Philadelphia 76ers

["hironaka@xxxxxxxxx"<hironaka@xxxxxxxxx>]

Like the Celtics under Obie, Philly is proving that good 
defense trumps any and all perceived offensive 
inefficiencies. 

Over here, you have Paul Pierce shooting .370 from the 
field. Over there, you have Allen Iverson at .411 (.235 
on 3-pointers). 

Boston and Philly's team records say all you need to 
know, compared to teams led by megastars who save most of 
it for the offensive end. 

It's the style of Obie and Larry Brown to live with a few 
mistakes on offense, provided the team as a whole brings 
it on defense. You don't much see Obie yanking guys after 
they took a bad shot, and its not just the captains who 
get the star treatment.

Philly is on pace to win 64 games. There's no denying the 
Sixers managed to rebuild on the fly by dumping Mutombo. 
They got themselves out of a LONG contract by one of 
oldest players in the NBA.

Dikembe is averaging 7.3 points on .414 shooting and a 
career low 7.1 boards for the Nets. Bear in mind that he 
averaged 10.8 boards last season, and 12.2 for his 
career, before the playoff series against Boston.

What Larry B. has received in exchange so far was 26+ 
points and 14.5 boards from two much younger players. Van 
Horn is having his best all around year, even winning 
praise on defense. Todd MacCulloch is also having a fine 
season, scoring double figures and leading Philly with 
a .530FG%. Just as he hurt us in the Nets series, "T-Mac" 
scored 15 of his teams 81 points last month at the Fleet 
Center, along with 8 boards.

The bottom line is that Philly has 14 wins already. They 
feature five guys who've played all season averaging in 
double figures, led by AI (29.9 ppg). 

In addition, Larry Brown is getting 20+ mpg each out of 
defensive wiz Greg Buckner (6 ppg, 3.8 boards) and Brian 
Skinner (7.1 ppg and 6.5 rebounds).

Its an 8-man rotation again with the return of Derrick 
Coleman, back for the past 8 games. He is basically 
Phillys answer for Vin Baker, statistically. Character 
is another matter. 

Keith Van Horn is shooting .472 from the field and .370 
from distance. Defensive star Aaron McKie (2.3 steals) is 
at .454 from the field and .385 on treys.

Combined, the two shoot 3-pointers less often than A.I., 
who on average will take that shot four to five times per 
game. 

As a team, Philly only looks to the 3-pointer around 10 
times per game, possibly a league low. 

Eric Snow (10.5 ppg, 7.8 assists, 2.28 turnovers) hasn't 
even made a 3-pointer all year. In many ways, he's the 
heart of that team.

The Sixers come into Wednesday's game having rested since 
Saturday. 

They've gone 10-1 in the last eleven games. 

They are still undefeated at home (9-0), including a win 
over league power San Antonio. 

Philly has held opponents to 90.7 ppg, while averaging 
96.5 ppg. They are +3.6 in turnovers, +3.3 in steals. 

They lead the league in steals.

The Sixers also out-assist and out-rebound opponents, two 
things Boston hasn't done this year so far. 

Philly covers up for the fact that they don't have a 
shotblocker to worry about (3.9 per game as a team). No 
one on the roster averages even one block per game. 

Obviously, this would seem like a classic drive-it-in-and-
kick-it-out type of game for Boston. Philly is holding 
teams to a .340 average on 3-pointers, which is the 
league-wide average. 

On the other hand, Larry Brown may have some adjustments 
and curveballs in mind since the first Boston-Philly last 
month, when our support guys were knocking down threes 
from everywhere off of kickouts (Shammond hit four three 
pointers).

Maybe when all the dust clears from this game, Larry 
Brown will have two new candidates in mind for his 
Olympic squad. Or maybe not. Walker and Pierce will no 
doubt be on their best behaviour, and eager to impress. 

(From a fan's perspective, I'm not sure we want both guys 
making a 2-year commitment like that. That's full-time 
basketball from now through the 2005 season.)

Looking at this game, I think most people would argue 
that Philly has benefited from the weakest schedule of 
any team to date. With the four days off to prepare they 
will be extremely prepped for a "message game" against 
the Celtics (who are off on a 12-3 run of their own). 
This is the biggest game of the year for them, and 
they've been preparing since Saturday.

In our last meeting against Philly, starters Aaron McKie 
and Eric Snow were held to 2 points each on 2-10 
shooting. Its doubtful that they've forgotten that. 

Van Horn was limited to 24 minutes and 13 points due to 
foul trouble, but looked effective out there.

On the other end, Paul Pierce was well defensed to the 
tune of 4-20 shooting and 13 points.

Overall, Boston's team defense held the Sixers to .383 
shooting and out-rebounded them 49-37.  But it was still 
a tie game after three periods, before Boston pulled away 
in the fourth to win by 10. That was a great team effort, 
led by Walker's 20, 9 and 5 and the bench.

Vin Baker was one of three Celtics reserves to record 
double figures. Waltah and Shammond shot a ridiculous 7-8 
on 3-pointers (4 by Shammond, 3 by Waltah) and that was 
all she wrote.

Philly has a lot to prove tomorrow, and is better rested. 

Boston isn't under much negative pressure to win either, 
having accomplished what they needed to with their 
schedule and facing an easy stretch all the way through 
until Christmas. Obviously, they'd love to pull a 
trifecta with three-straight wins this week against 10-
win teams. 

Secondly, I don't think Boston will come in particularly 
intimidated by the player matchups, despite the fact that 
Philly is on pace to lose only 18 games all season. 

In this sense, it should be a fun game to watch, possibly 
the most exciting and challenging matchup this month. You 
can't top Iverson, in terms of the excitement his game 
generates. It goes without saying that this is a big game 
for Walker and Pierce. And you also have Obie and his 
staff versus the Olympic coach, featuring two very 
different philosophies on the 3-point shot this year.

Joe H.




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