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Order on the court Iverson, Snow need to step up for Sixers
Posted: Monday May 08, 2000 11:31 AM
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Allen Iverson's temper and Eric Snow's painful ankle could be as costly to the Philadelphia 76ers as the hot shooting of Indiana's Reggie Miller and Jalen Rose. Iverson was ejected with two technical fouls after arguing a non-call and then brushing against referee Ken Mauer late in Saturday's 108-91 loss to the Pacers. And Snow, who had missed the past two games with a chip fracture, was generally ineffective, especially on defense. "The only thing I'm thinking about is winning, doing whatever it takes to win," Iverson said Sunday. Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Monday night. "It's hard for any team to win when you have two guys score 40 points. It hasn't happened since I've been in the league, anyway," Iverson said. "You've got to take your hats off to guys that played that well. But it's expected from both of those guys." Miller, who had a playoff career-high 41 in a Game-5 first-round victory against Milwaukee on Thursday night, came back with 40 in the Eastern Conference semifinal opener against the 76ers. Rose matched Miller's total with his career high, marking only the fourth time in NBA playoff history two players on the same team scored at least 40 in the same game. Iverson, who was tossed with 2:53 to go, said he did not intentionally bump Mauer. "I know what happened on the court, the referee knows what happened," he said. "Everybody in the stands, everybody watching all over the world, knows what happened, knows it was incidental. God knows what happened, and that's the most important thing. "If they were to suspend me or do anything about it, I just take it as it just needed to be done.... But it was clearly a mistake. It was obvious. I'm walking after him, he's walking and he stops. It wasn't even a bump. I kind of brushed into him." Iverson led the Sixers with 28 points. Snow, who played 26 minutes, had six points and seven assists but only one rebound and no steals. "The good news is it doesn't feel any worse than before [Saturday's] game," he said. "It hasn't gotten any better, but I expected that. It's a situation where we're just trying to get the strength back, just trying not to make it worse. "I just wanted to come out and be solid. A lot of things I usually do I wasn't able to do, as far as pressuring defensively ....If you look at my rebounds and steals, that basically tells the picture." He said he probably would start Monday night, although he could make a quick retreat to the bench if Philadelphia again gets off to a slow start. Sixers coach Larry Brown said Snow's sore ankle hurt the team's perimeter defense. "Our big guys played really good -- Tyrone (Hill) and Theo (Ratliff) were terrific -- but we've got to do a better job defensively out on the perimeter, a better job in transition and offensively we've got to execute a little better," Brown said. The Pacers have to do a better job inside and get other players more involved in scoring, coach Larry Bird said. "We knew coming in they have the horses that they can drop the ball into and just pound it," Bird said. "That's why rebounding is a key, that's why second-chance points really hurt us, and their ability to get the ball down low and just overpower hurts us. "I know it's impossible to continue to score 40 a night, but the thing is we've got other guys that haven't scored much at all that are capable of scoring, and they've got to come through for us." Besides Miller and Rose, Indiana's three other starters combined for four points. Dale Davis, who had eight rebounds, and Mark Jackson, who had 10 assists, were scoreless. "[Saturday night], we had two guys who were red-hot, two key guys in our offense," Jackson said. "They're going to get a lot of looks. But when a team adjusts and says somebody else has to beat us, you have to step up and do just that. It's a challenge and it won't be the first time."
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