MUST BE DREAMING: TEMPLE IS 9-2?
AUBURN HILLS, Mich.--Rookie Marreese Speights will step in to the 76ers' starting lineup tonight against the Detroit Pistons, filling in for the injured Elton Brand.
Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks said at this morning's shootaround at The Palace Of Auburn Hills that Speights will open at power forward, with Samuel Dalembert at center. The rest of the lineup remains the same: Andre Miller at the point, Andre Iguodala at shooting guard and Thaddeus Young at small forward.
Speights has appeared in 17 of the previous 19 games, and is averaging 6.2 points and 3.8 rebounds, shooting 48.9 percent from the floor. He played a season-high 26 minutes in Tuesday night's overtime victory in Chicago, but was on the court slightly less than 6 minutes in Wednesday night's loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Brand, leading the team in scoring (16.7 points per game) and rebounding (10.0) did not make the trip after suffering a strained right hamstring during Wednesday night's game. Cheeks said Brand would also miss tomorrow night's game against the New Jersey Nets at the Wachovia Center.
Brand, averaging 35.6 minutes, played just 25 against the Lakers, coming out during the third period.
''It looked to me like he was running a little slower,'' Cheeks said. ''Then he couldn't go back in. I just kind of saw it. I didn't know he was hurt.''
Phil Jasner joined the staff of the Daily News in 1972. He has covered the 76ers and the NBA on a full-time basis since 1981. He won the 2004 Curt Gowdy Media Award, presented by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for outstanding contributions to the sport during his career; he was a finalist for the award in 2001, when he also received a lifetime achievement award from the Professional Basketball Writers Association during the NBA Finals. He is a past president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association and the Philadelphia College Basketball Writers Association. Along the way, he has covered high school sports, the Big 5, the Eagles and the NFL, the World Football League, the North American Soccer League and what was then the Major Indoor Soccer League. He is a proud graduate of Temple University, and spent his early professional days at the Pottstown (Pa.) Mercury, Montgomery Newspapers (Fort Washington, Pa.), the Norristown (Pa.) Times-Herald and the Trentonian.
Bob Cooney has been at the Daily News for almost 20 years, working in the sports department the past 12 years. This is his first season on the Sixers beat. He has covered just about everything, but mostly college basketball, where he has been the La Salle beat writer for the past six seasons.
