As I sat and watched from press row at tonight’s Sixers home opener against the Nets, I couldn’t help but wonder: who will this team be able to count on besides Andre Iguodala in terms of a game-by-game basis? I don’t have many answers to that question.

The Sixers are a team overloaded with swing men and have few offensive options when it comes to their frontcourt. Thus, you hear the term perimeter team thrown around a good deal. And that’s fine. They are a perimeter team with a plethora of players who you can cluster around the three point arc. Unfortunately, it’s tough to be a perimeter team when you don’t knock down shots.  The Sixers will get production from Iguodala (though tonight he only shot the ball ten times and finished with 16 points) and Kyle Korver from the outside. After that, there’s a significant dropoff. Philadelphia shot 3-for-15 from beyond the arc tonight (two of those three came from Korver and the other from Iguodala).  Someone else needs to step up.

Still, there are other problems. Missed free throws down the stretch (21-of-32 as a team) and a failure to block out from a defensive rebounding standpoint come to mind. At one point late in the fourth quarter, Philadelphia’s Samuel Dalembert failed to box out Antoine Wright and Wright ended up saving a ball headed out of bounds, giving Jersey a fresh 24 and sending the Sixers to their fate.  When you have a team that’s not exactly bustling with talent, it’s important to play mistake free basketball. This is a ballclub that can’t get by on just talent because there just isn’t enough to go around.

With that said, here are some things I saw tonight that I really liked:

1.  Point guard Lou Williams always seems to make plays when he steps on the floor. He’s a young point guard with a score-first mentality and you can see how much the NBA summer league really helped. Williams attacks the basket without fear and has the ability to explode off the floor.  What does he have to learn? Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks said it best tonight when he mentioned time and score. The former high school product needs to understand situations better….when he needs to go in and try to score as well as when to back out and slow things down. Other than that, he’s developing into a nice player in his third year in the league. It’s going to be fun to watch him grow over the course of this season.

2.  I love Reggie Evans’ intensity out on the floor.  This guy gives his all on every play and never stops fighting for boards. He’s had double-figure rebounding games in two of the first three contests this season. The only problem: Evans is sort of an offensive liability. He doesn’t give you much in terms of post moves and in turn that makes it tough for him to be on the court late in ballgames.

3.  Jason Smith had a great preseason and has shown some signs that he might be a decent pro. He has more range than most guys his size in this league. Smith needs to get more comfortable with banging down low on the boards but he definitely is a plus coming off the bench for Philly.

Some other observations:

Calvin Booth: Can anyone explain to me why the team decided to sign this guy and pay him a little over a million dollars a year to stand around and give you two or three minutes a game and absolutely no offense whatsoever. Booth even makes more than Lou Williams……is there any way to fix that glitch in the payroll?

Andre Miller has never been known as a jumpshooter. His M.O. has always been as a very good passer and a guy who can take it to the basket and finish when need be. This might explain why I’m confused as to his shot selection tonight. Many of Miller’s shots ended up being 15 foot jumpers and he finished 6-for-16 from the floor. That’s six more shots than your franchise player Iguodala. I understand that sometimes these things happen in the flow of the game but nights when your point guard shoots more (and less efficient) than your leading scorer shouldn’t happen much.

I still believe this is a better team than most people think. They spread their scoring and play a balanced game and based on what this group has to offer, I think that’s the way it will need to do things in order to come up with wins. Iguodala just needs someone else to step up and help shoulder the load. There’s no reason he can’t be the go-to-guy but it’d be nice if Sixers fans could see the emergence of a Robin-type character to Iggy’s Batman .

 Matt Martucci  is a sportscaster who covers the Sixers, Flyers, Phillies, and Eagles for ESPN Radio 1450 in Atlantic City. He resides in Philadelphia and is also the play-by-play voice of Saint Joseph’s University Women’s Basketball as well as a fill-in voice for Hawk Men’s Hoops. You can visit his website at www.mattmartucci.com and e-mail him at mwmartuc@gmail.com

Coming into Saturday night’s game against Carolina, Philadelphia’s Simon Gagne had said that the Hurricanes would serve as Philadelphia’s first true test of the season.  The early season exam of two division leaders would tell you if head coach John Stevens’ team was indeed for real.

Guess what? The Flyers passed.  Philadelphia came from behind and squeezed out a 3-2 overtime win capped off by Gagne’s game winning goal just 48 seconds into the extra period.

The win for the Flyers (6-1) marked their fifth consecutive this season. It’s the first time Philadelphia has picked up five straight victories since the ’05-’06  campaign.  You can also add four home wins in a row to the Flyers resume.

“We want to be a tough team to play against at home”, Gagne said. ”Last year overall was pretty much all negative. We were an easy team to beat at home but now I think we want to send a message to teams that when they come in here, it’s going to be difficult to get those two points.”

Philadelphia jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Gagne beat Carolina goalie John Grahame off a feed from teammate Daniel Briere just 5:12 into the game. The Hurricanes would strike back on the power play after a wraparound carumed up in the air on the right side of the Flyers goal and was corraled by Carolina center Jeff Hamilton.  Hamilton quickly zipped a pass to Eric Staal whose shot sliced past Martin Biron.

Biron’s streak of consecutive shutouts ended at two but the netminder held the Hurricanes at bay for most of the night. He did not allow a goal over the final 38 minutes of play.

The Hurricanes would jump in front in the second period after former Flyer Justin Williams found himself alone on the doorstep and deflected a shot from Corey Stillman past Biron. The goal for Williams was his third of the year and came just 2:11 into the second period.

Philadelphia caught a break later in the second, as Gagne diqued toward the left side of the Hurricanes net and centered a pass to Briere. Williams had no choice but to hook the Flyers point leader. Philadelphia went on the power play for the final 22 seconds of the period and the end result was a Mike Richards game-tying goal with 18:28 left in the third.

After Richards’ tally, the goaltenders brought the two teams to a stalemate up until Gagne’s goal.  Biron stopped 42 of the 44 shots he faced and Philadelphia was able to kill a delay of game penalty on Jeff Carter to send the game into overtime.

“It’s tough to win in this league when you’re down after two periods,” Biron said. “To be able to do it that way is something we take pride and we’re excited about.”

Philadelphia won despite being outshot 44 to 32. Gagne’s game-winner came on an interesting sequence of events. Flyers defenseman Darien Hatcher had the puck on the left side of the boards and tried to find a cutting Briere. Briere lost his balance and couldn’t grab the puck. Hatcher quickly sped over and spotted Gagne in front of the right side. It marked his 400th career point.

“It was kind of a weird game,” Briere said. “We played a really strong first period. They got the momentum and took it to us in the second. We came strong early in the first half of the third and they came back in the second half. But in the end we found a way to win and that’s what’s most important.”

With the win, comes a huge wave of momentum.  The Flyers start an eight-game road trip on Wednesday at Florida. School is in session and Philadelphia has moved itself to the head of the class in the NHL. But can the Flyers remain there? Stay tuned.

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Alright, now that we’re finished with the journalistic side, here are some thoughts:

1.  If this team gets to the playoffs, Biron is the type of goaltender that will win this team a series. At one point tonight in the second period, former Flyer Rod Brind’Amour rocketed a slapshot right at Biron.  He just snatched it out of the air and the crowd let out an ooooooooooooooo that seemed to say “Did he really just do that?”.  Watch out for this guy come postseason. He will be dangerous and he gives the Flyers what they’ve sorely been missing for so long. A good shutdown goalie is an invaluable asset come playoff time.

2.  The Flyers balance continues to amaze me. It’s tough to understand exactly how well these guys play together until you actually see it in person. I saw several sequences tonight were there four or five passes before Philly took a shot. Those four or five passes didn’t signal hesitation but instead the fact that they wanted to find the seam in the Carolina defense to get the best look possible. Philadelphia had just two players score 20 or more goals last season (Gagne had 41 and Knuble ended up with 24). This year you might see five or six guys do it.

3.  If you ever want to appreciate how hard someone works, stand next to Daniel Briere for two minutes. He’s listed at 5 feet 10 inches and 179 pounds but I’d be surprised if he’s 5 foot 8 165. The guy seems to be everywhere on the ice and I got to see more than just his ability to score points.  Carolina was on a breakaway in the first period and Briere zipped down the ice and put a stop to it as if it was just another day at the office. Yes, he gets paid to do this but it’s easy to appreciate someone that does even the little things well. Money well spent by the Flyers.

4.  The energy in the Wachovia Center tonight felt something like that of a playoff game. It’s nice to see that kind of excitement from Flyers fans again. Let’s hope the road trip is just as kind as the four game homestand.  Being in the locker room afterwards, it’s clear that these guys are having fun. Gagne and Briere were all smiles and Gagne even cracked a joke about Derian Hatcher’s ”lightning” speed on his feed to Gagne for the game-winner. One of the scoreboard ops at Wachovia told me how impressed he’d been with Hatcher this season. I’m pretty sure I see why. Then again, having a nice complement in Jason Smith and a goaltender who is lights out also helps too.

5.  Flyer Hall of Fame goaltender Bernie Parent was in the house to commemorate the 40th anniversary (actual date was yesterday) of the Flyers first game at the nearby Spectrum. I’m not old enough to have been fortunate enough to see Parent play (other than what I’ve seen in highlight films) but I have a feeling he was pretty impressed with what he saw tonight from Martin Biron.

6.  I’m tired. Have a good night folks. Let’s Go Birds!

 Matt Martucci is a sportscaster who covers the Flyers, Eagles, Phillies, and Sixers for ESPN Radio 1450 in Atlantic City. He resides in Philadelphia and is also the play-by-play voice for Saint Joseph’s University Women’s Basketball as well as a fill-in play-by-play voice for Hawk Men’s Basketball.  Visit his website at www.mattmartucci.com and e-mail him at mwmartuc@gmail.com

I think it’s safe to say you probably cringed as much as I did when you heard Brian Westbrook wasn’t going to play in Sunday Night’s Eagles-Giants game. The reaction was probably something similar to the feeling you get when you watch the beginning of a bad Kevin Costner non-baseball movie: It’s going to be a long night. Philly fans were in for one and it certainly was just that for the Eagles.

Few teams in the NFL can boast a running back that plays with the flare that a guy like Westbrook does. He runs with a certain grace and makes plays that 95% of backs his size normally wouldn’t make. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. “B-West” has 19 catches and 51 carries in 2007. That’s 25 percent of the receptions and almost 53 percent of the carries. Westbrook is the team’s workhorse but you already know that. The problem is when he doesn’t play that means the Eagles need to find a new staple to their offense if you will. It makes it difficult when your options in the backfield are Correll Buckhalter and Tony Hunt.

Now don’t get me wrong. Buckhalter filled in the way a good backup does when he’s given the workload. He ran for 103 yards on 17 carries and even showed flashes of the player who scampered for ten touchdowns over his first two years in the league. Still, he lacks Westbrook’s ability to change the face of a football game. You know what I’m talking about. A quick cut here, a broken tackle there, and it’s celebration time.

Westbrook’s absence made Donovan McNabb and company even more reliant on the pass which frankly is never a good thing. The Eagles don’t exactly have big, physical receivers. That’s fine when you play a team like the Lions, who don’t use press coverage but it changes with a more hard-nosed, in-your-face secondary. The book on Philadelphia wideouts: hit them at the line of scrimmage and you’ll get the results you want. The Giants ended up with what they wanted and more. On a night where Philadelphia needed pass protection, it didn’t get any. Birds offensive tackle Winston Justice made New York defensive Osi Umenyiora look like Deacon Jones. Now one can’t place all the blame on a guy who was making his first NFL start. You would almost have to expect that Juan Castillo would prepare the kid a little bit better than that. Someone go massage William Thomas’ sprained knee back to health….please!

The Eagles discovered Sunday night what most of us already knew. Unless this team finds some other source of offensive consistency (or Westbrook carries the team until his back gives out), it’s going to be a very long year for the Birds. Last time I checked, the fairytale ending for Philly fans included both the Phillies and Eagles in the playoffs. Who says they can’t have both? Westbrook needs to get healthy and get back in the lineup. The question that remains: Does that get the Birds back on track?