Sixers hold off the Celtics

PHILADELPHIA – Arms flailing and feet moving, Corie Blount smothered Paul Pierce on the perimeter, refusing to give him an open look at the basket. The game was at stake, as was the 76ers’ season. Lose and it’s over, that was the consequence.

So, after what seemed like a lifetime of ball fakes, Blount finally bit, leaving his feet as the fans at the First Union Center gasped. Fearing contact with Pierce, Blount turned his back on him, and pressed his hands together overhead as if he were praying.

Pierce’s shot bounced off the rim and into Derrick Coleman’s hands. Season saved. Prayer answered.

With their unifying 108-103 victory over the Boston Celtics Sunday, the Sixers notched their first win of this best-of-five-game Eastern Conference quarterfinal series, with Game 4 scheduled for Wednesday at the First Union Center. They saved a city distraught after the Flyers’ playoff elimination and Eagles running back Correll Buckhalter’s season-ending knee injury on Friday.

The Sixers are still alive.

“I thought we showed a lot of character,” coach Larry Brown said. “There wasn’t a guy out there that didn’t make a contribution, and didn’t try to win, and didn’t try to play the right way. So we get another opportunity. Again, it’s the NCAA (tournament) format. If Boston plays as well as they played, we’re going to have to play our best, because I think they’ve handled the playoff situation unbelievably well.”

Finally, so did the Sixers.

On Saturday and again Sunday morning, Brown talked about being excited for this game.

Despite the team-first soliloquy on Friday, Allen Iverson had to play like a superstar for the Sixers to win.

The lessons did not come easy, but they were worth the fight. In every sense, Iverson is the franchise’s star player. He made 10 of 23 shots from the field and set a Sixers playoff record by making 19 free throws (in 20 attempts) to finish with 42 huge points.

His left knee swollen more than at any other point this season, Coleman finished 5 for 9 from the field with 18 points and nine rebounds. His two free throws with 1.1 seconds remaining iced the game, but his miraculous behind-the-head tip of an Aaron McKie miss with 45.5 seconds remaining gave the Sixers the lead for good, 104-103.

“That was the biggest play of the game,” Iverson said. “It gave us a lot of momentum.”

After shooting 4 of 25 in the first two games of this series, Eric Snow made 9 of 14 shots Sunday for a playoff career high of 23 points.

In the opening quarter, the Sixers shot 64.7 percent from the field to take a 30-21 lead that the Celtics cut to 33-31 early in the second. The Sixers then went on a 13-0 run for a 46-31 advantage. However, Antoine Walker, a 34.4 percent three-point shooter during the regular season, made one three, then another, and another.

In all, Walker, who finished with 27 points, made six threes in the second quarter – an NBA playoff record for a quarter – although the Sixers still led, 58-52, at halftime. Walker’s seven three-pointers for the game set a Celtics playoff record.

In the topsy-turvy third quarter, there were four lead changes and two ties, with the Sixers trailing by six points with less than seven minutes left, then leading by five nearly five minutes later.

The fourth quarter was as crazy.

Iverson tied the score at 100 with a 13-foot runner with 1 minute, 48 seconds to play. Then Rodney Rogers dropped in a three-pointer – the Celtics’ 15th and final of the game – before Iverson made two free throws to make it 103-102, Boston.

The Celtics then turned over the ball, and McKie missed a jumper, only to be saved by an acrobatic move by Coleman for a 104-103 lead. With two good looks, the Celtics failed to score, and two more free throws by Iverson gave the Sixers a 106-103 lead with 19.7 seconds remaining.

On the Celtics’ final possession, Coleman blocked Rogers’ jumper, then Pierce, who scored a team-high 29 points, missed that three-pointer with Blount draped over him.

“This is typical of what goes on with us when things go bad, and I think people equate things as bad when you lose a couple of games,” Brown said. “But they were excited about playing. I could feel that in the locker room.”

“I always felt this team had a lot of character, and we’ve got too many tough guys on this team to die easy,” McKie said. “We’re going to come out fighting. Win, lose or draw, we’re going to come out fighting, and you’re going to know it.”

Ashley McGeachy Fox, Knight Ridder Newspapers

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