Sixers win third straight
(NBA.com)
Updated: 2004-11-15 10:26

For a change, Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers showed they can play with a lead.

Iverson had 29 points and 12 assists and the 76ers used another of their second-half surges to pull away for their third straight victory, a 96-87 triumph over the Orlando Magic.

Orlando Magic's Jameer Nelson (14) passes as Philadelphia 76ers Allen Iverson defends in the second half Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004, in Philadelphia. [Reuters]

With a new coach and new philosophies on both ends of the floor, Philadelphia had fallen behind by double digits in each of its first six games. Despite rallying to win three of those games, a disturbing trend had developed.

Coming off consecutive overtime wins, the Sixers were not slowed by the matinee start and trailed just 41-40 at halftime. Iverson kept them close with 14 points.

Philadelphia took the lead for good with a 15-3 run in the third quarter and widened the advantage in the final period behind Iverson, Corliss Williamson and Kyle Korver.

"I was shocked. It was a feeling that I was not familiar with," Sixers coach Jim O'Brien said. "But I could never rest until the final buzzer, because if you can come back on teams, they can come back on you."

"Maybe we learned," Iverson said. "Before the game, I told my teammates that we didn't want to go out here and get behind. We needed to jump on them and play like we're behind, from the beginning, and that's what we did."

The Sixers also had their best defensive effort of the season, limiting the Magic to 32 percent (27-of-84) from the field. All-Star Steve Francis made just 3-of-15 shots and shooters Pat Garrity and Hedo Turkoglu were held to a combined 8-of-26.

"This was the first time all year that we started off playing defense," center Marc Jackson said. "We started off being in the right position at the right time. We came out and showed ourselves if we start out playing defense, we will have a better outcome."

"We didn't shoot the ball well and that's the story of it," Magic coach Johnny Davis said. "It's hard to win when you only put up 32 percent shooting. If you don't make baskets, it's an uphill climb."

Jackson scored 12 points, rookie Andre Iguodala added 11 and eight rebounds and Williamson 11 for the Sixers, who shot 44 percent (39-of-88).

Iverson found Jackson on the fast break for a layup that gave Philadelphia the lead for good at 53-51 midway through the third period. That was part of the decisive run that gave the Sixers a 62-54 advantage.

Orlando got no closer than six points in the fourth quarter. Korver drilled a pair of 3-pointers to push the lead to 78-65, Williamson scored seven points in the period and Iverson hooked up with Iguodala on an "AI-to-AI" lob dunk to make it 90-74 with 3:16 to go.

"It was nice being ahead going into the fourth quarter, instead of being down 15 or 20 points," Korver said. "It was a little bit different. We hadn't been in that situation before, and we handled it well."

"All we had to do was put our game plan together and we did that," Iguodala said. "We already had a couple of runs on them and we figured, 'Hey, let's put one last one together' and we put them away."

Grant Hillscored 18 points for the Magic, who fell to 1-3 on the road.

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