76ers Continue Their Success on the Road

The Philadelphia 76ers played as if they were at home in Indiana--just as they have everywhere they’ve traveled for nearly two months.

Allen Iverson scored 27 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter, and led the 76ers to their 13th consecutive road victory, an 86-81 come-from-behind win over the Pacers on Sunday.

“I’ve lost games for years since I left,” said 76er Coach Larry Brown, a former Pacer coach. “And we’ve started to win now.”

Philadelphia isn’t only winning in Indianapolis, though.

The victory gave the 76ers the fifth-longest road winning streak in NBA history, matching the Boston Celtics of 1964-65 and the Chicago Bulls of 1995-97, who needed two seasons to accomplish the feat.

The 76ers seemed right at home inside Conseco Fieldhouse.

Iverson, despite making only six of 25 shots, finished with only two points less than his average.

Philadelphia’s 31 free throws were more than three times as many as Indiana had.

“It’s a tough game to lose because I thought we played hard enough to win,” Indiana Coach Isiah Thomas said. “And particularly at home, I think we should get treated better at home [by the officials] than we do for a team that went to the NBA finals last year.”

Reggie Miller scored 18 points and managed to keep Iverson in check for most of the first three quarters.

“It is a special feeling,” Iverson said. “I know that my team is so much different than they have been in the past. In the past, if I struggled like this in a game, nine times out of 10, we would lose the game.”

Not this time.

After Philadelphia took a 53-49 lead with 3:33 left in the third quarter, the Pacers used an 8-2 run to take a 57-55 lead on Travis Best’s layup with 5.7 seconds left. They extended their lead to 64-59 2:49 into the fourth quarter.

Then, Iverson took over.