The Sixers have turned out to be much more resilient than expected, and not only in their one-point victory over the Celtics on Monday. A group that entered this season not knowing how to pull out wins in close games is doing what young players often do: they are learning.
"It's happened so much in the last series and in Game 1, we've gotten used to it," Sixers guard Evan Turner said after Philly evened the Eastern Conference semifinal series at 1-1. "We've learned how to pull through, toughen it out and understand what it takes to be tough enough to pull those type of games out."
The Sixers' last three games have been decided by a total of three points, and they came out on top in two of the three. Andre Iguodala hit two clutch free throws to eliminate the Chicago Bulls in Game 6 of their first-round series, and he has outplayed a hobbled Paul Pierce through the first two games of this series.
After losing all eight games decided by four points or less in the regular season, the Sixers are 2-1 in such games in the playoffs and also edged the Bulls by five points and seven points in Games 3 and 4, respectively.
The Celtics, for their part, were among the few people who were respectful of the Sixers before the series, when the predominant opinion was that Boston would advance in four or five games.
"We didn't come into the series thinking this was a four-seed, eight-seed matchup," Celtics guard Ray Allen said. "This is a team that's in our way that we need to beat to get to the Eastern Conference finals. They have players that are capable of making big shots, players who are capable of carrying their team with scoring, with defense.
"They are a team that is capable of beating us. They beat a really good Chicago Bulls team in the first round, so that has us all on notice. By no means can we look past who they are and what they are capable of."
At nearly every turn, the Sixers showed a level of hardiness in Games 1 and 2 that the Celtics did not see consistently from the Atlanta Hawks in the first round. Philadelphia led by as many as 10 points before the Celtics came back to tie it late in the fourth quarter. That would have been the death knell for the Hawks.
But the Sixers had answers in Game 2, and for most of Game 1 as well. It took a couple of circus shots — Lavoy Allen's 22-foot bank shot as the shot clock expired gave the Sixers the lead back after Kevin Garnett had tied it with a short jumper, and Turner spun in a wild layup with less than a minute remaining after Allen hit a 3-pointer to give the Celtics a brief lead — but they also had some legitimate jitter-free plays.
There was nothing fluky about Iguodala's step-back jumper to snap a 67-67 tie, Turner's midrange J to cancel out an alley-oop dunk from Rajon Rondo to Garnett, or Jrue Holiday's 3-pointer to regain the lead at 74-72 after Avery Bradley gave the Celtics their first lead of the fourth quarter with 2:21 to go.
"Our young guys just keep growing and they're really becoming men," Sixers coach Doug Collins said. "I'm so proud of them. Doc Rivers is arguably the best coach in the NBA, and for our guys to just scrap through a game [Monday], we just found a way. All season long, we couldn't win these games and now our guys are believing they can do it, and it is pretty special to watch."
Anyone who predicted the Sixers would go out quietly in this series has not been watching them in the playoffs. The Celtics are in for a grueling series against a tough-minded opponent that has turned its struggles in the regular season into a strength in the playoffs.
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