Sixers rout the Bulls

The naysayers have wondered what will happen once the 76ers stopped playing, night after night, the patsies that populate the NBA.

This morning it would appear that they have their answer, at least for now.

With the sound system booming "Here Come Your Sixers," the team's theme song from a more successful era, when Julius Erving and now-coach Doug Collins played at the now-demolished Spectrum, the still-shorthanded Sixers added the head of the Central Division-leading Chicago Bulls to their mantelpiece, easily defeating the best team in the Eastern Conference, 98-82, at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night.

The Sixers outscored the Bulls, 26-11, in the third quarter, blowing open what had been a close game to lead by 20 at the start of the fourth quarter.

And unlike their previous game, when they blew a big lead against Orlando and let the Magic creep back before putting them away, the Sixers kept the Bulls at a safe distance for the entire fourth quarter.

Andre Iguodala led the Sixers with 19 points, nine rebounds, and four assists. Jrue Holiday played reigning league MVP Derrick Rose to a standstill, finishing with 17 points and five assists.

Rose finished with 18 points but had just three in the second half. Backup C.J. Watson led the Bulls (18-6) with 20 points.

The Sixers bench was lethal, and no one more so than rookie Lavoy Allen. Getting extended minutes lately because of injuries to other players, Allen finished with 15 points and six rebounds. Thaddeus Young tied Iguodala for scoring honors with 19, and Lou Williams added 14 points and six assists. Young also pulled down eight boards.

The game marked the second opportunity for the Sixers to measure themselves against one of the Eastern Conference's elite teams. The other came last month at Miami, when they played the Heat evenly through three quarters before the Heat blew them out.

Both the Heat (Dwyane Wade) and the Sixers (Hawes) were without crucial players then. On Wednesday, the Bulls were without Coatesville's Richard Hamilton (sore right thigh). The Sixers, meanwhile, were again without Hawes, out since Jan. 16 with a strained left Achilles tendon.

Owners of the two stingiest defenses in the league, neither the Sixers nor the Bulls seemed bothered by the other team's offense early on. With Iguodala active - he had nine points in the first quarter - the Sixers, down by six points early, made 12 of 20 field goals, including both of their three-pointers, to lead 27-21 after the first quarter.

The Sixers took their biggest lead of the first half when Jrue Holiday sandwiched a pair of field goals around a bucket from Carlos Boozer to give the Sixers a 42-31 advantage with 5:39 remaining in the half.

But the Bulls clamped down the rest of the quarter.

Meanwhile, Rose was starting to get comfortable out on the floor. Rose scored eight points in the second quarter to bring his point total to 15 at the half (to go along with his six assists). His energy was crucial to a 13-7 run at the end of the half that helped cut the Sixers' lead to 49-44 at halftime.

However, the Sixers, who have so often dominated the third quarter this year, did exactly that on Wednesday.

Iguodala ignited the building early in the third quarter with some flashy plays, most noticeably a windmill slam dunk over defenseless former Sixer Kyle Korver and an assist on Jrue Holiday's pull-up jumper that saw him fake a pass behind his back before feeding Holiday.