<font color="DarkRed">Philadelphia 76ers</font> at <font color="DarkGreen">Boston Celtics</font> @ Place: FleetCenter in Boston Time: April 3rd at 1:00 ET Channel: ABC Starting Lineups <font color="DarkRed">Philadelphia 76ers</font> <font color="DarkRed">Allen Iverson, Andre Iguodala, Kyle Korver, Rodney Rogers, Samuel Dalembert</font> <font color="DarkGreen">Boston Celtics</font> <font color="DarkGreen">Gary Payton, Tony Allen, Paul Pierce, Antoine Walker, Raef Lafrentz</font> Keys to the Game -Play agressively and focus. After losing three straight and with the playoff spot on the line, Philadelphia needs to play agressively and tough. They need to hustle, not let up open shots, and try to beat Boston to the other end of the court. -Ball Movement. There are many good shooters on Philadelphia so by finding the open man, it would make it a lot easier for players like Korver, Rogers, or Iverson to hit the shot. Plus, Iverson can't be handling everything by himself so the other guys need to contribute as well. -Crash the boards. Without Chris Webber, the low post seems to be a lot weaker and shorter as well with Rogers starting. That's why Dalembert, Jackson, Rogers, and Davis need to play agressively down low and not give Boston any offensive rebounds. -Shutdown the role players. Iverson can't do it alone, even if he does score a lot, so what Boston needs to do is try and shut down the role players. By doing so, they can limit Philadelphia's bench points and stop players like Korver or Iguodala from getting hot. -Pierce gets it done offensively. With Iguodala guarding him, who is an exceptional defender by the way, Pierce needs to score big and turn the momentum towards Boston favor. He can hit threes, drive to the lane, whatever, just get it done. -In the paint points. With Dalembert, Rogers, Jackson, and Davis making up the small inside lineup, Boston needs to take advantage with some major inside scoring. Perkins or Jefferson can take advantage of this and try to outrebound Philadelphia and also, score inside. Prediction - 98 - 94
i think boston will win by double digits. they seem stronger than Philly seen walker came and since webber is injured ,the game will go to boston
Philly was up by like 25 in the first quater..its now like the 4th quater with 9 mins or sum left...Philly up by 7 i think.... That Alley OOp from AI to AI was sick!
Note- Walker's not playing for some reason I don't really know why so it should even things out a bit since Webber's out.
I thought the game was pretty sloppy. The Sixers almost blew a huge lead, but the Celtics kind of helped them win with the huge number of turnovers they had. I think they had, 20+ turnovers? Don't expect to win games committing that many turnovers. Of course, Iverson performed great with 38 points and dishing out 9 assists. Rough loss for the Celtics, who have been struggling as of late.
Pretty accurate prediction AznxBaller, you were just two points shy of the final (total) score. Btw, good preview too. As for the game, sloppy or not, we won and that's what we need. Iverson seemed to have been a slump lately, and it's good to see that he's regain his touch and swagger. Korver shot has been off for almost a month and half now and he doesn?t show any signs of him regaining it. All he can do now is just keep shooting because that?s the only way he?ll regain that touch. Samuel Dalembert on the other hand was nothing short but amazing, he has been very, very solid over the last two weeks or so. Taking an educated guess he's probably averaging about 14 Points, 11 Rebounds and 2 Blocks over the last two weeks or so which is stupendous. Not to mention, probably a high FG% as well, I'm guessing around 52-54%. And finally, we have Andre Iguodala. What a game he had. The NBA should have the 76ers play more nationally televised games because he's putting up some great performances when playing in front of all America. First it was that triple double game, next he played outstanding against the Lakers and showed his amazing athletic ability that pretty much will guarantee him a spot in next year's Slam Dunk contest and than he shows up and plays Pierce magnetically. Antoine Walker noticed this as well and tried giving Pierce a word of motivation saying how Igudoala is just Rookie and he cannot be doing this to him, but yet Iguodala continued to play Pierce aggressively and that turned out to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the game. From blocks, strips and a couple forced shots and ill-advised passes, Iguodala was just amazing. This win wouldn?t be possible without him. Iverson put up the great numbers as usual and came up big in the end, but Andre Iguodala was the MVP of the game. Next up, is the Charlotte Bobcats. They?ve been playing well as of late, even though their hard work is not reflecting in the win column they?re intensity and competitive spirit has gone up. They came off a big win off the Miami Heat not to long ago, and that win is still probably carrying on because that was the biggest win in they?re franchise. Well nevertheless, this is not going to be an automatic win, the 76ers are going to have to play this game as if it?s the decided game to determine whether they make the Playoff's or not.
This was a solid game for us. Both the Magic and the Nets are breathing on Philly's neck for the last playoff spot in the eastern conference so this W was definitely a need. First off the 76ers played great in the 1rst quarter but throughout the game the Celtics really controlled the tempo (which almost caused us the game in the end). Good for the Sixers, they were able to build a big enough lead in the first quarter to hold off the Celtics for the whole game. Overall this was a great team effort. Samuel plays great when not in foul trouble, and as many have said already Iguodala dominated Paul Pierce (that made me proud of him because Pierce usually kills us), and believe it or not Josh Davis actually contributed solid minutes early on as well. If the Sixers want to hold on to the eighth spot they are going to have to play a similar style as they played today against Boston. The team I saw today was actually a team and every player who played contributed in a way and the game ended with another W for the win column.
It was a pretty sloppy game really. First, Philadelphia blows a twenty six point lead or something like that then Boston keeps turning the ball over whenever they get close to tying the game. In addition, it wasn't even because of defense, it was just bad passes and bad shot selection. However, a win is a win and it was crucial for us. We needed it to hang on for the eigth playoff spot from New Jersey and Orlando so hopefully they'll keep it up. However, Iguodala really impressed me today. He did a great job of defending Pierce and not giving him any open looks. And it shows too, Iguodala had a bunch of steals and rebounds because of his hustle. Because of this, I really think he will become a star someday if he keeps it up. Good game for Iguodala, sloppy game for Philadelphia.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Silky Smooth:</div><div class="quote_post">This was a solid game for us. Both the Magic and the Nets are breathing on Philly's neck for the last playoff spot in the eastern conference so this W was definitely a need. First off the 76ers played great in the 1rst quarter but throughout the game the Celtics really controlled the tempo (which almost caused us the game in the end). Good for the Sixers, they were able to build a big enough lead in the first quarter to hold off the Celtics for the whole game. Overall this was a great team effort. Samuel plays great when not in foul trouble, and as many have said already Iguodala dominated Paul Pierce (that made me proud of him because Pierce usually kills us), <font color="DarkRed">and believe it or not Josh Davis actually contributed solid minutes early on as well. </font> If the Sixers want to hold on to the eighth spot they are going to have to play a similar style as they played today against Boston. The team I saw today was actually a team and every player who played contributed in a way and the game ended with another W for the win column.</div> yeah, i thought josh played well early on, and i was expecting him to have a good game and score like 19 again or something, but it didn't happen. but anyway, nice game for davis
