With the NBA in an indefinite hiatus due to COVID-19, we continue our day-by-day look back at the history of the Philadelphia 76ers. We continue down our path into Sixers history every day as we look to fill the void left by the absence of basketball.
This edition takes us back to the days of the Sixers being led by the 6-foot guard from Georgetown. Philadelphia entered Indiana to take on the Pacers for their fourth game in five nights including coming off an overtime matchup with the Miami Heat the night before. They still had work to do to figure out their playoff seeding and they needed this one. Leave it to Allen Iverson to get the job done.
April 15, 2005
Iverson had just played every single second of the 53 minutes in Miami the night before and it would have been absolutely understandable if he was a little sluggish. However, this is Iverson we’re talking about. The guy never gets tired.
In his final matchup with retiring Pacers legend Reggie Miller, Iverson was in his offensive bag. He had 43 points on 16-for-30 shooting with seven assists to lead the Sixers to a 90-86 road win over the Pacers. The win helped Philadelphia take a one-game lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 7 seed and they swept the Pacers in the season series.
Iverson knew how important this one was for his squad and he was going to tough it out no matter what was going on. He told reporters postgame:
I understood we had to play back-to-back and we’ve got four in five nights. All I thought about was just going out there and competing, I didn’t think about being tired.
The Sixers would then go on to earn the 7 seed, but they ran into the defending champion Detroit Pistons in Round 1 and they fell in five games. Iverson tried his hardest to lift Philadelphia in the series, but Detroit was just a much more powerful team. [lawrence-related id=29406,29400,29393]