After getting beaten physically and on the scoreboard in Orlando in Game 2, the Philadelphia 76ers talked about sending a message to the Magic that they did not intend to be intimidated by what they considered Gestapo tactics.
Message delivered.
The Sixers played their own brand of "basketbrawl" Thursday night, roughing up the Magic physically early, then abusing them on the scoreboard the rest of the night en route to a rousing 97-85 victory in Game 3 of the best-of-5, first-round NBA playoff series.
Philly, up 2-1, can capture the series with a victory Saturday at home (12:30 p.m., NBC-TV).
The sellout crowd of 20,874 at the First Union Center was pumped even before the game --the first NBA playoff game held in Philly since May 12, 1991 -- began. The fans got louder during the pyrotechnics-infused introductions, were in a frenzy when the large replay screens showed a cartoon of Rocky punching Mickey Mouse (which read, "Yo, Orlando, Get set for a real Rocky welcome") backed by the "Rocky" soundtrack, and they were downright deafening early in the contest as their Sixers quickly showed that nobody, but nobody, could come into their house and push them around.
Sixer Matt Geiger got into a couple of glaring, shouting and shoving matches with Magic players early and the Philly defense forced five turnovers and held Orlando to 1-for-5 shooting from the field while jumping out to an 11-2 lead.
That set the tone for the entire night.
Orlando set floor records for turnovers in the first quarter (11) and in a half (20) and finished with 26.
The Sixers led by as many as 23 points before running out of steam late, allowing Orlando to close to within 11.
"It was them. We were kinda in a tidal wave and got swept out to sea," said Orlando Head Coach Chuck Daly. "They're much quicker and we don't have quite the ballhandling we need. It wasn't pleasant."
Riding the wave on both ends of the floor was Sixer guard Allen Iverson.
The league's scoring leader shrugged off a 13-point, 4-for-15 shooting effort in Game 2 and surfed his way to 33 points (an NBA Playoff high this season) Thursday night on 14-for-28 shooting from the field. Several of his buckets came via highlight-material plays.
Just as importantly, Iverson set a playoff record with 10 steals and helped derail the Orlando offense. The 10 thefts also set a tam record.
"I tried to set the tone on defense early in the game by pressing (Darrell) Armstrong up the court. The big guys did a good job trapping and I was able to pick up some loose balls," said Iverson, who also had five assists and five rebounds.
Daly agreed. "They came after us big time," he said. "We anticipated they'd do some sort of pressure. We just didn't react to it well.
"It's what happens at home when you're mad."
Sixer rookie Larry Hughes provided a huge spark off the bench on both ends of the floor. He finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and two blocks.
"He made some plays you just kinda marvel at, especially when you consider that he's 20 and his coach limits his opportunities to play," said proud Sixers Head Coach Larry Brown.
George Lynch (17 points, eight rebounds), Eric Snow (13 points, eight assists) and Tyrone Hill (11 points, nine boards) compensated for the lack of production out of Geiger and Theo Ratliff (four points, seven rebounds), who earlier in the day had been named second-team All-NBA defense.
For Orlando, Hardaway finished with 18 points. But most of those were meaningless. He had just two first-half points and was 0-for-2 from the field with four turnovers as his team went into intermission trailing 46-31.
Hardaway, who sparked the Magic in Game 2 with 22 meaningful points, did not make his first field-goal until the 7-minute mark of the third quarter.
He finished 6-for-12 from the field, including 4-for-6 from 3-point range, to go with five assists, three steals and five turnovers.
"I have to put the ball up like 20-25 times," said Hardaway. "Normally, I don't because we have other guys that can score. But they're not stepping up and scoring so I don't think we can win if I don't take more than two shots in a half."
Hardaway pointed to how the Sixers run their offense through Iverson and it has been successful.
"If we run some plays to get me more shots, maybe we could do the same," he said
Geiger wasn't a factor offensively (four points, one rebound) but played a big part in setting the tone. Early on, he did much of the trapping and didn't care if he bumped a few people along the way. His aggressive play got him into scraps with Armstrong and then Daly and the Orlando bench
"We tried to send a message to them that we were going to play just as physical as they did in Orlando and our big guys did a great job," said Iverson.
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