixers will have Thaddeus Young back in the lineup. Click here for our earlier report. 

Marcus Hayes reporting ...

The sprained ankle was stiff, and the bruised bone in the foot was sore, but both were manageable.

So, explosive forward Thaddeus Young will return to the court tonight for the Sixers when they host Boston in the home finale. Young missed the last seven games with those right foot problems. The Sixers went 2-5 without his scoring and defensive quickness.

“He’s going to play tonight,” coach Tony DiLeo announced at the shootaround with a broad smile. “Short stints. Four, 5 minutes.”

That’s because Young’s 2-week absence has left him a bit out of shape. DiLeo didn’t say that Young would start – “I don’t want to announce anything,” he said – but he was clearly relieved that his most energetic player would return to a depleted lineup, worn down by the 80 games already played this season, the seven without Young in 11 days.

They have two more – tonight, then tomorrow night in Cleveland – and those games will serve as a test not only of Young’s fitness and health but also of the team’s ability to re-integrate him. They were 10-7 in the 17 games preceding his injury, a stretch during which he was scoring 20.5 points on 54.4 percent shooting.

“It’ll be nice to get Thad back into the action, let him get his timing back,” DiLeo said.

DiLeo hopes that these last two regular-season games, plus 2 or 3 days of practice, will help Young’s conditioning reach the point it was before the injury.

Young agreed that he would be best served with limited exposure at first. He also said that he knew last night that he would be OK today.

After a strenuous workout Sunday in Toronto, then 30 minutes of hard scrimmaging at yesterday’s practice, he felt encouraged and pain-free. A regimen that included electric stimulus, hot packs, hot whirlpools and ultrasound had him positively peppy at shootaround this morning.

“It feels real good,” Young said.

No matter how good it feels, DiLeo said, the Sixers cannot consider Young the cure for their recent ailments. They have lost a season-high five straight games, with the top two seeds in the Eastern Conference yet to play. Given their recent stagnant scoring and their uncommitted defense, 15 minutes from Young isn’t going to make them a team to be feared.

“We’re not expecting miracles from him,” DiLeo said. “We want to get him back, get him integrated with the team. But we need to play good basketball.”

Sixers guard Andre Miller suffered a right hand contusion and sprain during the game against Milwaukee on Thursday night. He is expected to play tomorrow against the Detroit Pistons.

X-rays taken on his hand this afternoon were negative. Miller was examined by team orthopedist and medical director Dr. Jack McPhilemy.

The right ankle injury 76ers forward Thaddeus Young sustained in the first quarter of Tuesday night’s victory over the Atlanta Hawks is severe enough to keep him out 2 to 3 weeks, the Sixers said.

Young’s ankle bent at a grotesque angle when he went up to block a shot by the Hawks’ Josh Smith and his foot came down on Smith’s. X-rays were negative, but the results of an MRI show a right ankle sprain and bone bruise, according to Dr. Jack McPhilemy.

Young is on crutches and also wearing an air cast.  

"I spoke to Thad at halftime (of the Atlanta game)," coach Tony DiLeo said at practice earlier today. "He was down. He’s been playing at a high level. He’s just disappointed, and a little apprehensive.”

President/general manager Ed Stefanski said he spoke to Young today and “his spirits were good,” all things considered.

“The turning of the ankle, the severity of it … we forget, he’s 20 years old. He was shook up (because) he hasn’t been hurt before.

“But there was no fracture, which was great. Now we just have to see how long he’ll be out.”

With only nine games remaining in the regular season, DiLeo and Stefanski not only have to consider ramifications in the short term -- such as, who takes Young’s place in the starting lineup? -- but over the slightly longer haul.
“If Thad is out for any kind of period, it probably would make sense to bring someone in who is at that swing position,” said Stefanski, noting that the 6-8 Young, a second-year NBA player out of Georgia Tech, not only has been starting at the 4 (power forward) but logging some minutes at the 3 (small forward).

“We’ve been scouting the NBDL (National Basketball Development League) all year. Guys are out there. We have a lit that we keep reviewing.”

With Young out, the Sixers went to a bigger lineup most of the way against the Hawks. Rookie Marreese Speights, with 16 points in – minutes, had his highest-scoring game since he went off for 24 points against Phoenix on Feb. 9. Reggie Evans and Theo Ratliff also played well off the bench.

So who fills in for Young at the opening tip tomorrow night?

“We haven’t decided yet,” DiLeo said, before acknowledging that “basically, we know. We just don’t want to put it out there yet.”

Speights, though, seems to be the logical choice based on his strong performance against Atlanta.

“I like last night’s game because (Speights) got minutes, he produced, he got his confidence back,” DiLeo said. “I think he’ll be a big contributor coming down the stretch, especially with Thad out.”
 

The Sixers provided an update on injured forward Elton Brand, who has been sidelined following shoulder surgery:

"Elton Brand had his four week post-operative examination today by Dr. Craig Morgan in Wilmington, Delaware.

Dr. Morgan reports that Brand is no longer required to wear his sling and his rehabilitation will now include more active exercises and gentle, passive range of motion exercises.

Brand will be re-evaluated in two weeks and updates will be distributed accordingly."

Brand played in 29 games for the Sixers before surgery Feb. 9 to repair the torn labrum in his right shoulder.

Upon further review … the call stands.

Ed Stefanski, president and general manager of the 76ers, said today he had been in contact with Stu Jackson, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations, to see if there was any grounds to protest the ending of yesterday’s 98-96 loss at New Jersey, which the Nets won on a 48-foot desperation heave by Devin Harris that beat the buzzer by the slimmest fraction of a second. The three-pointer - New Jersey’s 12th trey of the night - erased a 96-95 Sixer lead in about the time it takes to blink your eyes.

“Stu went through the procedure on such a call,” Stefanski said. “They went through the tape, freezing each frame, and (the shot) was taken within allowable limits. There was no clock malfunction. All three officials went over the replay and ruled the basket was good. They got it right. The ball was clearly out of his hands.”

Official Violet Palmer originally waved off the basket before lead referee Derrick Stafford brought Palmer and Pat Fraher together to look at the tape.

To satisfy himself that the league ruling was indeed correct, Stefanski got confirmation from two outside sources, both of which confirmed that Harris had let fly with under a tenth of a second remaining.

“We did it internally with Comcast (SportsNet) and they also confirmed (the ruling), as did ESPN, which did something we also took a look at. There was nothing more we could do with the league, no procedure we could take to protest the game and come out with a better conclusion that we did. All we can say is that the kid made a great shot to win the game.”
 

Sixers forward Elton Brand underwent successful surgery on the torn labrum in his right shoulder this afternoon.

The one-hour procedure was performed by Dr. Craig Morgan at the Christiana Surgery Center in Wilmington, Del.

Brand suffered a dislocated right shoulder against the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 17. He will miss the rest of the season.