Sixers Season Ends on Promising Note
Although the Sixers season ended in a 4-1 series loss to the Detroit Pistons, there is plenty of room to be hopeful. Plenty of room.
What started off as a dismal series, dominated by the Pistons, quickly turned into a battle of co-equal teams (and we’re saying this about the defending world champions!). What happened? The young Sixers team grew up quickly and learned how to play tough, disciplined basketball.
The player of the series had to be Iverson. Kudos to AI for the best season of his career and for an amazing series: he was shooting the lights out. But AI wasn’t carrying the team all by himself. Dalembert stepped up and played his heart out against bad boy Ben Wallace. There’s no doubt that Dalembert is a potential all-star candidate going into next season. Iggy played stifling defense and actually started to take and make the open jumper; he’s not just a dunker after all. Willie Green provided some all around consistent play and showed that he and AI could play together. There were flashes of brilliance in the overall fluidity of team play: Webber’s fantastic passes, Korver’s rolling threes, etc.
It’s always dissapointing to go out in the first round of the playoffs, but this is the first time in a long time that we can actually look forward to next season with some hope. Their youth got the experience they needed against an ultra tought Detroit Pistons. It’s almost as if you could see them growing like the grass in Spring. Out of nowhere it became apparent that the Sixers will have four potential all-start candidates in Allen Iverson, Chris Webber, Samuel Dalembert and Andre Iguodala. Not bad at all.
If all goes well and this team stays together and works together, there is a good chance that they’ll win the Atlantic next season, convincingly. They could be one of the teams to beat in the East.
Prediction: With a healthy team, the Sixers win the Atlantic in 2005-2006 season by at least 4 games.
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Posted on May 4, 2005 by Administrator | Filed Under Philadelphia, Sixers
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Couldn’t agree more. I am almost definitely picking up a 13 game package next season.