The Sixers played a hell of a game tonight, but came up just short of upsetting the defending world champions thanks to a last second buzzer better from Ray Allen.   Allen was a thorn in the Sixers side in the 4th quarter - he hit 5 of 7 shots and scored 12 of his 23 points int he final stanza of Tuesday night’s game.  His three pointer with less than  0:01 remaining in the game stole what would have been a very nice win away from the Sixers and pushed two 2 games below .500.

The Andre’s both hit big shots in the final minute of the game to give the Sixers two point leads on two different occasions in the final 60 seconds, but both shots ended up meaning very little after Allen drained his game winner.   Here are some highlights courtesy of ESPN and some notes courtesy of yours truly.

HIGHLIGHTS

GAME NOTES

• Marresse Speights had a really impressive run in the 4th quarter with 6 quick points in just 6 minutes of action.   He added a rebound and steal and didn’t miss a shot in his limitd action.  Give the kid some more PT.
• Both Andre’s topped 20 points and turned in well rounded games.  Iggy had 22 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, and block.  Miller dropped in 21 points, 4 boards, 7 assists, and a steal.
• Elton Brand played ummmm 9 minutes and scored 0 points??? Where is the Elton Brand that played so well last week against the Rockets?  The Sixers were facing a Celtics team without Kevin Garnett and against the likes of Kendrick Perkins, Glen Davis, and Leon Powe, our big free agent acquisition only sees 9 minutes of rather in effective playing time?
• While Iggy had a great stat line, his +/- was by far the worst on the team tonight with -15.  For those of you unfamiliar with this stat, it means that during the 40 minutes Igoudola was on the floor tonight, the Celtics held a 15 point advantage over the Sixers.  This means that in the roughly 8 minutes he wasn’t on the floor, the Sixers held a +14 advantage over the Celtics.
• Reggie Evans meanwhile held a +14 +/- rating and was the only Sixer to reach double digits in rebounds with 10.  He also scored 8 points and notched 2 steals while hitting a very un-Reggie Evans like 6 of 8 from the free throw line.
• The Sixers really let this one get away.  Without Garnett in the lineup, the Celtics had almost no low post pressence tonight and the Sixers couldn’t capitalize.  The Celtics perimeter players combined for 72 of their 100 points.
• Slammin’ Sammy’s 14 points where actually a season high.  I’m sorry, but that’s just sad.
• The Celtics turned the ball over 20 times compared to just 9 turnovers for the Sixers.
• The Sixers are now 0-3 against the Celtics this year and have lost back to back games while leading going into the 4th quarter.

POST GAME QUOTES

• Tony DiLeo on not playing Elton Brand in the 2nd half: “His shoulder stiffened up a little. He said he could play if we really needed him. It was a situation where we just decided to throw Marreese (Speights) in there because his (Elton Brand’s) shoulder wasn’t quite loose enough.”
• Andre Igoudola on where the Sixers stand in comparison to the Celtics: “We should have won the game and we lost. We’re just trying to get wins right now. We have to play good ball no matter who we play. They didn’t have one of their Hall of Famers so there’s no excuse.”
• Doc Rivers on the play of Reggie Evans: “Give them a lot of credit. Reggie Evans turned the game around for them He came in and played with great energy. It looked like he got everybody else on his team going.”
• Ray Allen on his game winner: “We figured out we had a great chance to send the game into overtime. It was a tough situation for their (Sixers) defense because Paul had the ball and he was isolated and they were going to make it tough on him and that’s what I got to my spot. (Peirce) made a great play. I knew that I wanted to get to my spot. At least if someone was running out on me, at least I got to where I got my ball and my legs in the air. Again, Paul made the play at the right time.”

Hi, my name is Andre!

Tonight’s match up features last year’s NBA champion Boston Celtics (40-9) coming to town to face the Sixers (23-23).  The 76ers are coming off a pathetic loss to the New Jersey Nets at home on Saturday night.

Keys of The Game:

• Make things difficult for KG down low -  I would like to see a variety of centers/forwards (Evans, Dalembert, Brand, Ratliff) rotate in to foul and double team Garnett.  When he’s on the whole team benefits, and KG him having a great night is the fastest way to get blown out by the Celts.
• Rebounding - Strong team rebounding will be needed to compete tonight, as the the Sixer’s cant let the better team here get second chances.   It’s an every game key, as defensive rebounding feeds the fast break, which will also be needed to score points on the stingy half-court D of the Celtics.
• Elton Brand - the big $$,$$$,$$$ man will be need to have a big game and prove he’s back on both sides of the ball for the Sixer’s to pull one out against the defending champions.  This is why we brought him in right?

The Sixers have not had much success playing against Boston of late, losing by 24 and 19 already this season, and winning only 1 of their 4 meetings last year.  Can’t say the outlook is positive here, but if the Andres can get the team out and running early, and the crowd plays a strong 6th man, we could keep it close.

This group seems to play to the competition, so I’m thinking this game could get interesting.