The 76ers took care of Minnesota on Tuesday night in a game that was decided pretty early on. Thanks to a 12-0 early in the second quarter that spurred a 73-point first half for a Wachovia Center record, the Sixers rolled to their fifth victory in a row.
While it’s debatable whether or not the winning streak and positive gains in the standards serve the team or the franchise well, that’s not the main issue here. Instead, the Sixers are 20-31 with one game to go in Toronto on Wednesday night… if they can get out of snowy Philadelphia, that is.
But yes, the Sixers are heading into the All-Star Break feeling pretty good about things. Considering they are just 4½ games out of the final playoff spot in the East, it’s no wonder. Throw in the fact that the Sixers poured in 119 points with 30 assists and it proves that the team just might be pulling together.
So is it any coincidence that the Sixers have won five in a row and scored at least 101 points in the last four games without Allen Iverson?
How about the fact that with Iverson away from the team in order to tend to a personal matter, Willie Green has stepped into the lineup and shot 61 percent (22-for-36) with 57 points in four games? Or better yet, how about coach Eddie Jordan saying the big reason for the five-game winning streak has been the leadership from Green?
Coincidence?
What do you think?
With Iverson away, the Sixers have been playing exactly the way most folks expected when they started the season in late October. They are loose, confident and looking very much like the team that won 32 of their final 59 games last season to slip into the playoffs. Moreover, the sense around the team is that everything is right where it’s supposed to be.
“To me it’s been a combination of guys stepping up and a bunch of guys all playing well at the same time,” Green said.
“We’re starting to look more like the team that past couple of years that went to the playoffs. We’re just busy trying to dig ourselves out of a hole.”
And that’s just it. Would folks rather see the Sixers make a run at the playoffs and squeeze into a low seed and a probable first-round exit, or is it better to take a chance on the ping-pong balls? Sure, it would make sense for the team to attempt to add and develop the missing pieces through the draft, but even that’s no guarantee for anything. Just think about how many times the Sixers have been in this position in the past only to land on their bottoms in the same spot the next year.
Just look at when the Sixers had the No. 2 overall pick in 1993 and took Shawn Bradley. Thanks to that pick the team ended up with the No. 6 pick in 1994 (Sharone Wright), No. 3 in 1995 (Jerry Stackhouse), No. 1 in 1996 (Iverson), No. 2 in 1997 (Keith Van Horn), and No. 8 in 1998 (Larry Hughes). With the players taken in those drafts the Sixers should have been set for a decade based on the tank theory, but all that happened was they ended up in the lottery six years in a row with six different coaches.
Anyone want to take a chance with the No. 9 pick added to this bunch?
How about this plan instead:
Let Iverson play out the string and then sail off into the sunset. If he wants to keep playing next season, let him—just not with the Sixers if he demands on taking a starting gig and minutes away from anyone on the roster. After all, the Sixers aren’t the only team that has had success this season when Iverson went away. Just look at what Memphis has done since The Answer “retired.” Rather than being a mentoring veteran on a team with seven players in their first or second years in the NBA, and 10 players with no more than three years of experience, Iverson threw a fit about coming off the bench.
Kind of ironic that the oldest guy on the team was also the biggest baby.
The numbers explain it all. Four straight wins in which the team has averaged 107 points for the Sixers, a .553 winning percentage in the hardcore Western Conference for Memphis and a 9-16 record for his teams when he gets into a game this season.
Besides, at this point in their careers there is nothing Iverson does better than Green.
So there’s the elephant in the room. Clearly the Sixers are a better team without Iverson, but for now the players are going to (unironically) chalk it up to things finally starting to come together.
“Our defense is playing a little better and we’re communicating a little more,” said Andre Iguodala, who has scored 19.3 points per game in Iverson’s absence. “On offense we got in a good flow, too.”
No one is admitting as much now, but for the Sixers the answer appears to be no Answer.