4. 2002 First Round/NBA Playoffs — 76ers vs. Celtics, Game 5
Philadelphia 76ers fans will never forget how their team went toe-to-toe with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2001. It was the Sixers’ first NBA Finals appearance since 1983. They overachieved that year and kept the roster pretty much the same in the offseason. That’s why anticipation for the subsequent season was so high.
Allen Iverson was coming off an MVP season. Other award winners from the previous year, Dikembe Mutombo, Aaron Mckie, and Larry Brown, were primed for another title run. So, when the Sixers took the court versus the Boston Celtics in the 2002 NBA Playoffs, there was an expectation that Iverson and company would get another crack at the Larry O’Brien trophy. Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker would have something to say about that aspiration.
The series went to its limit, five games, where Pierce and Walker accounted for almost 50% of the Celtics’ offense. They proved to be a devastating one-two punch. Iverson averaged 30 points, playing 41 minutes a game, but when an aging Derrick Coleman is your second leading scorer in a series, it’s no wonder the Sixers fell short. It also didn’t help that the Celtics shot 65 percent from three in a blowout win.
As Antoine Walker shimmied himself into Sixer-fan infamy, the Sixers’ hopes of reaching the Finals again with Iverson quickly faded away.