Snow Gets His Shot Back

Eric Snow admits that, with Allen Iverson back in the 76ers' lineup, perhaps he was passive in Games 1 and 2 of the first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics. Perhaps he passed up open shots. Perhaps he tried to involve Iverson too much in the offense.

With the Sixers trailing Boston by two games to none, however, Snow on Sunday exchanged passivity for aggressiveness, and the results showed. Instead of his 4-for-25 performance of the first two games, he was a splendid 9 for 14 for a career playoff-high 23 points.

The Sixers needed every one for a 108-103 victory that forced Game 4 tomorrow night at the First Union Center.

"Maybe I was just trying to get Allen off and get our big men off, and at the same time get shots on the fly," Snow said yesterday after the Sixers had a light practice and a film session. "That's an accurate statement, but I think - no, I know - I was more aggressive [on Sunday].

"All the guys encouraged me to be more aggressive, and it's not necessarily always taking shots. It's pushing the ball up, creating, driving, and trying to get [the Celtics] to help on me, because they do help a lot."

On the Sixers' second possession Sunday, Matt Harpring got Snow the ball along the perimeter. Without hesitation - no dribble, no fake, no glance at a teammate - Snow drilled an 18-footer. With 7 minutes, 45 seconds left in the quarter, he made a tough turnaround jumper from nine feet out, and a couple of minutes later he made a 20-footer off a feed from Iverson that put the Sixers up by 19-10.

Those hoops set the tone for Snow, who insisted after Game 2 that he had not lost his confidence. His shot simply was not falling.

Snow's only bucket of the second quarter came on the last possession of the half. With a 15-2 run, the Celtics had cut the Sixers' 16-point lead to just three until Snow, a career 20.1 percent three-point shooter who was alone in the right corner, made his fourth three-pointer of the season.

In addition to his 23 points, Snow had five assists, two rebounds and a steal and committed only one turnover. He was 4 of 4 from the foul line.

"He's going to hurt us if he doesn't shoot open shots," coach Larry Brown said. "When he's open and shoots it, I always feel good. I don't like him to take shots that don't come out of our offense or when he's not open, but I never worry about him shooting an open shot, and he needed to make some to get some confidence.

Via Philadelphia Inquirer

Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics

Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets

---

Larry Brown spoke up for sake of the game

In Sunday's game against the Celtics, Sixer coach Larry Brown came to the rescue of one of the players... one of the Celtics players. Phil Jasner of the Daily News reports that Brown spoke up for Boston's Paul Pierce who came close to being ejected in the fourth quarter.

With four minutes left in the game, the officials were sorting out some pushing, shoving and trash-talking by both teams. Pierce and the Sixers' Allen Iverson already had been called for a double technical. When Pierce and the Sixers' Aaron McKie got in each other's face, McKie was hit with a technical. And, as the officials were pointing toward players, it appeared Pierce might be assessed another technical, which would have meant an ejection.

And that is when Sixers coach Larry Brown, who believes dearly in the sanctity of the game, walked up the sideline and told Hollins: "Don't throw him out of the game." That was Brown's way of saying it was important to allow the players to decide the outcome of an important game. Brown said Hollins replied they had to do what was right; as it turned out, the designations remained and no one was ejected.

Asked about it yesterday, Brown said: "Let the players play."

Via Philadelphia Daily News

Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics

Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets

---

Life as Sixers know it gets a reprieve

PERHAPS SOMEWHERE way, way back in a corner of his mind, Allen Iverson might have thought he was going to the foul line to shoot two potentially franchise-altering shots. Maybe, with 19.7 seconds left and the Sixers leading the Boston Celtics by one, Iverson considered how drastically the make-up of the 76ers might change if he missed the free throws, and the Celtics wound up sweeping their playoff series.

He wouldn't have been wrong to feel that way.

This wasn't just a playoff-saving game for the Sixers. It was bigger than that. When the Sixers walked on the court yesterday, they looked one way. Had they lost to the Celtics instead of rallying to a 108-103 victory, that would have been the last time they looked that way.

Whether Iverson acknowledged it or not, that's what was truly at stake when he stepped to the line with the Sixers clinging to a 104-103 lead against a young and hungry Boston squad.

The Sixers are a team that went from playing in the 2001 NBA Finals to winning 13 fewer regular-season games this season and struggling to even qualify for the playoffs.

The season has been a constant soap opera during which the relationship between Iverson and coach Larry Brown has unraveled to the point where it seems as bad as it was during the nuclear summer of 2000 in which Iverson was being shopped around the league.

Via Philadelphia Daily News

Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics

Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets

---