Archive: May, 2012
If the Sixers do agree to let Elton Brand walk under the NBA’s amnesty clause, they will be in position to add a power forward from the crop of potential free agents in the 2012 class. Amnesty allows a team to pay a player his salary – something even wealthy team owners don’t look upon favorably – while it comes off the team’s salary cap.
The power forward who has risen to the top of that list is believed to be New Jersey unrestricted free agent Kris Humphries. Just 27, the 6-9, 235-pound Humphries averaged 13.8 points and 11.0 rebounds for the Nets in the recently completed season. He shot better than 48 percent from the field.
He is a very good offensive rebounder – something the Sixers sorely need – and he is an improving defender.
BOSTON -- When it came down to it, the 76ers lost this seven-game Eastern semifinal series to the Boston Celtics due to one main reason.
“We struggled to score,” coach Doug Collins said after the Sixers were eliminated with Saturday’s 85-75 loss to the Boston Celtics at TD Garden.
In the seven games against the Celtics, the Sixers averaged 85.4 points and shot just 41.4 percent from the field.
BOSTON -- The 76ers have a quiet confidence as they prepare for the pressure-packed deciding Game 7 in tonight’s Eastern Conference semifinal against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden.
If the Sixers are as poised with their play as they were dealing with the media after today’s shootaround, the results could be favorable.
The players and coach Doug Collins were asked repeatedly how the Sixers could overcome the vaunted Boston Celtics, with the likes of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, not to mention the raucous crowd.
It was an honest admission on the eve of the biggest game of Jrue Holiday’s professional career.
Following Friday’s practice at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Holiday was asked about maintaining his aggressiveness for an entire game.
Holiday is coming off his best performance against Boston in Wednesday's 82-75 victory that has forced Saturday’s decisive seventh game. He scored 20 points and shot 7 for 15 from the field while hitting all six free throws.
- Poll: Who has been the Sixers' playoff MVP thus far? (1148 votes)
So, Kevin Garnett has decided that he wanted to boost the collective psyche of those wannabe fans in Boston, endearing himself to them by calling the fans of the City of Brotherly Love “fair-weathered.”
“Take that how you want,” Garnett added.
BOSTON -- The theme coming out of the Celtics locker room is how impressed they are with the fight in the 76ers.
That is why nobody on Boston expects the Sixers to fade after losing 101-85 on Monday at TD Garden and now finding themselves on the brink of elimination in this Eastern Conference semifinal series..
Now there is no margin for error for the Sixers, down 3-2 in this best-of-seven series that resumes Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center.
BOSTON -- The key to the Boston Celtics 101-85 win over the 76ers was the fact that the Sixers couldn’t apply the knockout punch when the Celtics appeared ready to go down.
That would be the first half.
True, the Sixers led 50-47 at halftime, but they clearly outplayed Boston and should have been up by much more.
BOSTON – Boston Celtics guard and defensive stopper Avery Bradley, who has been hampered by an ailing shoulder, won’t play in tonight’s Game 5 against the 76ers.
When asked if Bradley could return for Wednesday’s Game 6 in Philadelphia, Celtics coach Doc Rivers wasn’t sure.
“We will focus on tonight and take care of that and tomorrow, and Thursday we will worry about that,” Rivers said.
Video: The 76ers erased an 18-point deficit to stun the Celtics 92-83 in Game 4 of their semifinal playoff series. The Inquirer's John Mitchell and The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy discuss the game.
There were any number of things that happened in the Celtics’ Game 3 victory over the Sixers Wednesday at Wells Fargo Center that can’t be repeated again in Friday’s Game 4 if the Sixers are going to send the series back to Boston tied up heading into Game 5.
For starters, if a team finishes with 107 points – Boston’s total in its 16-point win in Game 3 – it has to be the Sixers and not the Celtics. The Sixer didn’t allow more than 92 points in any of their previous seven games, with their opponents averaging 82.3 over that span.
Keith Pompey has been an Inquirer reporter since September 2004. He takes over the Sixers beat after covering the Temple men’s basketball team for the past three years and Temple football the past two seasons. Pompey also previously covered the Penn and Drexel men’s basketball team and Villanova football team after initially focusing on high school sports.
Pompey is a native Philadelphian and a University of Pittsburgh. Follow him on Twitter @PompeyOnSixers or reach Keith at kpompey@phillynews.com.
ABOUT MARC NARDUCCI
Marc Narducci has served in a variety of roles with the Inquirer since beginning in 1983. He has covered the 76ers as a backup and a beat writer. In addition, Narducci has covered everything from the Super Bowl to the World Series and a lot in between. Narducci also has a true passion for South Jersey scholastic sports, which he has covered for many years.
