The winner of this contest was going to have the lead the Atlantic Division when the final horn sounded, so we expected a game with a playoff feel.
Instead, we got another lockout game — Boston looked tired and flat on the second night of a road back to back and got routed by Philadelphia, 103-71. Philly was home and motivated to defend the top spot they had all season, Boston just was not physically or mentally ready to challenge them.
We learned nothing about the fate of the Atlantic division in this one. We didn’t learn anything… well, that’s not true, we learned one thing:
Someone at a Philly newspaper should write a column every day saying the Sixers need to cut their losses and trade Evan Turner. Or that Turner has “undisclosed problems” that were holding back his play (something else that was published but team denied later).
Turner came out motivated, attacked the paint off the dribble from the start and finished with a career high 26 points on 19 shots, plus he had 9 rebounds. He looked like what the Sixers hoped they were getting with the No. 2 overall pick, not the player who has struggled to fit into Doug Collins system. He was hot early and sparked the Sixers blowout win.
Philadelphia came out more aggressive than they have seemed in recent weeks. Turner was the ringleader but all the Sixers were attacking the rim. Elton Brand was playing well, the Sixers got out and ran and before you could blink the Sixers were up 9 and had 16 of their first 20 points in the paint. That energy carried over all game as the Sixers were up 33-17 after one quarter. Boston had no energy to counter and shot just 36 percent for the quarter.
It got worse for the men in green. Boston was shooting 10-31 and had 21 points midway through the second, meanwhile Sixers went on a 14-0 run to pull away and lead by as many as 28. It was 55-33 Philly at the break as Boston shot 34 percent for the half. The Sixers missed too, but they had 11 offensive rebounds.
Boston looked like an old team in a condensed schedule ad is now in 0-6 on second game of road back-to-back. Paul Pierce had 16 but this was a garbage time fourth quarter where both teams just played their benches.
We really didn’t learn anything about the fate of the Atlantic Division in this game. We know both teams want to win it (as do the Knicks) because it means at least a four seed in the East, meaning you avoid Miami and Chicago in the first round. The Sixers had one good night, we’ll see if they can carry it over.
Same goes for Evan Turner.
