There's no rush to trade Elton Brand. He's got one year left on his deal, and though he's going to be looking for an extension, it's likely that he won't get one. So he'll either be amnestied (more on that sometime next week), walking free after next season, or traded. If he gets traded, as we discussed at length on the Twitters a few days ago, the Sixers would have to take a big contract back in return. This is generally seen as bad.

But if we've accepted the fact that the Sixers are not going to rebuild, then we've come to the crux of the decision. What would the Sixers be able to get for Sugar Bear? Either with Elton the Expiring Contract, Elton the Amnestied this offseason, or Elton the 2013 Cap Space. My worry is that no worthwhile free agent will be coming to Philadelphia any time soon. So if you can stomach taking back an uglyish contract with a bit of sweetener with it, that may be worth more than the inevitable terrible contract they dole out to Drew Gooden next offseason.

So without further ado, here are some potential trade options for Elton and his $18 million, including a bit of the sweet stuff they'd get back for him. Pick your faves, not your noses.

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There was a time there when it looked like this wouldn't be the case, but the last few weeks have made it inevitable. Doug Collins will be coaching the Sixers for at least a bit longer. According to Bob Ford, in what was a strangely buried factoid, he's about to be re-upped to stay in Philly.

(Owner Josh) Harris said Sunday that Collins’ contract, which is guaranteed for one more year and contains a club option for the 2013-14 season, probably will be extended soon.

"We haven’t sat down and had that discussion yet, but we want Doug to be here a long, long time," Harris said. "We consider Doug a real asset of the organization."

This isn't really surprising. Everything we've heard from the Sixers camp (be it Adam Aron, Josh Harris, or sources in the grapevine) has been about how much they love Doug in the owner's box. His enthusiasm has hooked them and they're more than pleased with what Collins has given them in their first season, lockout-shortened and all.

Implications after the jump.

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Listen, it was cool. It didn't look pretty and I hardly derived any tangible enjoyment of it while the games were actually on, but the Sixers winning 7 games this postseason over the Bulls and Celtics was a heckuva run that none of us were expecting. So for that, we can be thankful. A little excitement for fans of a team that hadn't felt any since a ping-pong ball rolled our way in the 2010 Lottery.

The Sixers were simply not a very good team. They beat a Chicago team without Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah and they fought a banged up Boston Celtics team primarily using their characteristic good defense and Boston's outright not-really-good-ness to steal some games. There were some good things (Jrue Holiday, Lavoy Allen) and some bad (Turner's disappointments, Thad mostly) and a whole lot of strange. This team has a ways to go. And the offseason will bring us a lot of changes to the Sixers that may be good, terrible or both.

Hopefully Spencer Hawes will be gone. Hopefully Louis Williams will be elsewhere. Hopefully the inevitable Andre Iguodala trade will be for a decent package rather than a quick fix. Hopefully Evan Turner will develop a jumper. Hopefully Rod Thorn will be nudged into retirement. As I said, a ways. We'll catch a glimpse at what ownership's plan is with this team, and we won't have to deal with a lockout, which is nice. There's a lot of stuff going down.

But we'll be here for it. And we appreciate your contributions and your enthusiasm, even when we don't have it. I really had a ball during the playoff run, even if now that it's over I have reverted back to wishing they fell short of the playoffs entirely. We can debate the merits of that argument another day. But for now, I hope you had a good time navigating these absurd past few weeks of playoff relevance. The Sixers ended the season in the Final Five, if that's a thing.

Sixers Be Crazy.

Congrats to the Boston Celtics for being the less horrible team in this atomic bomb of a playoff series.

I have a lot of thoughts about this game, but now's not the time for them. Reflect. React. Get angry. Appreciate what you feel like appreciating.

Sixers Be Crazy. No matter what comes in the days or weeks or months to follow, we'll always have that. I love you all.

Just as we did before the series started (here), Jeff Clark from CelticsBlog and I went back and forth with a little email convo prior to the deciding Game 7. We talk Sixers, Celtics, and Avery Bradley's shoulders below.

But first I wanted to just give a quick head nod to Jeff and the guys at the aptly named CelticsBlog. I'm not a big fan of the Boston players/media/fans who feel the smug sense of entitlement that comes with being a post-SAWX Boston fan. But these aren't those guys. I've read almost everything they've written this series and it's been nothing but fair, honest, and eloquent. Another reminder that -- just as Philly fans aren't all booing vomiting cheesesteaking animals -- no fanbase is singularly douchey as well. Kudos to Jeff and co. for keeping it real.

ML
Hey so you want to do another one of these back-and-forths for our sites pre-Game 7?

JC
Yeah I'm game for one more. Then I don't want to talk to you for another three months. At least we know this series will be done by Saturday. I think.

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No fancy titles. No pictures. No in-depth analysis. No cuts, no buts, no coconuts.

Just one game between two teams who don't like each other very much. For the Sixers and the Celtics, it's not about what happened during the season or what'll happen against Miami or who stays or goes once the final whistle sounds.

It's one game. 48 minutes of basketball. Absolutely anything can happen. And if you've been watching this series, you know it will.

This isn't about who's the better team. It's about who can be less terrible once this mess gets within five minutes left.

Game 7, for almost every player involved, isn't so much "Win or Go Home" as the cliche goes. There are exactly three players who will play tonight whose 2012-13 job isn't in question. Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, and Thaddeus Young. Everyone else could make themselves into a hero. A goat. A legend. A guaranteed contract. A European player.

One team moves on to face the Miami Heat. The other spends the rest of the playoffs wizzing in a catheter.

One more win puts them in the Final Four. Oklahoma City. San Antonio. Miami. And Philadelphia? Really? We're just one Sixers Be Crazy win away from that reality.

Put on your Sharone Wright shirsey, adjust the neck on your Shawn Bradley bobblehead, make sure you have your Iverson/Hughes Flight Brothers rally towel -- whatever you have to do to be ready for tonight. Superstitions, insecurities, predictions.... give us all you got because there ain't no rollover on playoff insanity minutes for next season.

Judgment Day.

The above statement may seem "Well, Duh" to the average passersby, but for the few of you who've hung around for awhile, you know that it's more than that. While the big NBA to-do this year was tanking, I've been driving the tankwagon for a few years now and the idea of NOT rooting for the Sixers to lose has become somewhat foreign to me, sad as it seems. Maybe it's some combination of youth, new-age optimism and immovable mediocrity, but I've become desensitized to watching the Sixers lose.

But with seven games already in the win column for these postseason Sixers, something has happened to me -- I've become fully invested in the success of this team for the first time in 5 years. And I really -- really! -- want them to win this game.

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There's a lot of questions surrounding Jrue Holiday. He's been dubbed the franchise point guard despite the fact that Andre Iguodala, Evan Turner, and Louis Williams take a ton of his point guard duties from him. A lot of that is on Doug Collins, but the bottom line is Jrue has been entirely inconsistent during his career and didn't play nearly as well this season as all of us were hoping he would.

But in the playoffs, not only has he been the Sixers best player, but he's been given the role of their best player as well. He's played and performed in valuable crunch time minutes, doing all the things we were hoping he would do all season long.

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The inexorable depression that comes with the final years of Allen Iverson's (still going) career haunts me every day. Playing in places like Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, Westeros, and Wonderland of late, one of the most unique players of all time shouldn't be the punchline that he has been. But it is what it is. So it's with a dismissive head nod that I bring you news that The Answer (one of the greatest nicknames in the past 20 years - mostly a comment on bad nicknames) will be watching the Sixers take on the Celtics from the stands.

I could do something like what Andrew Sharp did, but he already did it, so I'll just show it to you.

Sixers down 27.

People are beginning to file out of the Wells Fargo Center.

Another season, another Sixers disappointment.

Then, midway through the third, the crowd starts screaming in the far corner of the arena. The PA system starts playing 2Pac's "Ambitionz Az A Ridah," and Allen Iverson emerges from the tunnel. He's wearing Timberlands, jeans, and a silk shirt. A fan throws him a throwback Iverson jersey from the stands. He walks over to Doug Collins and smacks him in the f***ing face, just because. This is AI's team now.

There's tons more and it's worth the read and the laugh.

I'm borderline psychotically interested in seeing Iverson start twitching once the Sixers falter in crunch time. This is still sorta his team. He played with Andre Iguodala and Louis Williams for years, and he came back for the victory lap only a few seasons back. He knows these dudes. Except Spencer Hawes. He has no idea who that dude is.

This just sets up for more potential Sixers Be Crazy-ness tonight. If this is to be our end...

So this could be it. With the Sixers a mere 48 minutes away from elimination, we've come to the Backs Against The Wall metaphor point in your programs. The Celtics have a chance to close out the series in Philadelphia without risking a Game 7. This could be the end. But then again, Sixers Be Crazy.

There's a lot of motivational quotes that spring to mind (King Theoden, mainly), but ultimately what I'm looking forward to is seeing how the guys respond. Doug Collins' Sixers have yet to face an elimination game. Will they come out flat or strong? Will the collapse - when it does inevitably happen - completely derail them or can they hang on? Does Doug turn to his vets during crunch time or will Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner lead the charge?

This is going to be fun. Really fun. Or hideous. Likely some of both. If you're thinking this game doesn't matter anyway because it's hopeless to believe they'll win Game 7 in Boston, stop thinking that. Don't look ahead. If it gets to a Game 7, home or away, it's anybody's game. If it gets to a Game 7, that just means more gravy for all of us who didn't think we'd see any more than 5 playoff games. Tonight's marks number 12. That's cool.

13 would be even cooler. Let's hang on for one more. Oh and also, player intros. My mind is racing to speculate all the possibilities. Alert the caps lock police.

I hate writing these things. It's the equivalent of shoving a hot poker up your bum and getting angry when it burns. But I tend to think I have a duty to report any "news" in regards to the Sixers, and this, I suppose, qualifies. So, without further ado, Kevin Garnett:

You got fans and then you got fair-weather fans. Take that how you want.

This answer was in response to the question about the Wells Fargo Center versus the TD Garden. And before I go any further, I'd just like to get this out of the way: RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE. There.

Here are the facts. One, he shouldn't have said that. It's a dumb thing to say and it serves no purpose. It's not like him saying that is going to make Spencer Hawes a worse player (not possible!). Who knows - he could find himself on the Sixers someday and then it'll be....awkward? Either way, there's no reason to burn a bridge that wasn't even built in the first place. Secondly, he's right. All fans are, by nature, frontrunners, save for most of you idiots reading this (and this idiot for writing it) and that definitely applies to Sixers fans. Low attendance, low viewership... most Philadelphians just don't care about the Sixers. It's just how it is.

So be pissed at KG if you want to (he's a nerf-herder anyway) but don't act like he's wrong because that's just silly.

(The following has been procured from the future by Will Smith, part owner of the Sixers, who had learned time travel on the set of the extremely unnecessary Men in Black 3. Thanks, Will.)

After weeks of speculation, we finally have some concrete news to report on Brandon Bass. And, well, he's a Sixer. That's not the surprising part. Once Evan Turner was traded to San Antonio for Stephen Jackson, Jrue Holiday was traded to the New Orleans Spirit Fingers in a three-teamer for Luis Scola, and Andre Iguodala was sent to Milwaukee for Monta Ellis, the writing was on the wall. Doug Collins wanted his man and he got him. To the tune of 5 years, $74 million.

Pause for gagging.

In the Sixers second round series against the Boston Celtics, Bass averaged 57 points per game over the last two games, a hot shooting streak that started with an 18-point third quarter in Game Five. The 27-year-old from LSU would not miss a shot in the last two games of the series. His season ended, as you'll recall, on a Game Seven half-court buzzer beater that left his fingertips less than one tenth of a second after the red light went on.

Doug Collins was reportedly so enamored with Bass over the series that he'd added him to his Fave Five on his T-Mobile phone even before the series had ended. Said Doug: "He puts the basketball into the basket while his hands grip the rim. We need a guy who does that." Doug would also go on to verbally abuse Nikola Vucevic, who happened to be walking innocently by at the time.

So the starting lineup looks like it'll be Monta/Jackson/Bass/Scola/Hawes, with Thad and the recently-signed-to-a-lifetime-contract Louis Williams (made his 812th million 'fo he ever got spayed) coming off the bench. Between he, Bass, and the obviously reupped Spencer Hawes, this Sixers team will be financially tied until at least the summer of 2017, by which time my limbs may have sewed themselves back together.

Your new-look Eastern Conference champion Sixers will begin the season against the Vancouver Halibuts on Halloween night. I'll be dressed as Regret.

This is some news. The best guard defender left in the Playoffs, Avery Bradley, will likely not be playing in Game Five of tonight's Celtics/Sixers pivotal meeting. Bradley's been dealing with some shoulder issues but has still done a phenomenal job on Evan Turner and at times Jrue Holiday this series. The news comes from Boston's play-by-play guy, Sean Grande:

At 5:45, Avery Bradley "doubtful" for Game Five. (Bradley (+35) is the 3rd best +/- player in the series behind only Garnett and L. Allen.)

Doc on Avery Bradley: "He's giving us everything he can give us but I don't know how much more he can go."

Update: He's out.

This'll mean more Ray Allen and Mickael Pietrus, who have been mostly blegh this series. Turner should have a much easier time getting to the rim against Allen, and Pietrus isn't nearly the offensive weapon that either of the other two are, though he has been hitting his three's lately. Could this be The Evan Turner game?? Please?

It's a shame because not only is Bradley a key to keeping the Sixers looking like disorganized llamas on offense, he's also one of my favorite players. Watching him evolve into a solid offensive player with how nasty he is on defense has been a real treat. It's a bummer that the Sixers will (once again) benefit from an injury to a key opponent but you can only play the team across from you so no sense wringing our hands about it.

Game Five stars REALLY SOON. I'm pumped.

Nothing has made sense thus far in the playoffs. The Sixers are on another level of anomalies when it comes to the randomness we've seen in these 10 games so far. But as the dust has temporarily settled, the Sixers are tied with the Boston Celtics at 2-2, with just two wins separating them from the Eastern Conference Finals.

So, I ask you, can they do it? Will they be able to win two of the next three games over a more talented Celtics bunch? One of those wins would have to be in Boston, where the Sixers should have already taken two, if not for the Game One hurls. Does this insane group of basketball players that have joined forces to play the ugliest team ball seen this side of Slapshot have two more wins in them?

They'll need some help from somebody. Evan Turner has shot like piss. Jrue Holiday hasn't been much better. Elton Brand might not exist anymore. Is this the game that one of those three step up in the scoring department? Lou had one of his best games as a Sixer in Game Four -- does that happen again? Or will we be back to Boss the Ill-Advised? Can Lavoy Allen keep it up? Honestly there are so many variables at play here that any prediction would just result in outright mockery when the exact opposite ends up being true.

So my prediction is: aliens will take over the world right at tip-off. Both teams will join forces to play the aliens in a basketball game, and Shawn Bradley will be there. I can't intelligently say who will win the game. I figure someone has to. You tell me what you're thinking. Who's going to have THE GAME tonight?

Kevin Garnett is not my favorite person. Loved him in Minnesota, then obviously not so much in Boston. He's a hell of a player and future Hall of Famer but his offensive game has gotten extremely obvious these days. Jumper or post-up turnaround. Not much else. Spencer Hawes has had trouble defending either, while Lavoy Allen has done a much better job.

KG took offense to being called "old" earlier in the playoffs and turned around to play great basketball in the face of all the reporters who called him "old", which he is. Okay, Kev. So CelticsBlog thought poking the lion about defensive stopper Lavoy Allen would do the trick.

If there was any chance of him getting comfortable and reverting to his ways of over-deferring to his teammates, I hope this serves as some minor motivation for him to say in his "we against the world" mode. Hats off to Lavoy for playing KG reasonably well. And by hats off, I mean both out of respect and out of mourning, because he's going to get killed tonight

After Game Four's collapse in which Garnett went 3-12 with SEVEN turnovers, the boys in green are changing their tune.

Then Lavoy went out and stopped Kevin Garnett again. Or at least he helped a great deal within the Sixers team defense. This is a rookie we are talking about. A guy drafted 50th overall and not someone I'd heard of prior to game 1 of this series. We're getting to know him now though.

Good for Lavoy. Even if the Sixers lose, I'm thrilled that they're giving the Celtics a ton of trouble. Boston is reallllllllly pissing me off, as it always happens in a playoff series, so any torture our boys can inflict onto these guys (and their reporters and entitled fans) makes me all smilies.

I was really confused last night. I could've sworn the Sixers were down a million to the Celtics and had no life in them at all. Game Four would spell the penultimate end for this ragtag bunch of weirdos and they'd go quietly into the night in Boston on Monday.

Then, as I was driving home from work (in a rage, naturally), I checked my phone and saw the Sixers were down 4. What? Four points? Somehow, while I was watching or in the 20 minute drive home, the scorekeeper passed out and added points to the Sixers column without anybody noticing. I've no idea how it went down.

So using mySynergySports.com, I checked for proof of that second half the morning after.

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This game may or may not have happened. By that logic, I'm going to have to rewatch it again before I can come up with any sort of cogent reaction to what actually transpired at the Wells Fargo Center this night. What I do know (I think), is that the Sixers beat the Celtics by a final score of 92 to 83 in Game Four of the Second Round of the NBA Playoffs. I've just punched myself in the nose, refocused, and the score is the same.

Here's a few quick reactions just from the first watch of what turned out to be an unbelievable (literally) basketball game.

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I have no idea how it happened. None of it. I'm the most baffled I've ever been from watching a basketball game. We'll talk later, but what's important is that the Sixers beat the Celtics.

2-2 GOING BACK TO BOSTON WHO HAS THE BIGGEST SACK RIGHT NOW WE DO CAPS LOCK ALL DAY.

Sixers. Celtics. Nausea. Storylines. Heartbreak. Inquisitiveness. Cheetos. Laminated papers. Felt tip pens. All-beef calzones. Sponges. Chamomile. Malaysia. Bad breath. Rondo. Coppertone. Pronouncing "underwear" as "drawers". Cottage. Cheese.

Some reading and listening material for your ears and eyes prior to Game Four, sirs and ma'am.

I had a discussion with myself about fouls and why "It is how it is" just doesn't seem to make sense all the time.

Among other things, I spoke about that article on Angelo Cataldi's morning show today.

Derek did some research on who has actually been covering Kevin Garnett. I was under the impression it was "no one".

I wrote some nonsense.

The Sixers are, apparently, the worst.

And in much more important news, Jordan wrote some words on his battle with Rheumatoid Arthritis. With the exception of the Jersey Shore bits, gotta give some respect to our boy.

--

And that's all! The game starts soon. I'll be attending a Goodbye Pizza Party for this person at work that nobody likes mid-game so I might be absent for a few minutes, but I'll bring you back some pizza and beer. Make sure KG doesn't catch on fire when I'm gone. Or actually, don't.

The Sixers take on the Celtics tonight for control of the series. If the Celtics win, it's likely over. They'll have turned on the jets enough to put down a less-talented Sixers club and there's no way they'd be able to come back from a 3-1 deficit. If the Sixers win, they'd be in the driver's seat. The shame Boston should feel at being 2-2 to this shell of a team could very well suppress any advantages they may have.

This is, for all intents and purposes, the series. So how are you feeling about the game? CelticsBlog is flexing their beer muscles from the Game Three debacle but the Sixers are owed a SHUT IT DOWN game themselves and that could be tonight. Or, they could lose by a thousand. I personally hope for the latter because losing by a thousand would be quite the feat.

I went on Angelo Cataldi's morning show on WIP this morning (early morning in LA) to talk with them about the Sixers. Angelo tried to get me to trash Boston but I played the party-pooper and didn't trash them. I guess that's my bad. For no other reason than "Sixers Be Crazy", I have the Sixers winning tonight. I think the defense will step it up because they couldn't step it down anymore and the runners will get out in transition. An Evan Turner game wouldn't hurt either.

Prediction Time. Who ya got? Sixers be crazy.

Yeah. They are. They really are. In an article of It Could Happens, Andy Hutchins over at the dot com goes into the 16 possible NBA Finals matchups remaining. The Sixers present options 16, 15, 14, and 12. Woo 12! Not all bad! Here's a taste of the worst.

No. 16: 76ers vs. Clippers

Overview: The only No. 8 seed remaining in the playoffs rides Andre Iguodala to the Finals, somehow, and meets a Clippers team that Chris Paul has willed to the promised land with an assist from Blake Griffin. If this seems unlikely, it is.

Most compelling matchup: There's not a lot that Philadelphia can do on offense. Period. Ever. But the Sixers have lots of young, athletic players and could present the sort of puzzle that Paul sometimes delights in solving.

Most compelling storyline: Remember when Elton Brand told the Clippers he was going to re-sign with them and allow them to also add Baron Davis in the summer of 2008? I bet the Clippers do! And that is this series' most interesting plot: will the Sixers' fourth or fifth option be booed in Los Angeles?

This series would be awful.

Likelihood of occurrence: You have a better chance of picking the next 50 Kentucky Derby winners right now.

Series predictions: Everyone dies of boredom unless Iguodala and Griffin decide to have a dunk contest midway through Game 2, or Nick Young wins the Finals MVP, or both. And Clippers in six.

Man. I'd love to make the Finals just so everybody is forced to watch all the terrible basketball we watched throughout the season. Does that make me a terrorist?

The problem with Game Three of the Sixers and Celtics series was they just didn't know what was important. The Sixers have other things on their mind and can't be trifled by things unless they're of utmost importance. It's like trying to study for a test out of your textbook without highlighting anything first. You'll just skim it, then you'll bomb the test. The Sixers were minus highlighters going into Game Three.

So, Sixers, here are some important things.

- Scoring. Scoring points, to be exact. And more than just some of the time. Frequently would be best.

- Um. Let's see. I guess the alternative would be not letting the other team (the Celtics in this case) score as many points as you. They can score some points. You don't want to be complete jerks. But just not as many as you do. That's kind of the idea.

- Not letting Kevin Garnett teabag you. That's rude. Spencer, you may want to consider covering his jumper. Just a thought. He's only shooting 9-12 outside of 16 feet the past two games. So you know he can miss sometimes. We'd just prefer that he miss more. Putting your face in the way of his shot wouldn't hurt.

- Make layups. You're usually good at that. Playoff layups are OK to make also. They won't bite. I know dunks are scary.

- Don't wet the bed. Your mom and I just put a fresh load of laundry in plus I got work in the morning so just hold it in or use the toilet, okay?

- Xavier Silas. Xavier Silas is important.

- Let Paul Pierce be old again. It was much more fun playing against Boston when he used a wheelchair to get up and down the court. If that could happen again we'd all appreciate it. Even you, Andre.

There. That's better. Study up and let's take Game Four. Number Two pencils at the ready.

The concept of "foul trouble" is a commonly held assumption that has trickled down into all levels of basketball. When someone got two fouls for John Chaney at Temple, they'd sit until the second half. Every time. But why is that? Before I take a hack at it, I'd like to direct you to a forward by Spurs blog Pounding the Rock for a terrific article on turnovers.

The way sports are analyzed is based on certain assumptions, and I think most people (myself included) are completely blind to most of those assumptions. They are the way we understand the game we watch, and the context in which we view each performance. When we say that someone played well, we've made an evaluation that's not just based on previous experience, but also guided and shaped by hundreds of principles that we never consciously consider.

So do your best to spit up the apple you've been fed your whole basketball-watching life and attempt to be a little more open-minded as I try to tear down your beliefs after the jump.

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To answer my question from the title: nothing. Absolutely nothing. The opposite of something: it's nothing. The Celtics and Sixers met for coffee last night. Boston brought a briefcase with them. The Sixers brought a paperclip. About a quarter into the conversation, the Celtics laid the briefcase on the table, unlocked the flaps, and opened up a can of whoop-ass all over the Sixers and their paperclip. It lasted 48 minutes.

There was nothing new in last night's game. Not a single thing. Evidence:

- We knew Spencer Hawes sucked.

- We knew the Sixers haven't had a shot in hell at covering Kevin Garnett with their current strategy.

- We knew Paul Pierce would eventually do something.

- We knew Thaddeus Young would eventually do something, though we also knew that he is not a good rebounder or defender.

- We knew Evan Turner sometimes has those games where he looks like a dildo on offense.

- We knew that the Sixers aren't a very good basketball team. In our heart of hearts, we knew that.

- Seriously, Hawes. Like -- come on. Anybody?

I consider this game a rousing success due to Xavier Silas' first playoff basket. I am hereby tuning out anything else that happened. Wednesday Night Sixers were in full effect and I'm putting the game under protest from the league. The Celtics simply shouldn't be allowed to take that many wide open jump shots.

Write that one off. It's one game, and it was a much less stressful game than the past 3 the Sixers have played. I tuned this puppy out a few minutes into the second half. Both the Sixers and I were on cruise control by that point.

Basically, don't put too much stock into this one. With a revenge win on Friday, the Sixers would even up the series 2-2. That's fine. Deep breaths and move on. Here's a picture to calm you down. Feel better?

This is just one possession, but it's such a good one that I feel like it should be capitalized. Henceforth, this possession will now be known as The Possession, and everyone involved in the play shall be knighted in front of the queen. That's Sir Lavoy Allen to you, peasant. Matt Moore has the breakdown of the Sixers blowing up the Celtics offense with less than a minute to play. Great read. Now watch!

That's pretty amazing defense. In particular, Andre Iguodala takes one of the league's best at creating space in Paul Pierce and locks him up like a straight jacket. But the Sixers also didn't get beat by Ray Allen, and didn't allow Kevin Garnett's mid-range jumper, which has left the league in ruins throughout this season, to burn them. It may honestly have been one of the best defensive possessions this season. They forced the Boston Celtics, with all that ability, into a contested-mid-range-jumper from an older shooter with an ankle problem.

Watching this, I absolutely LOVED Lavoy getting up in KG's face and forcing a pass. He wasn't playing Spencer Hawes Wait In the Lane defense -- he was making him making a move. Forcing a pass to Rondo on the perimeter, which is decidedly not dangerous. Hawes probably looked really cute on the bench, but let's stick to Voy Boy for most of the game, okay? Beautiful defense - bravo's (not to be confused with Braavos, right Syrio?) go to Collins and Michael Curry.

Thank God Avery Bradley just stayed in the corner so Lou didn't have to actually do anything.

Over at the dot com, Jon Bois is assembling a nice portfolio of slogan-related graphings, and today he conquered basketball and all of the team-centered horrifics from ad-agencies and overly excited executives. The Sixers are included thrice on the list of the worst NBA slogans of all time.

Just like their baseball counterparts, NBA teams are fond of this "we're all a team" thing. I meaaaaan ... I get how you could interpret the producer/consumer dynamic as a form of teamwork, but teammates don't hijack each other's tax money or charge each other 11 dollars for a beer. If this is the way you're gonna roll, I'm not really comfortable with you calling me your teammate. I'm just gonna buy your tickets with the same emotional gravitas I feel when I buy Pop-Tarts at the grocery store. Cool? Cool. Good talk, glad we had this talk.

The "Run with us" was nice because those Sixers couldn't score in the half-court either. Isn't that nice! Passionate. Intense. Proud. (PIP) lends itself to more mockery because of how bad the Sixers had been the last half of the season. But now that they're winning games at an alarming rate, maybe PIP is working.

"It's A Philly Thing" may as well be saying "You do remember the Sixers are from Philadelphia, right? The same city the Eagles play for? The Eagles are cool."

Anything is better than show ya luv. What do you think?