The Sixers came within 6.6 seconds of extending their home winning streak to 6 and ending the currently Shaqless Boston Celtic's 8 game winning streak, but it just wasn't to be on this night. For the 2nd game in a row the Sixer's had 7 players in double figures, as they shot 45% from the field and a very impressive 47% from beyond. Andre Iguodala had 14 and 11 assists, Elton Brand had 13 and 14 rebounds, Spencer Hawes had 11 and 7 rebounds, Jodie Meeks went 4 for 4 from beyond and dropped 19, Jrue Holiday had 12 and 6 assists, Thad Young continued his huge play off the bench with 16 and 7 rebounds, and Lou Williams also chipped in with 16 off the bench. Once again, thanks to their strong offensive exploits the Sixer's defense did not have to be great overall, as Boston shot 50% from the field and from beyond. Still though not great, the Sixer's defense was effective, out rebounding Boston 39-33, forcing them into an uncharacteristic 15 turnovers, and holding Paul Pierce to just 10 points.
Despite the less than desired outcome it really was a great back and forth contest between two hot teams. In the first quarter it was the Sixers who nudged ahead and hung on for an early 3 point advantage heading into the 2nd. In the 2nd quarter the two teams locked in a tight battle with Boston clinging to a 1 point halftime lead after an Iguodala 11 footer went begging. In the 3rd quarter the Sixers came out firing and jumped to an 8 point lead at one point with about 2 and half minutes to play in the period, before an 8-0 Boston run, capped off by a Rajon Rondo trey, gave them a 1 point lead heading into the 4th. Like the 2nd quarter it was another tightly contested affair. Several times both teams got up by 3 or for and seemed in control before the other team quickly came back to even things up. So it was real edge of your seat thrills kinda stuff.
The last team to go up by multiple scores was the Sixers who led by 4 with 1:45 to play. Ray Allen erased that advantage on his own though, with 2 free throws and a trey to put Boston up 98-97. Twice after that Iggy sliced into the lane and scored to put the Sixers back up, first 99-98, and then 101-100 with 6.6 seconds left. Doc Rivers came up with a perfect in bounds play after that with Rajon Rondo fooling everyone by going under the basket to Kevin Garnett to who layed in what would be the game winner. The Sixers had no timeouts at that point, forcing Holiday to just heave a long pass down court which ended up in the arms of a Celtic for a 102-101 Boston win.
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2 comments:
I saw the end of this game and boy does it suck that they lost to such a good team like Boston in the last seconds of the game, however I feel that it does show thatt they arent as bad as I thought.
-to ph1llysports
yeah this one hurts but if there is such a thing it is a moral victory and we'll get them next time
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