Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The Sixers lead most of the night before.
I play only to come up short in the fourth quarter. On a night when a minority vocal chamber
to see one of the brightest and most popular stars in the NBA on his only trip to the
City of Brotherly Love this season, the Sixers collapsed again down the stretch in
on his way to losing his third game in a row, all by 4 points or less. After the latter
debacle Allen Iverson said: “We played very well for most of the game, but
collapsed at the wrong time. It seems you’ve already seen the kind of thing. Just keep
it happens the same way and we can’t seem to control it. “

Less than 24 hours after the Sixers inexplicably abandoned a driving game plan
to the basket to score easy layouts or fouls in favor of a reckless throw
jump shots with little success, the team went out last night in the first quarter and
You guessed it, they started throwing jump shots. With Chris Webber (1 of 6) and
Kyle Korver, starting his first game since 1/16 thanks to Kevin Ollie’s sprained ankle
(0 out of 5 all from 3 point range) Leading the way, the Sixers shot an abysmal 36% (9
by 25) in the first trimester. Despite those statistics, however, the team miraculously found
they were down just one point when the quarter ended. Webber supplemented
his poor shot by turning into an absolute monster on the tables pulling down 8
of his twenty rebounds of the night, 6 on the defensive side of the court. Prodigal
Center Steven Hunter added 2 powerful dunks on back-to-back trips through the
floor, the second of which was courtesy of a beautiful feed from Iverson. But
The real star of the first quarter was Iverson himself. Shot 5 of 9 from the field
including a stellar drive to the rim with 23 seconds remaining where he made the
layup, took the free-kick and made the free throw to put the Sixers within one
23-22.

The second quarter started with birthday boy Matt Barnes doing back to back.
brilliant passes, first to Samuel Dalembert for a dunk that gave the Sixers their first
game leader and then a featured reel alley-oop pass to Andre Iguadala
causing the Sixers to extend an 8-1 streak to 7, an advantage they would not give up
until the 9:20 mark of the fourth quarter. The second twelve minutes went so well
the Sixers actually increased their lead with Iverson on the bench for nearly four
minutes of playing time. When John Salmons checked in for AI at 6:50, I dialed the
The Sixers’ lead had been reduced to two. During Iverson’s absence, Barnes scored 4 of his 6
points and Salmons scored all 5 of his own to give the Sixers a 45-38 lead. His leadership
would go as high as 10 and the first half finally ended with the Sixers up by 9
points (coincidentally the same number of points that the seventh league leader had
scorer, Carmelo Anthony in the first half).

The second half started where the first ended. The team seemed to come out
inspired. Webber and Iverson each scored three points and after Andre Miller fouled
Iguadala and received a slap with technical foul for “not agreeing” with said call,
Iguadala hit 2 of 3 free kicks to give the Sixers their biggest lead of the night at 15.
That’s where the good news for the Sixers pretty much ended. Coach nuggets
George Karl then decided to replace substitute forward DerMarr Johnson for 7 ‘
the titular center Francisco Elson. “I played small just because our ball handling was
heinous at the beginning of the third quarter. We play small against them in
Denver and we played well, “Karl said when asked to explain his decision.
certainly provoked the Nuggets when Anthony reduced the Sixers’ lead to the single digits with a
baseline drive and a slam with 3:15 to go in the fourth. After a 3 point lost
Barnes attempt a loose ball gave a lucky rebound to Johnson, who calmly hit a
3 of their own to cut the lead to 6. The Sixers managed to regain the lead to 7 in
at the end of the quarter, but the 18,194 attendees were able to feel what was in the
horizon.

The fourth quarter started out as disastrous as it could get for home teams like Denver.
he ran a 7-0 run to start the fourth and, more importantly, tied the game at 79.
Former Sixer Greg Buckner then hit a 3-pointer to put Denver up 82-79 in the
9:20 mark of the final stanza. The feeling of impending doom was now cascading down.
through the crowd. However, the Sixers responded and tied the game again with
6:40 remaining only to see Denver score 5 unanswered points in the next 40
seconds. With the possibility of tying the game again with three minutes to go,
Webber missed two free throws and finished the night with an unacceptable 6-of-12 from
the line of charity. Demonstrating your ability to lift this equipment and carry it on your back,
Iverson tied the game once more on a drive and layup with 2:05 remaining in regulation time.
Following a Denver shot clock violation, Iverson missed a one-handed play from the
to the left of the lane that could have regained the lead for the Sixers. Andre Miller then
failed in his attempt to take the initiative, but somehow managed to
loose ball while lying on his back and called a timeout with 34 seconds left.
Outside of the timeout, Anthony drove through Korver and Iguadala to connect a
impressive reverse layup to give Denver back the lead in just 18.9 seconds
remaining. The Sixers, looking to set up the tying field goal, called for a timeout of
theirs. Coach Cheeks diagrammed the play. Iguadala put the ball to
Iverson, who drove down the lane looking for the tying bucket or a foul. He got
neither. His attempt to roll the finger was blocked out of bounds by Johnson. “I just tried
use my left arm to try to stay in front of him, “said Johnson,” I’m tall but very
fast. “Marcus Camby added,” DerMarr was amazing. For a boy who gets
Inconsistent minutes remained professional. The coach called him up and did some
key defensive plays on Iverson. “The Sixers prepared to enter the ball with
11.7 seconds left. Webber received the pass and with Iverson covered by Johnson,
handed the ball to Korver. Kyle drove down the lane but had his layup attempt
rejected by Camby culminating an absolute nightmare shooting night for Korver (3 for
16, including 1 by 12 of 3 pt. organized). Anthony caught the bounce of the
block, was fouled and quickly scored his 19th and 20th points of the
the half sealing the coming back victory for Denver 97-93.

With New Jersey reeling recently and idle through Sunday night, a win here could
have come a long way to snag them for the division lead (which by the way
things are progressing may be the only way to make the playoffs), but instead
The home team and the fans were again angry, frustrated and looking for answers.

Hmmmmmmm ……. I feel like I’ve been here before.

Sixer Notes:

–Chris Webber posted his 28th double-double of the season. He was also the
second time this season and eleventh time in his career, he had more than 20 rebounds in a
play.

– The Sixers have rebounded their opponents in the last two games (104-87)
after bouncing off his previous 11

– The Sixers shot below 40% in consecutive games for the first time this season.
38.5% last night and 37.5% in Boston on Wednesday night.

– Last night’s game completed the Sixers’ home schedule against Western
Conference. They finished 11-4 against the West at the Wachovia Center after leaving
4-11 last year.

–As Kevin pointed out, Ollie did not dress for the game due to a sprained right ankle.