Credit: Eric Hartline-US PRESSWIRE

The Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Chicago Bulls 79-78 in a dramatic ending to finish off the reeling Bulls and win the first round series 4-2. In doing so, they advanced and will play the Boston Celtics in a series that will likely prove to be as much of a bloodbath as this one.

The closing moments of the game will be remembered for a long time. The Sixers trailed by three with 24 seconds left or so and had possession. I’m not exactly sure what the plan was, but the result was a Thaddeus Young layup. The Bulls inbound with about 12 seconds left to C.J. Watson, who then avoids a foul from Jrue Holiday. He proceeds down the court and, with a defender awaiting him, passes the ball to Omer Asik, who was clotheslined by Spencer Hawes.

(Seriously, during a regular season game the foul is a borderline fragrant.)

Asik had made 4-5 free throws during the game at that point. However, the small sample doesn’t do him justice: he shot <50% from the line during the regular season and was 6-15 for the series. The decision to pass him the ball was horrendous on Watson’s part, just for that reason. He goes to the line and misses both, and Andre Iguodala grabs the rebound. The Sixers, without timeouts, immediately run down the court, led by Iguodala, who immediately goes to the rim and gets fouled by Asik. Two free throws were coming up.

Yes, two clutch free throws from Andre Iguodala. Obviously, fans were nervous. And rightfully so.

John Schuhmann, NBA.com’s statistician extraordinaire, tweeted the numbers for Iguodala in clutch situations. 7-18. That’s bad. It’s much lower than his abysmal percentage from the regular season. Making one of the two was a necessity – it was also the most likely scenario, but even then fans not unlike myself were just hoping for him to make one. Two was almost a pipe dream.

So he steps to the line, the fans eagerly and nervously cheering. Like the scene from before the game, and oftentimes during, there was a lot of nervous energy in the air.

He swishes it in.

The crowd went wild as he tied the game with just one shot to go. Overtime meant five more minutes, but at least we’d get at least that to try and win. And the second was on the way…

It also went in!

Save a miracle, the Sixers would be moving on. Jrue Holiday nearly committed the dumbest foul ever, and C.J. Watson’s 55 footer nearly went in. The miracle fell short. The Sixers would move on. The Bulls would endure one of the most miserable season-ending stretches in history, all because of bad fortune.

I can’t avoid talking about Andre Iguodala. He, the not-quite superstar with the contract of one, who was ridiculed in this town for that very reason. He’s been booed at home during player intros in playoff games. His jersey is rarely seen in the crowd. But he’s always played hard, always been a dominant defensive player, always giving 100%. Even now, he’s battling an Achilles injury, and yet taking the opposing team’s best perimeter player to task.

As mentioned earlier, Andre struggled during clutch situations. You could see it as shying away from the moment. But you could also see it as 18 shots, a small sample that was bound to regress to the mean. And when he got to the line, he got the job done.

The best part about all this, besides the win, was the post game interview with NBA TV. While I didn’t see it myself live, because I watched the local CSN broadcast, I did see what he told Cheryl Miller after the game. Here’s video, via SB Nation. Here’s the quote, on how he attacked the Bulls defense and the pressure of taking free throws:

As soon as I got (the ball), I knew I had a mismatch, and really I had to just go to the hole. And on the free throws, Tony Battie gave me some advice. He said ‘think of something that you love when you’re shooting free throws.’ Because, I had been struggling all year. I thought of my son, and it was easy after that.

How can you not feel good for the guy now?

I’ll have a breakdown of the rest of the game tomorrow. It wasn’t rosy. But for now, it doesn’t matter. We won, and it’s off to Boston for the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Credit: Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

The Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Chicago Bulls 89-82 in Game 4 of the 1-8 first round series, in the process moving to being one win away from making the second round for the first time since 2003. Really, it’s been that long.

And the hero of the game was Spencer Hawes.

No, I’m not joking.

Spencer Hawes is well on his way to becoming this generation’s Samuel Dalembert – the center who played well for a select number of games on the national stage who ultimately earned himself a lot of money almost solely due to the national attention. When Dalembert had a good first round series against the Detroit Pistons (a series lost in 5 games, mind you), Billy King thought it wise to give him a 6 year, $66 million contract. As Yahoo’s top NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted, Hawes is in line for a big pay day as well.

But at this point, I don’t care if it’s a money grab. Hawes has had a tremendous last five quarters. Even his defense was passable today for a while. But most importantly, he hit open jumpers (including that beautifully executed play resulting in a corner three at the end of the second quarter) and even finished at the rim like 3 times. It actually reminded me of the Hawes from early this year, the one that was arguably the best player on one of the best teams, by record and peripherals if not talent, in the entire NBA. It’s quite timely for him and the team, since the rest struggled mightily on the offensive end for the majority of the day.

(I know that Hawes started playing well once Joakim Noah got injured, I know. There’s a causal relationship there. But kudos should be given for stepping up once the opportunity presented itself, right?)

Jrue Holiday had a sterling finish to the game, but his start was forgettable. Of course, it’s a good thing he forgot about it before hitting his two big threes down the stretch. Lou Williams was a complete detriment on the court, being a liability on each end of the court (especially with his defense on C.J. Watson, who couldn’t score unless he saw Lou in front of him). Evan Turner struggled mightily on offense mainly because he couldn’t get anything to fall in near the basket. The shot selection was actually very good, but Omer Asik stood in the way (I’m being very literal here, he affected the shots by just standing in the way – though sometimes he also shifted his body to no call from the officials). Andre Iguodala dazzled the groaning crowd with his puzzling shot selection, though by and large he was more effective offensively than in any prior game in this series. And Elton Brand‘s legs died again.

But Hawes’ 22 points and superb efficiency were enough offense against a team that’s lacking severely in that category. Carlos Boozer was their primary source, having his best game offensively but giving nearly all of it back to Hawes at the other end. Taj Gibson also chipped in at the expense of Thaddeus Young.

The rest of the Bulls struggled because the Sixers defended them fairly well. As poorly as Jrue Holiday performed on offense early, his defense was that good on Rip Hamilton. Rip created nothing like he did in Games 1 and 3, when Jrue wasn’t a primary defender or when he was in foul trouble. Kyle Korver didn’t exist. C.J. Watson, with the help of some beneficial calls, still only scored 17 points on 18 shots, mostly due to Turner’s defensive prowess. Luol Deng still can’t shake Iguodala. And Asik was the non-factor he was expected to be, his lack of skills offsetting his offensive rebounding prowess.

As you may have realized from the “preview” (which I obviously put up in a rush), I was at the game (along with Stephane). The environment was good – the house was essentially full by the second quarter. Pre-game festivities were cool, though the fire provided more warmth than anything else in the arena. Also, THUNDERSTIX. I’m like a little kid in that I took them home with me – I didn’t fail in getting weird looks pretty much the entire way.

What I got most from sitting in the stands, though, was how well the coaches did their jobs today. When Thibodeau made a move, Collins countered. When Collins made a move, Thibodeau countered. Of course, the assistants have a lot to do with all of this. But I find it more difficult to appreciate on television, when I have Twitter up and am checking it during a break in the action or switching the channel to check out the score of the Phillies or whatever. When the Sixers struggled with the pick-and-roll defense, they sent Young in immediately. The Bulls then countered in the same timeout with Gibson, who dominated Young in the post in the first half. When C.J. Watson started hitting shots in the fourth quarter and Turner was on the bench with foul trouble, Collins called a switch for Holiday to cover C.J. Thibs then put Hamilton back in, thinking that Holiday couldn’t cover both, and Collins responded by getting Turner back on the court and risking the foul. These chess matches are things I guess that I couldn’t always see, and seeing the coaches from our angle and how they responded makes me appreciate how difficult their jobs are and how difficult it is to stand out amongst them.

Back to the actual game and series, though, the Sixers win puts them one win away from the second round. I couldn’t imagine this a week ago. Then again, I could when Hawes played like this before, way back in January. Hopefully he can keep the roll going.