The Philadelphia 76ers are playing great basketball to start the season. I think getting rid of James Harden is going to really help because the team can play the game faster without him. With Tyrese Maxey controlling the ball, and the supporting cast hustling around him and Joel Embiid, the team has played very well to start the season. They just beat the Boston Celtics who are supposed to be the favorite to win the Eastern Conference this year. The key to the season is to keep Embiid and Maxey healthy as much as possible.
There’s also going to be a new tournament played during November and December in the NBA, which is modeled after the European Champions League format in soccer. All 30 teams play. There will be six five-team groups where everybody plays one game against each team in their group all as part of the regular season for league standings. Then the teams with the best record in the first set of tournament games advance to a quarterfinals, then semifinals and finals, which will be played in Las Vegas in early December. I am skeptical as to whether this tournament will really matter to the players even though they get a significant bonus for winning the new trophy.
On Sunday, the Eagles were able to defeat the Dallas Cowboys by a score of 28-23, but they got incredibly lucky to win this game even though they outplayed the Cowboys for the first three quarters. The offense played pretty well and then for some reason the whole team tried to become the Bad News Bears of football and almost gave the game to the Cowboys at the end. I thought, along with almost everyone else, that the Cowboys were going to win the game, but the Eagles defense saved their bacon by sacking Dak Prescott twice on the last drive to help them salvage the win.
Dallas Goedert fractured his forearm in the game and will be out for at least a month. The Eagles next game is going to be against the Kansas City Chiefs after a bye week. I hope they look themselves in the mirror and decide to play a lot cleaner football and use this break to be ready to play a more solid game. Go Eagles!
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A 2002 Cape grad and 2007 UD grad, Lewes resident Sumner Spence is one of the Cape area's biggest sports fans. Although he’s used a wheelchair his entire life, he has lived vicariously through his sports-playing father, brother, and friends, who gave him his love of sports. He hopes to provide new and interesting perspectives on the sports stories and issues of the day. Email Sumner at sumspence@gmail.com.
