MUST BE DREAMING: TEMPLE IS 9-2?
Sixers forward Elton Brand did not make the trip with the team to Detroit for Friday night's game and is listed as day-to-day with a strained right hamstring. Brand had an MRI this morning.
Brand left the Sixers' loss to the Lakers on Wednesday night with 4:49 remaining in the third quarter and was not on the bench for most of the fourth quarter. He finished with three points on 1-for-7 shooting in 25 minutes.
His absence means the Sixers will have to shuffle their lineup. Don't be surprised if Andre Igoudala moves over to small forward and Thaddeus Young starts at power forward as the Sixers go smaller.
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.
