<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"><font color=""Red"">So this is what the blueprint looked like. Sixers president Billy King has probably torn it up, set it on fire and flushed the ashes by now. But this was exactly what he had in mind when he put this team together. A mid-April game at New Jersey, playoff berths on the line. Allen Iverson scores and dishes assists, while Chris Webber plays like he did five years ago. Samuel Dalembert and Steven Hunter defend the middle, Kyle Korver and Willie Green hit jumpers and Andre Iguodala contributes at both ends. There it was, King's blueprint, big as life. Except, of course, for the three months that preceded the 116-96 win over the Atlantic Division-leading Nets on Wednesday night. And that made this the strangest kind of game, a convincing victory that somehow makes the winning team look worse. It comes down to this one burning question: If the Sixers are capable of playing like this, why haven't they until now?</font> We've seen way too much of this the last few years, from the Sixers and the Phillies and even the Flyers - teams fritter away long stretches of the regular season, then mount a mad scramble as the playoffs approach. This allows everyone to congratulate themselves on not quitting. It gets old, and that's why this Sixers performance generated equal parts admiration and dismay. There are a few qualifiers. The Nets are all but technically locked into the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, so this was by no means a must-win game for them. They were playing their fourth game in five nights, including a close loss in Chicago on Tuesday. And they were without starting center Jason Collins, which meant 39-year-old Cliff Robinson was guarding Webber. It's a rare matchup that makes Webber the spry youngster. Conceding those points, the Sixers still played with an intensity, a focus, they have rarely displayed this season. "I don't think it was just because of their record," Webber said. "We went out and we executed." "At halftime," Iverson said, "we had 14 assists and (one team) turnover. If you do that, you're going to win some ball games." The Sixers did indeed jump all over the Nets. If the home team was susceptible to letting up, the visitors did everything possible to encourage that. While that was certainly welcome, it was also troubling, because it meant the Sixers could have been doing this all along. "I don't have an answer for that," said Iverson, who has publicly called for more urgency from his teammates. "That's just the way it's been." This game was an interesting test, because the Sixers had roused from their slumber to win two games in a row without Webber. His sore back opened the door for Dalembert and Hunter to play together, and they were vital to wins over Chicago and Washington. Those looking for a scapegoat took keen notice. Maybe it was Webber after all. The Sixers were 2-6 in games without Iverson this season, so it wasn't him. Take out Webber and the defense improved. Simple, right? Well, Webber was right back in there Wednesday night. Coach Maurice Cheeks said he would "explore" chances to get Hunter and Dalembert on the floor together, but early foul trouble for Dalembert took care of that. Meanwhile, Webber was drilling jumpers in perfect rhythm. At one point in the second quarter, he did a little Moses Malone impersonation, grabbing an offensive rebound, missing the follow, getting his own rebound, missing again, then finally scoring and drawing a foul. If you suspect he was motivated by whispers that the team looked pretty good without him, well, you're probably right. But so what? He still scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in a shade under 30 minutes. Iverson and Webber are the highest-scoring pair of teammates in the NBA this season. All logic suggests such a pairing should produce a winning record, but the Sixers would have to win out to reach .500. As it is, they are still tied with the Chicago Bulls for the final playoff berth, and the Bulls hold the tiebreaker. Their margin for error is slimmer than Iverson himself. The franchise player was only brilliant on Wednesday night: 40 points, 10 assists. He was still driving into the heart of the New Jersey defense in the fourth quarter, with a 20-point lead. Cheeks finally had to get his star out of there for his own protection. "That's what it's all about," Iverson said. "It's fun when you're out there winning basketball games." This team has been confounding all season. It still is. <font color=""red"">But it's a lot more fun, for Iverson and for Webber, for Cheeks and for King and for the fans, when the Sixers confound the way they did Wednesday night. By winning.</font> </div> link: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...ts/14329494.htm kind of a curse in disguise IMO. we make the playoffs? win a few games? good for us. then that means that BK will start getting ideas that this team may not be so bad, and wont make any big changes in the off season. that is what pisses me off most about these wins. thing is, this team isnt very good, regardless of what their last couple of games have shown. i dont know about you, but i sure as hell dont want to see these core group of players next season. we need to dismantle and just start rebuilding.
