Philadelphia trounced LA Lakers 105-80 today, putting an end to a verbal sparring match. Perhaps in an effort to bolster his overmatched team's confidence, LA Lakers coach Andreas Helmle has been all over the paper and evening news predicting an easy victory. Just before gametime he said, "Records don't mean anything coming into a game like this. We all know who's the better team, and we're going to show it." These words turned out to be true, but not in the sense he had meant them.

Philadelphia coach Bob refused to trade jabs before the game, instead leaving the job to his superior team. Afterwards, he thought Andreas Helmle's strategy curious. "No offense, but if you've got the crummy team and go around saying stuff like that, you just look like an idiot. Did he think we would actually believe that garbage? Maybe he should have invested his time coming up with a game plan rather than a press conference speech."

Philadelphia was led by Joseph (17 points, 9 boards, 1 assists, a steal), Flournoy (16 points, 0 assists, 4 blocks), Jakes (12 points, 5 steals). LA Lakers was led by Carter (9 points, 8 boards, 1 assists, a block), Singleton (10 points, 2 steals, a block), Jackson (5 points, 4 assists, 2 steals).

After today's win, Philadelphia are now 8-3 and 6-0 at home. They stay at #1 in the Atlantic and stay at #1 overall in the Eastern Conference. LA Lakers drop to 2-9 after this defeat. They remain at #5 in the Pacific and remain at #15 overall in the Western Conference.

box score Philadelphia roster LA Lakers* roster