With Allen Iverson on board, the Sixers hope it's not too late to make a run in the Eastern Conference.
Once you got past the emotions, the sellout crowd and the energy in the building as Allen Iverson made his return to the Philadelphia 76ers Monday night, you were still looking at a Sixers squad that had lost its last nine games.
Coming into Monday's contest against the Nuggets, Philly ranked 19th in offensive efficiency and 27th defensively. They were behind the Knicks in the standings and had defeated the 1-19 Nets twice by a total of just six points. Of last season's playoff teams, they easily had the worst record, clearly the biggest underachievers in the league.
Sure, it's nice to see all the bodies in the seats, but this is a team that needs help in the standings more than it needs it in the box office. They need Allen Iverson, the basketball player, more than Allen Iverson, the icon.
The argument could be made that a year at the bottom of the standings and a high lottery pick would benefit the Sixers more in the long run, but this is a team that needs to win now. Elton Brand is a 30-year-old former All-Star making $16 million a year, Andre Iguodala is in his prime and Thaddeus Young is about to enter his.
Key role players like Samuel Dalembert, Jason Kapono and Willie Green are all veterans as well. Sure, the development of rookie point guard Jrue Holiday may be stifled a bit by Iverson's presence. But if the Sixers were banking on Holiday, the 17th pick of last June's draft, as the key to their future, they were in a lot of trouble in the first place.
So Monday was not only Iverson's return to the city that adores him, it was also an opportunity to help his former team get out of its current slide.
Iverson, of course, hadn't played a game in a month. And to no one's surprise, he was rusty. He finished with 11 points, five rebounds and six assists, but they were the most unspectacular 11 points, five rebounds and six assists you'll ever see. There were no devastating crossovers, no lofty finger rolls over the outstretched arms of a 7-footer, and the assists were of the easy-pass variety.
He had no burst, no lift and no explosiveness.
"My heart said yeah, but my body said no," Iverson quipped afterward. "My legs were weak. My arms were weak."
But through three quarters, the struggling Sixers were beating one of the best teams in basketball.
They had the lead because they got back to the things that have made them successful in the past. They forced turnovers, they blocked shots, they got out on the break and they crashed the boards. In short, they played energy basketball.
While Iverson's play didn't necessarily help his team, the juice he brought to the building did.
No. 3 was the star in the fans' eyes, but Samuel Dalembert, Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young were the stars on the floor. Dalembert was a disruptive force in the paint, blocking six shots in the first half. Iguodala and Young had their hands out in the passing lanes, combining for five of the Sixers' seven steals and holding Carmelo Anthony, the league's leading scorer, to a season-low 14 points on 5-for-21 shooting.
At the end of the third period, the Nuggets were shooting 31 percent from the field and had turned the ball over 13 times. If the game had ended there, it would have easily been the best defensive game the Sixers had played all season.
Of course, the rules say you have to play all 48 minutes. And things turned on a dime when the fourth quarter began. The Nuggets blitzed the Sixers with a 14-0 run to start the period and that was that.
"When they pushed it to us, we didn't respond," Sixers coach Eddie Jordan said.
And the areas that have been the Sixers' biggest problems all season were their undoing on Monday: A stagnant offense and poor perimeter defense.
For the game, the Sixers assisted on 15 of their 35 field goals, lacking ball movement. On the other end, the Nuggets shot 11-for-18 from beyond the arc against what is easily the worst 3-point defense in the league.
But the signs of progress were there.
"I see a lot of great things," Iverson said. "I think as I get in better shape and in a basketball rhythm, get used to getting up and down the court, I could help so much more."
As Iverson gets in shape, he'll also get used to his new teammates and Jordan's offense.
"At times," he said, "I was out there lost, because I didn't know all the sets, all the calls."
Now at 5-16, the Sixers are in a hole. But they've turned their season around at this point each of the last two years. And if they can start winning games, it won't be too hard to climb the Eastern Conference standings. Iverson isn't the answer to all of their problems, but he gives them hope. And his fans give them energy.
"It's going to be scary," Iguodala said of the team's potential with Iverson on board. "We've just got to get everyone in synch."
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