SIXERS NEWS

The Sixers began their opening round playoff series with the Magic tonight in Orlando. No one, myself included, gave the Sixers much of a chance to win this series and through 3 periods tonight it looked like they didn't believe they could either. Dwight "superman" Howard was dominating underneath with 31 points and 16 rebounds, but the Magic were abnormally cold from beyond the arc shooting just 27%. Also Hedo Turkoglu, usually one of Orlando's big three, struggled mightily shooting just 2 of 8 from the field for 6 points. The Sixers meanwhile, shot 51% from the field and 58% from beyond the arc. Thus, although Orlando was able to build an 18 point lead at one point in the 3rd quarter they couldn't hit the threes they needed to put the Sixers away. With their big three(Iggy with 20 points, Thad with 14, and Andre Miller with 15) all on their game the Sixers were able to slowly chip away the lead, cutting it to 14 heading into the 4th quarter. Still there was no way the Magic would blow a double digit 4th quarter lead was there? Fortunately no one told the Sixers they couldn't come back. They picked it up on defense just when they needed too, hit every shot they needed to fall, and seemingly pulled down every rebound they had to have. Twice in the final 4 minutes Donyell Marshall answered seemingly back breaking Orlando threes, with threes of his own. The first brought the Sixers within two and the 2nd tied the game at 98 with 35 seconds to play. After Rashard Lewis missed a jumper with 27 seconds to play the Sixers ran the clock down and gave the ball to Iggy who drilled an 18 footer with 2 seconds to play for a 100-98 lead. From there Turkoglu missed a 3 pointer at the buzzer and the Sixers had themselves a stunning 1-0 series lead.