PHILADELPHIA – There is no “I” in team. But in these NBA Finals for the Sixers, “Hill” and “McKie” and “Jones” haven’t really been found there, either.
Three-fifths of the Philadelphia starting lineup have been about as prominent and noticeable as a dark suit on Wall Street. The trio, in the first four games of the series, averaged a combined 14.5 points while shooting a wretched .310 (22-of-71). Think that placed an extra burden on Allen Iverson, who already was in the Lakers’ defensive crosshairs?
“We have to come out and play as a team, a team that needs everyone,” said Dikembe Mutombo, the center who was the Sixers’ only other starting source of offense in the series that seemed ready to close last night here where the Lakers went for the kill, entering with a strangulating 3-1 lead. “It can’t only be Allen or Aaron McKie or Eric Snow. It has to be everyone.”
All season, the one rap directed toward the Sixers was their lack of scoring beyond Iverson, a scenario that seemed compounded when they sent away Toni Kukoc in the deal for Mutombo. But always, Iverson seemed to have enough. And always, someone stepped up and shared the load, frequently McKie. Plus, the Sixers always seemed to find unlikely scoring heroes, such as Raja Bell or Jumaine Jones or Kevin Ollie.
But in the face of the Lakers’ defense, the Sixers uncovered little to ease the tremendous burden pressing down on Iverson. The Lakers have thrown Derek Fisher or Kobe Bryant or Tyronn Lue at the regular-season MVP and the Sixers’ star simply wore down from all the shadowing and clutching. And when Iverson could get free, always he ran into the Everest known as Shaquille O’Neal in the lane.
“Definitely, he’s human,” Mutombo offered of Iverson, regarding the question of fatigue. “Sometimes, you feel there is a little fatigue because of all the heat he’s been taking. But we have to play as a team, find a way to set a good pick. We’ve got to find a way to put him in a lot of pick and rolls and make things easy for him so he doesn’t have to get beat up so much. From Day One I knew that kid would always fight his way out. He knows what he has to do to carry us on his shoulders.”
Iverson has tried; through the first four games he averaged a Finals-high 35.3 points, while hoisting 130 shots, or 40 percent of the attempts taken by the Sixers. That’s also an average of 32.5 shots a game, and all that work, all that running around, has taken its toll.
So, with one more defeat meaning the official start of the Sixers’ offseason, what else could Iverson do in order to stave off elimination?
“Play better than I’ve been playing. I think I can play better than I’ve been playing,” Iverson offered, declining the obvious suggestion that maybe someone else make some shots. “I’m just not moving as fast as usual. I’m usually moving a little faster than what I’m moving right now. But I guess that comes from 82 games and three other playoff series.”
And taking the nightly pounding that Iverson takes. Remember, he came through the end of the Toronto series and then missed a game in the Milwaukee series because of a bruised and sore tailbone. Add in all the running around to get free and exhaustion became a natural companion for the 165-pounder.
“I got enough in my gas tank to keep driving. But I don’t know when it’s gonna run out. Hopefully, we can win and I find out in Los Angeles,” Iverson suggested before Game 5. “We just have to move the ball, get better shots. We’re taking a lot of outside shots and mainly because Shaquille O’Neal is just standing in the middle.
“Like I said, they haven’t called any illegal defenses. And you got a guy that big just standing in the middle, he’s just clogging up the whole area. Not much you can do about that.”