It would have been easy for the Sixers to curl and die in this series after the whooping they took from Detroit the other night. Detroit played suffocating defense and frankly, Andre Iguodala hadn't been distinguishing himself on the offensive end.
Well, apparently, the only the thing the Sixers quit doing was playing passively, as they smoked the Pistons last night by a score of 95 - 75. There is no way I saw this coming after the way the Sixers got beat the other night.
The scene at the Wachovia center was exhiliarating, with the fans in their "white out" gear and screaming and cheering their asses off. If there is a Sixers team that deserves that kind of positive fan output, it's this one.
The key to the game was that the Sixers played relentless defense and the Pistons gave up the ball to the tune of 23 turnovers. Andre Iguodala may not contributing much offensively right now (10 points on 2 of 9 shooting), but he did manage 4 steals to lead the Sixers defensively.
Offensively, the Sixers were powered by Andre Miller with 21 points and "Slammin" Sammy Dalembert, who had 22 points and 16 rebounds. This was a startling turnaround for Dalembert after getting schooled by Rasheed Wallace for the first two games of the series.
Speaking of Wallace and the Detroit big men, they had sort of a rough night. Rasheed Wallace finished with 2 points, which is only 1 more point than he had technical fouls last night (he picked up a "T" jawing with Reggie Evans). Antonio McDyess had his nose broken and finished with only 2 points.
How bad was this game for Detroit? The Detroit Free Press' Michael Rosenberg called it one of the worst playoff games ever for this particular group of Pistons. It's clear that the Sixers' athleticism and energy were either underestimated by the Pistons or that this Pistons team is just not as good as everyone thinks they are. Either way, we should be in an exciting reminder of this series.
Game 4 is at the Wachovia center at 7pm.
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