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.
We take you back 15 years now to the day the Sixers returned home down 0-2 in the NBA Playoffs taking on the defending champion Detroit Pistons. They needed a win in the worst way to avoid going down 0-3 and things seemed dire. Chris Webber was having issues down low with Detroit throwing Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, and Antonio McDyess at him while Kyle Korver and Andre Iguodala were having playoff struggles. This is a situation where Philadelphia had to turn to The Answer.
April 29, 2005
The Pistons made it look easy at home. They used their team play in order to cancel out the brilliance of Allen Iverson and the solid play of Webber, but things were about to change in Philadelphia. The youngsters would step up with the home crowd behind them and Iverson would use the song of the Philadelphia fans in order to fuel the team to a big win.
Iverson played a full 48 minutes and dropped 37 points on 15-for-26 shooting and 15 assists against an elite Detroit defense to lead Philadelphia to a 115-104 win over the Pistons and pull to within 2-1 in the series. Webber had 19 points and six rebounds in support of Iverson, but all eyes were on The Answer and he caught the attention of former coach Larry Brown who was coaching Detroit at the time.
Brown told reporters postgame:
From a personal standpoint, when you know what someone like
that is capable of, it’s not a comfortable feeling. We all know what he does, and I haven’t seen anybody stop him. The reason we’ve been successful is we’ve stopped other people.
The win gave Philadelphia some hope, but it was not enough as Detroit then overpowered the Sixers in Game 4 before finishing them off in Game 5 back in Auburn Hills. Iverson did his best in each game and he performed brilliantly, but the Pistons just had more. [lawrence-related id=30168,30161,30144]