Bucks Make a Mad Dash

By DIANE PUCIN

June 2, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

MILWAUKEE —

It was all going Milwaukee’s way.

The Bucks were playing with the anger of the righteous, the passion of the wronged in Friday night’s Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals.

Ray Allen couldn’t miss, from anywhere. He scored 19 consecutive points for his team. The Milwaukee fans were howling, waving cut-out pictures of NBA Commissioner David Stern’s face and his hands holding wads of dollar bills, his payoff for allegedly nudging the series toward Philadelphia.

The series had been 3-2 in favor of the 76ers and all of Milwaukee, including the Bucks, was complaining about bad calls, no calls and the way small-market Milwaukee was getting aced out of a chance to play the Lakers.

By halftime the Bucks were leading the 76ers by 29 points. By the end of the game Milwaukee had won, 110-100, and was wondering what happened.

the series heads for Game 7 Sunday at Philadelphia, the Bucks will carry the momentum of the win and the 76ers will carry the momentum of Allen Iverson’s 26-point fourth quarter and the way they made a game out of a blowout.

With 10:24 left in the third quarter, Milwaukee was ahead, 66-33. With 7:17 left in the fourth quarter, Iverson made two free throws to cut the lead to 86-75 and 30 seconds later, Iverson rimmed in, then out, a three-point shot that would have made it an eight-point game.

“We’re an expert at blowing leads,” Milwaukee Coach George Karl said. “Don’t you know? One of our strengths is to get an 18-point lead, let it get back to five. That’s one of our strengths, to explode, go to sleep, explode, fall asleep.”

Iverson, who finished with 46 points on 14-of-33 shooting, said that while his team was unhappy with its resoundingly awful first half, it was taking more than solace from the late comeback.

“We feel good that those guys won’t feel comfortable having a 30-point lead again,” Iverson said. “Usually, when you have a 30-point lead, you feel like the game is wrapped up. But I’ll bet if they have a 30-point lead Sunday, they won’t feel comfortable.”

After Philadelphia had beaten the Bucks by a point in Game 5, all the talk here had been about how Milwaukee was getting the poor end of the foul calls. It is the popular theory that the NBA and NBC want Iverson and the bigger Philadelphia TV market playing the Lakers in the finals. Karl has been particularly blunt about how he thought the 76ers were being treated differently.

And when Karl walked onto the court Friday night, he was bathed in a spotlight and was offered a minute-long standing ovation.

This energy from the stands was one-upped by the Bucks and especially Allen, who finished with 41 points, his career playoff high, and with nine three-pointers, which tied an NBA playoff record.

Over the final five minutes of the first quarter and the first 1:37 of the second, Allen scored 19 consecutive Milwaukee points. This was part of a 24-2 Milwaukee run that put the Bucks ahead, 40-17.

“It was scary,” Allen said of his hot hand. “Being able to score like that knowing I haven’t been shooting well the last few games, I asked myself where this has been. But at the same time I was worried with the lead we had. We have a tendency to blow those.”

The Bucks led, 60-31, at halftime and there seemed to be no comeback in the 76ers when Allen scored on a layup, was fouled by Aaron McKie and made the free throw to put Milwaukee ahead, 66-33. Iverson went to the bench for a rest with 2:37 left in the third quarter and the Bucks were still leading by 28. It seemed silly for Iverson to even come back in.

But he did. With a fury and in a hurry.

In a 14-second span, Iverson scored seven points. He had a four-point play--Iverson swished a 28-foot three-point shot was fouled by Sam Cassell and made the free throw--and then scored on a layup and another foul shot after his own steal. Iverson hit another rainbow three and followed an Allen miss with two more foul shots to make the score 84-73.

The crowd was silent and Iverson was thumping his chest, near his heart. After Glenn Robinson made a 10-foot shot, Iverson sank two more free throws. Cassell missed a too-quick jumper, Tyrone Hill rebounded, passed to Iverson and Iverson pulled up from 28 feet again. The ball settled halfway through the basket, then popped out. For just a moment, the score was going to be 86-78.

But it wasn’t. And Allen notched two more threes himself. The comeback threat was over.

“I admire my group,” 76er Coach Larry Brown said. “We kept coming and coming. We got it down to a workable number with 7:20 to go. Allen got off, our defense kind of started dictating things and allowed Allen to get going. But it was too big a hill to climb. The fact that we didn’t pack it in, though, that was something.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Eastern Conference

Finals

Best of Seven

1. PHILADELPHIA vs. 2. MILWAUKEE

Series tied, 3-3

Game 1 Philadelphia 93, Milwaukee 85

Game 2 Milwaukee 92, Philadelphia 78

Game 3 Milwaukee 80, Philadelphia 74

Game 4 Philadelphia 89, Milwaukee 83

Game 5 Philadelphia 89, Milwaukee 88

Game 6 Milwaukee 110, Philadelphia 100