Skip to content
Sixers
Link copied to clipboard

Sixers rally, but run out of steam

The visitors climbed out of a 15-point hole in the fourth quarter before the Wizards capped the win.

WASHINGTON - Since they traded Allen Iverson and waived Chris Webber, the 76ers have been using the basketball court as sort of a classroom to teach the team's young players what it takes to win games.

In the season's 71st game last night, however, the Sixers did enough little things wrong to turn a game they might have won into a defeat. They fell to the Washington Wizards, 111-108, in front of a sellout crowd of 20,173 at the Verizon Center.

Sure, there were positives. The Sixers rallied from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to tie the game with a little more than two minutes to play. Samuel Dalembert matched a career high with 24 points. Andre Iguodala equaled his career best of 15 assists. The Sixers shot 51.6 percent from the field.

But coach Maurice Cheeks' review of the tape this morning before practice will show some moments over which he will agonize.

The Sixers allowed the Wizards to score seven points in the final second or at the buzzer of the first three quarters, including Caron Butler's improbable two-handed 75-foot bank shot at the end of the third.

"I don't know if that's the difference," Cheeks said of Butler's shot, which he unleashed from the opposite free-throw line, "but it certainly helped their cause."

The Sixers, who on average outscore their opponents by two points from the free-throw line, were outscored by 25-7 last night. They were 7 of 13 from the line for the game, but only 1 of 1 in the second half compared with Washington's 18 of 20.

Iguodala, playing with a sore lower back, shot only two free throws in nearly 47 minutes of playing time, evidence that he was reluctant to drive to the basket and draw fouls. He had gone into the game averaging more than seven attempts.

"I don't know," Iguodala said when asked how his back had affected his performance.

"I don't think it was because my mind-set is play, play, play. That could have been the case, but I'm not going to let myself get to where I'm thinking that I'm not [helping the team]. I'll look back on the tape, and if I look timid, I'll just make the adjustment the next game."

Then there was the matter of the shooting run that got the Wizards their 15-point lead, a stretch of 111/2 minutes of the third and fourth quarters in which Washington sank 17 of 20 field-goal attempts. The Sixers gave up 10 layups or tip-ins during that span, appearing a step slow as the Wizards continued to blow by them.

"We weren't keeping guys in front of us," forward Kyle Korver said. "We let guys get past us and our rotations were probably a step slow. In order to win in this league, especially against some of the better teams, you can't play like that."

The Sixers, who played without starting guard Willie Green (sore right knee) and backup big man Joe Smith (personal reasons), found themselves down by 97-82 after Antonio Daniels converted a three-point play with 7 minutes, 33 seconds remaining.

But the Wizards didn't make another field goal for more than six minutes, and the Sixers rallied. Dalembert, who shot 12 of 15 from the floor, made three of his team's next four baskets to start a 19-4 run that eventually drew the visitors into a 101-101 tie on Korver's three-ball with 2:08 to play.

From a 103-all tie, the Wizards got a jumper from DeShawn Stevenson and two free throws from Antawn Jamison to go up by four with 21.5 seconds to play. Iguodala's dunk was matched by two free throws from Butler to keep the margin at four.

Iguodala then hit a three-point basket with 5.7 seconds remaining to keep things interesting at 109-108. Gilbert Arenas boosted Washington's lead to three with a pair of free throws, and the Sixers had 4.5 seconds to tie it.

Iguodala got the ball behind the free-throw circle and let fly a three-pointer over Butler and Jarvis Hayes, but it hit off the back rim as the buzzer sounded.

Iguodala finished with 26 points. Stevenson led the Wizards with a season-high 28, and Butler, playing for the first time after missing six games with a knee injury, added 21. Arenas, the NBA's third-leading scorer, had 20 - nine below his average.

"Although we didn't get the win, our defense tightened up in the fourth quarter," Cheeks said. "We made some shots. Unfortunately, we played well enough to win but we didn't get the win."

The loss kept the Sixers 41/2 games out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference because the Orlando Magic also lost. But with 11 games remaining, their playoff hopes keep fading.