# Philadelphia 76ers (35-37) @ Boston Celtics (39-33); 1 EST -- Game Thread



## Petey (Aug 23, 2002)

This game has tons of implications to the teams in the playoff hunt. Nationally televised, starts at 1 EST. Will AI play?

-Petey


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## KingHandles (Mar 19, 2005)

This is an absolute must...Boston hasn't won this year against Philly with Webber out AI will definatly fight out whatever pain he may be in...Each team will be hungry to defeat the other in this one...I just hope I get ABC...


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## RoyWilliams (May 25, 2003)

My guess is AI fights through the pain and plays.


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## LakerLunatic (Mar 1, 2005)

He better play! 


Seriously, this game is going to be such a competitve one, both teams really need to get out of there slumps and i always love Boston Philly games.


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## Kunlun (Jun 22, 2003)

Big game for us. I would like to see us win all our games against Boston so we still have a chance at that Atlantic Division title and the third seed. We're already 2-0 against them, but that's pre Walker and Webber. Webber will be out for this game so we need someone to step it up, I hope that someone is Andre Iguodala. He needs to be more aggressive on offense and start scoring more.


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## Coatesvillain (Jul 17, 2002)

I think the Sixers have a shot to win this even if Iverson isn't playing, IF Rodney Rogers and Josh Davis don't combine for 48 minutes of playing time (like Vs Dallas). While this is a hard part of the schedule, the 76ers have four straight games that are winnable.


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## Sliccat (Oct 16, 2004)

Sliccat's keys to winnning the game:

1. Big game from Iverson in points and/or assists.

2. If guarded by Pierce or Davis, Korver needs to move constantly and try to wear him down. If guarded by Welsh, he needs to have at least 10FGA.

3. Big steals games from sixers, force turnovers, to get on the break.

4. lower TO's in the half court(Iverson)

5. at least four sixers besides AI in double figures, or 50 from him.


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## Coatesvillain (Jul 17, 2002)

sliccat said:


> 2. If guarded by Pierce or Davis, Korver needs to move constantly and try to wear him down. If guarded by Welsh, he needs to have at least 10FGA.


Welsch is on the Cavaliers. And I'm not sure if Korver can wear down Pierce or Davis, since they have a lot more endurance than KK.

I think the key to this game really is points in the paint, the Sixers have to play Marc Jackson around 30 minutes in this one splitting his time at the 4 and 5, and let him work. Outside of Kendrick Perkins none of the Celtics big men impress me as post defenders.

Also another key, hope that Marcus Banks plays as little as possible because he's an animal on defense and gives everyone he goes against problems.


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## Premier (Oct 30, 2003)

"I'm not too worried about that game. If Doc Rivers shows some intelligence and allows Tony Allen and Marcus Banks to cover Allen Iverson, then I think we have a good chance of winning. Kyle Korver burned us earlier in the season so we need to put Ricky Davis on him so he can disrupt his shot. Offensively, they cannot handle us, in my opinion."


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## Kunlun (Jun 22, 2003)

Nice start!! 25-10 Sixers with 2:25 left in the first.


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## Kunlun (Jun 22, 2003)

Josh Davis is having a decent quarter with five points, 2-2 from the field in two minutes. Korver's been a beast on the boards with six rebounds in seven minutes and he's resting now.


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## Kunlun (Jun 22, 2003)

Josh Davis is on fire!! 3-3 from the field with two threes. 34-10 Sixers, looks like a blowout in the making.


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## SixersFan (Dec 19, 2004)

38-13 end fo 1st. Iverson has matched the entire Celtics team in points.


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## Kunlun (Jun 22, 2003)

Anybody watching the game?


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## Kunlun (Jun 22, 2003)

Wow, that could have been the best quarter for us *ALL* season. Excellent offense and some good defense too. Help the Celtics to 13 points with 25% shooting while we shot 54% and scored 38 points.


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## P2TheTruth34 (May 25, 2003)

****! celts are playing horribly! at least make the game competitive


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## Petey (Aug 23, 2002)

I just got here... 42-20, 76ers w/ 7+ left in the 2nd? Nets are screwed...

-Petey


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## SirCharles34 (Nov 16, 2004)

Kunlun said:


> Anybody watching the game?


I just woke up and I can't believe we are up by 20! We're playing like our lives are on the line. 
We should've been playing like this all season.


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## SirCharles34 (Nov 16, 2004)

The lead's down to only 14.


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## Petey (Aug 23, 2002)

26 down in the 1st, Celtics cut it to 10? Ricky Davis is the 6th man of the year.

Sweet AI has 5 assists already too!

-Petey


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## The Future7 (Feb 24, 2005)

This has been an exciting game. Especially the second quarter.Both teams playing hard and I like how Boston got back into playing great defense.


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## Bruno (Sep 15, 2003)

9:12 remaining in the 3rd 61-49 for sixers.


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## Bruno (Sep 15, 2003)

also i see many TO for sixers and many shoots missed for celtics.
iverson with 21 pts ,6 assits.
can anyone tape me this game ,lol.


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## Petey (Aug 23, 2002)

Rodney Rogers for the loose ball!!!

I love that man!

Pierce hits and 1!

Celtics down 11, 5+ left in the 3rd.

-Petey


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## Turkish Delight (Mar 17, 2004)

Philly needs to keep the lead in double figures. 
Celtics slowly creeping back in the game, down by only 9 now.


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## Petey (Aug 23, 2002)

PP with a 3...

Celtics down 6...

-Petey


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## Turkish Delight (Mar 17, 2004)

Iverson has only 11 points since the 1st quarter. Philadelphia is going to need him to step up if they are going to keep this lead.


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## Petey (Aug 23, 2002)

Davis = monster...

3!!!

Celtics down only 3 now.

So... in 2 quarters they made up 23 points.

Amazing.

-Petey


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## Petey (Aug 23, 2002)

AI to Iggy!

Can he fly?

AI has 8 assists.

-Petey


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## fruitcake (Mar 20, 2005)

boston down by 7.....


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## Petey (Aug 23, 2002)

Down 7, Iggy with the steal, up 9...

He is a great defender.

-Petey


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## fruitcake (Mar 20, 2005)

petey, how do you do it? you post in 3 different forums at the same time....


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## Petey (Aug 23, 2002)

Celtics down 4, Pierce w/ 21 now.

AI pushes it to 6, 32 now?

Dalembert w/ a big block.

Blount with the bucket... Back and forth now.

-Petey


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## Petey (Aug 23, 2002)

Jefferson fouled out...



-Petey


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## Petey (Aug 23, 2002)

21 turn overs for the Celtics?

Amazing fire power even without Walker they are still in this.

-Petey


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## Petey (Aug 23, 2002)

OMG, PP misses, and it's his 5th miss of the day.

AI just hits, 5 point game...

-Petey


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## thegza (Feb 18, 2003)

Clutch shot by Iverson!

I'm probably getting annoying here, but what play by Dalembert in the closing minutes of the game. He got a block, forced a couple of adjusted (poor shots), and got a bucket down low.

Kudos to the Sixers for some stellar defense.


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## Petey (Aug 23, 2002)

97-93, 6ers, nice game guys.

-Petey


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## KingHandles (Mar 19, 2005)

I think we all know who deserved that game...The refs down the stretch were terrible...That was the factor... :curse:


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## Sliccat (Oct 16, 2004)

nah, the sixers deserved it. your just rooting for the comeback team. there were bad calls on both sides.


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## Coatesvillain (Jul 17, 2002)

Anyone see the play where Gary Payton didn't even have the ball inbounded and just started taking it up the court after a Sixers basket? I never saw anything like that.

The team clung to the win, but if there was ever a time to have our best first quarter of the season now was the time. Also it was good to see Davis and Rogers bounce back with better games than what they had on Friday.

Allen Iverson played some of his best basketball since the Sacramento game, in the first quarter, the long rest (caused by the lead and his fouls) cooled him off, and Johnny Salmons polluted the game while he was out there. Aaron McKie looked slower than I've seen him all season, he got beat off the first step all night.

The refs were atrocious, they finally evened things out a little in the end, but Dalembert couldn't get a foul call in his favor.

One thing that was huge here, was the fact that finally the Sixers came up with big shots, and rebounds near the end of the game to ice it. Right now we're 3 games behind the Celtics, with one matchup remaining with them. I guess we'll have to see what happens.


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## RoyWilliams (May 25, 2003)

Well unfortunately i had to go away with my gf today and missed the game thread. Looks like we started off hot and then slowed down but held onto the lead. Either way, ill take the win.


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## Sliccat (Oct 16, 2004)

Sliccat's random observations:

1. In all the games that I've watched, KK has his best defensive games on national TV, and dogs it every other time. Of course, I only get DC and Chicago games, so I'm probably wrong. Great sign for the playoffs, though.

2. Andre Iguadala, because of the way he plays, may never be relied upon for scoring, because his way of scoring without being a scorer will make him inconistent. Of course, in two years, the seperation will go from 4-18 to 10-35.

3. If Obie had kept AI on the court(not his fault, though) we'd be talking about 50.

4. Most people would give Rodney rodgers time to get in shape. Not Obie, he just keeps two good bigs on the bench.

5. If Green was playing instead of McKie and Salmons at point when AI went out, we wouldn't be talking about a Boston comeback, because the whole thing was caused by the sixers being passive and not being able to get anybody open. Of course, Webber would've helped too.

6. Is it just me, or has AI turned into MJ in the clutch this year? He's always been good in the 4th, but I've never seen him hit this many gam winners before.

7. Paul Pierce hits the most frustrating shots ever. Iggy shuts him down, and he ends up hiting shots that are ridiculous. He always has it out for the sixers, for some reason.

8. If PP had been Kobe, Iggy would've held him to like, 4pts tonight.

9. Philly's been right all along. the sixers need to run either AI with KK and Sam trailing on the break, and have AI and Webber run the 1-2 in the half court. The problem is, they need to find a way to get on the break more, and more consistently. Also, they need to find a way to let them run the 1-2 and not turn AI into a total passer every time. It's great for the regular season, but they need AI to be at at least 35pts with at least 40% in the playoffs.


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## KingHandles (Mar 19, 2005)

my observation...

Walker did not play...And that makes all the difference, even if Cwebb had played. If walker played there would be no question Boston would have been victorious...


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## RoyWilliams (May 25, 2003)

WestSydeBalla said:


> my observation...
> 
> Walker did not play...And that makes all the difference, even if Cwebb had played. If walker played there would be no question Boston would have been victorious...


Well that is one big what if, the what is, is that we won today.


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## Kunlun (Jun 22, 2003)

fruitcake said:


> petey, how do you do it? you post in 3 different forums at the same time....


Didn't you see the thread in 'Everything But Basketball' about him being a robot? It could explain a lot of questions.


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## Kunlun (Jun 22, 2003)

And good win, I considered it a must win and we went in and fought hard and won. Too bad we couldn't blow them out, it would give us a lot more confidence next time we play them.


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## Rayza (Jul 21, 2004)

One step closer to securing a spot in the playoffs !


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## RoyWilliams (May 25, 2003)

Damn we set a record for the amounts of 3pt shots taken in a game yesterday for the season. 32 total.
Link


> But O'Brien had one message for his team: Keep firing.
> 
> "We need Rodney Rogers and Josh Davis and Aaron [McKie] and Kyle [Korver] not to blink when they are open from the [arc]," O'Brien said. "That is our message all year."


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## Coatesvillain (Jul 17, 2002)

sliccat said:


> 6. Is it just me, or has AI turned into MJ in the clutch this year? He's always been good in the 4th, but I've never seen him hit this many gam winners before.


He's hitting them more frequently this year, but there's also games where he completely falls a part in the clutch turning the ball over at the worst times and taking bad shots. It's obvious he's capable of playing the way he did last night every night, but sometimes for whatever reason he looks like Matt Harping in the crunch.



> 7. Paul Pierce hits the most frustrating shots ever. Iggy shuts him down, and he ends up hiting shots that are ridiculous. He always has it out for the sixers, for some reason.


And what makes it worse is that there's no question the shot is going down once it leaves his hands. Pierce really did let Iguodala get into his head, it got to points where he came out trying to prove what he could do and forced his offense and bricked.



> 8. If PP had been Kobe, Iggy would've held him to like, 4pts tonight.


Onto Iggy, I think my favorite defensive play from him all night was when he saw the screener coming from his left, instead of being ran into the screen he put his body on the screener preventing Pierce from getting around. That eventually turned into an Iguodala dunk off an Iverson assist.



> 9. Philly's been right all along. the sixers need to run either AI with KK and Sam trailing on the break, and have AI and Webber run the 1-2 in the half court. The problem is, they need to find a way to get on the break more, and more consistently. Also, they need to find a way to let them run the 1-2 and not turn AI into a total passer every time. It's great for the regular season, but they need AI to be at at least 35pts with at least 40% in the playoffs.


I think Iverson's more dangerous in the half court running off of screens, it'd also allow him to get more mid-range shots which is his strongest offensive assett outside of slashing.

For this team to break more, the main problem is defensive rebounding, because this team leads the league in forced turnovers. Though I would love to see us take an inbounds after a mad basket and push it more often.

Right now I'd really love to see Matt Barnes besides John Salmons, sometimes it gets frustrating with Johnny. One game he's making quick decisions moving the ball around, and then others (like the last two) he's holding the ball and either going on an isolation, or passing the ball to someone else late in the shot clock.

Also there was a post that included the comment from O'Brien where he said he wants guys to shoot when they have the shot from the arc, it's something I agree with. Guys out there at points look like they are afraid to take shots, especially Aaron McKie.

And I want a favor from Josh Davis, I know he doesn't read this, instead of taking every ball up for a dunk inside the freethrow line.. how about trying a short jumper when you see three people under the basket?


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