Chapter 12: Fighting the Boston Twins Alone

The 76ers just finished their journey to the Finals, and immediately traded Dillon Hill and Jumaine Jones, who performed well in the playoffs, to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the offseason in exchange for forward Matt Harplin, Robert Taylor and Selick Henderson.

Halplin is not tall, 201 cm, weighs 104 kg, and the muscle lines on his arms are not obvious, but he is such an inconspicuous white man, his strength is amazing, Halplin was born in a football family, and his father wanted Halplein to take the road of rugby since he was a child, but in the end Halprin chose basketball, and the training of strength since he was a child made Halprin a big shield for outside defense, especially the players who are good at back, and they can't bargain for Harplin anymore, As strong as Kobe, so is Maddie, his outstanding strength makes Halprin good at creating physical confrontation in the competition with his opponents, he is fast and ruthless, and he can act, he is mentally tough, and he fights at the last moment, all in all, Halprin is a standard warrior, as long as there is a need, Halprin always rushes to the front line of the battlefield!

In this season's draft, the 76ers used the No. 26 pick in the first round to select defensive center Sanuel Daremport, and at the same time, they used four players this summer to trade back from the Hornets for the former interior big man, Derrick Coleman! Remember? Derrick Coleman, the champion of the 1990 draft, in the first five years of his career, the New Jersey Nets almost contributed an average of 20+10+3 data per game, but because of many off-court factors, alcoholism, obesity, unexcused absence from training, etc., Coleman was swept away by the Nets and kicked the 76ers, in the two full seasons of the 76ers, Coleman had an attendance rate of only 70% due to injuries, and an average of 18+10 per game was acceptable, but it was still because of the above vices, As a result, he was sold to the Hornets by the 76ers, and played three seasons in the Hornets, and his performance was getting worse, last season Coleman only played 34 games, including only 3 starts, and averaged only 20 minutes per game to score 8.1 points and 5.4 rebounds, and the star with good potential fell, and the Hornets did not want to keep Coleman, so in July 2000, in a big trade involving 3 teams and 8 people, Coleman returned to the 76ers.

The start of the new season for the 76ers was not smooth, Iverson and Snow, who played with injuries in the playoffs last season, both underwent surgery and recuperated for a long time, Aaron McGee also played 48 games in the new season because of injuries, and Ragabel in the new season team squeezed into the rotation this season, and Matt Gharrell, the former captain of the 76ers, was out due to injury after playing 4 games, and announced his retirement after the season.

The biggest surprise of the 76ers this season is Derrick Coleman, after the 76ers entered the palace for the second time, he was ashamed and brave, reborn, changed his mind, stopped eating sweets, stopped drinking, did not miss training, and began to play well, this season Coleman can average 15.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, becoming Iverson's most effective assistant.

Obviously, the 76ers' roster was almost depleted by injury slew on, but they still managed to win 43 games and sit sixth in the East, and their playoff opponent was the Boston Celtics. At that time, the Celtics had the twin star combination of Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, and the other people were limited in level, in a sense, preventing Boston's twin stars was equivalent to killing the game, but if you can't prevent it, it will be very difficult to win the game, sure enough, the first meeting between the two sides Philadelphia lost first, Paul Pierce and Walker combined to score 51 points, Walter Macardi, who averaged only 5 points per game in his career, suddenly broke out, scoring 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting, Iverson was inefficient on the 76ers' side, scoring 20 points on 4-of-15 shooting, and Halprin scoring 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting, giving the 76ers an 82-92 lead.

In the second game, the two sides scored 49 points and 20 rebounds together, and other role players ushered in a big explosion, including four who scored double-doubles, and the 76ers, Iverson scored 29 points and 7 assists on 11-of-30 shooting, and the efficiency was also not high, not to mention that it was still a one-man twin star, Coleman scored 13 points and 13 rebounds on 6-of-10 shooting, Aaron McGee was the best 76ers player in the game, he scored 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting, But it wasn't enough to give the team a win.

The first two games of the 76ers were lost to their opponents, and the first round of the playoffs that year was still a best-of-five system, and losing one more game would mean being swept out by Boston, which was obviously something the 76ers did not want to see, so in the third game, Iverson was on fire, although the Boston Twin Stars combined to score 56 points, but here Iverson alone scored 42 points, almost single-handedly offset the firepower of the Boston Twins, plus Snow's 23 points, Coleman's 18 points, the last 18 seconds of the game, The 76ers led Boston by 3 points at 106:103, and the ball was on Boston's side, and at this time, Coleman blocked the Celtics' lethal three-pointer to ensure the victory of the game!

In the fourth game between the two sides, the Boston twin stars combined again to score 45 points, Iverson scored 28 points on 9-of-26 shooting, and he scored the last eight points of the 76ers in a row, with 2.3 seconds left in the game, Iverson hit two free throws to ensure the victory of the game, and finally the 76ers at home defeated the Boston Celtics 83-81......

In the fourth game, the 76ers won the game again 83-81, Iverson became the hero of the 76ers who could win this game, he single-handedly scored the last 8 points of the 76ers' game, and hit two free throws in the first 1.6 seconds of the game, completely crushing the Celtics' hope of winning, and finally Iverson scored 28 points in the game, and the Boston twin stars combined to score 45 points.

In the final fifth game, the 76ers fell behind by 67:77 in the first three quarters, thinking that the 76ers would catch up in the fourth quarter, but he didn't expect Paul Pierce to become a hero in the fourth quarter, he shot 5 of 5 in the fourth quarter, including 4 three-pointers, and scored 15 points in a single quarter to lead the team to slaughter the 76ers 120:87, Pierce scored 46 points in the whole game, Iverson scored 31 points, and the 76ers had no choice but to go out 2:3.

Iverson averaged 30.0 points, 3.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game in five games, shooting 38.1% from the field, while Celtics Pierce averaged 30.2 points, 8.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game while shooting 44.8%.

The season has just ended, and the 76ers have been non-stop in the summer offseason to send Mutombo to the New Jersey Nets in exchange for Keith Van Horn. Van Horn was the second pick in the first round in 1997, when the team that hand-picked him was the current Philadelphia 76ers, when the 76ers did not sign a contract with Van Horn, but traded him to the Nets, in exchange for Jim Jackson, Tim Thomas, Anthony Parker, Van Horn who entered the league for the first time was known as the "second big bird", as a white man, Van Horn also has good physical fitness, the most important thing is that the shooting is very accurate, quite a "big bird" style, but Van Horn performed very poorly on the defensive end, Basically, it is undefended, slow-paced, and the thin body type can't resist the impact of the opposing interior players, it is precisely because Van Horn is soft defensively, so he got a nickname of "cabbage", and the 76ers got Van Horn, their road to reinforcement has not stopped, and they also traded two dragon players to bring in potential forward Kenny Thomas.

Thomas is mainly a power forward, is a physical flow, good ability, the disadvantage is that he is a little short, only 201 cm, the 76ers also signed John Salmons, who performed well in training camp this summer, and the head coach of the Pelicans two years ago, the 38-year-old veteran Monty Williams.

In the 2001-2003 season, although the 76ers also suffered from injuries, Coleman missed 16 games, Kenny Thomas missed 36 games, but in fact did not hurt his bones, Iverson averaged 27.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game, Van Horn averaged 15.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, under the leadership of these two people, the 76ers achieved an excellent record of 48 wins and 34 losses, and entered the playoffs as the fourth in the East.

Their first opponent in the playoffs was the Hornets, who had moved to New Orleans, and the Hornets had a balanced offense and defense, with players as strong players, David Wesley "Mickey Mouse" and Baron Davis as "Big Beard" in the backcourt, Jamal Marshburn as the former No. 1 small forward as the front, and PJ Brown and Magloyl as the center, and yes, they had two starting centers on their team, and both were defensive centers who were particularly good at grabbing rebounds. One of the role players is an old acquaintance, he is George Lynch, who once played for the 76ers, Lynch played for the 76ers for three years from 1998 to 2001, and suffered an injury in the first year of the 76ers, and Aaron McGee, who replaced him, had a chance to perform, and then won the Best Sixth Man trophy two years later.