TV: League Pass
- Tonight’s Nets-Sixers bout will be the last NBA game played in New Jersey for the foreseeable future, as this is the Nets’ last home game on their 2011-12 schedule before the team’s summer move to Brooklyn. “We knew this day was coming,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said, “and it’s finally here. Hopefully our guys will go out and play hard. … It’s been a long two years in a lot of ways, just knowing that we are moving. But we’ve kind of kept our foot on the pedal, and we’ve just been trying to teach and help our guys get better.”
- A variety of former Nets will be in the Prudential Center stands tonight, and a halftime ceremony will honor them and the franchise’s time in New Jersey.
- As they’ve consistently been during the entire ’11-12 season, the Nets remain injury raddled — Deron Williams, Jordan Farmar, Shelden Williams, Brook Lopez and Damion Jones are out tonight.
- The Sixers are competing for one of the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, and are doing so while very healthy, at least per current league standards. They’re sitting in the eighth slot at the moment, one half-game behind the New York Knicks and three games ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks. With three remaining, their magic number to clinch a postseason spot is one. “We had some tough losses,” said Philadelphia Coach Doug Collins, referring to his team’s four- and three-game losing streaks earlier this month. “If you do that, you’ve got to come out now and [win] on the road.”
– Adam Figman
