Sixers & Celtics: Making money in the basement

[Raji]

Thu, Mar 8, 2007By Tim Roberts

You heard the joke earlier this season about the NBA’s Atlantic Division being so bad it should be renamed the “Titanic Division”.

Well, meet the icebergs.

The Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics are floating along, largely unnoticed but capable of wrecking the seasons of the league’s more successful teams.

The Sixers and Celts are two of the six NBA clubs with winning percentages under .400, but you wouldn’t know it from recent play.

They’ve combined to go 10-7 straight-up (SU) and 10-5-2 against the spread (ATS) since the All-Star break and they’re just getting better – combine each team's last five games and those records jump to 9-1 SU and 7-1-2 ATS.

“I’ve had both teams circled for the last couple of months,” says Covers Expert Steve Merril, who believes the teams can maintain their moneymaking status.

“Both are anti-public teams this season and both will continue to have value. But you always have to pick your spots. For example, I’m not looking to play them down the stretch against teams with a real focus.”

The powerhouses from the 1980s have fallen on hard times this season for different reasons.

Boston’s misery is easier to explain: injuries. Perennial All-Star Paul Pierce’s 24-game absence was the crucial blow this year. The team went 2-22 SU with “The Truth” sidelined, including a franchise-record 18-game losing streak.

“The media concentrated so much on the losing streak but it evaded people how much their struggles were entirely related to Pierce’s absence,” Merril says.

The Celtics often kept games close during their losing spell, going 10-13-1 ATS during Pierce’s absence. The team’s young players improved steadily and reintroducing Pierce, a veteran scoring presence, into the lineup was the catalyst the youngsters needed.

Pierce’s attitude helps immensely. Other NBA stars mired in a losing atmosphere would mope, but Pierce is devoted to helping his young teammates learn the game with a vision towards winning seasons to come.

Philadelphia has stayed relatively healthy this season, but departure of star scorers from the lineup played a key role in their losing record as well.

The Sixers revolved around Allen Iverson for a decade before they let him go to focus on the future. The club dumped Iverson and Chris Webber’s huge salaries early in the winter, ditching the pair’s offensive neediness too.

They predictably struggled to find a new offensive identity, but now that they’ve found it, NBA handicappers can’t get enough of the Sixers.

“What I really like about Philadelphia is how they’ve responded to the challenge of winning to help (head coach) Mo Cheeks keep his job,” Covers Expert Dave Malinsky says. “They’ve had days off between their games recently, really giving Cheeks an opportunity to really coach, to make adjustments and to really teach.”

“It’s not like they’re just beating up on stiffs, either.”

It helps that both teams have superstars-in-waiting playing 40-plus minutes a game these days.

Boston beast Al Jefferson was just named Eastern Conference Player of the Week and is averaging 20.2 points and 13.8 rebounds per game since the break. Philadelphia’s new “AI”, Andre Iguodala, is averaging 20.9 points, 7.6 assists and 6.9 rebounds since January.

Both the Celtics and Sixers are back in action on Friday night.

Philadelphia hosts the Los Angeles Lakers, who’ll have Kobe Bryant back in the lineup after he served a one-game suspension earlier in the week. The game tips off at 7 p.m. ET and while the Sixers opened as 1-point favorites, they were 1 ½-point underdogs by Friday morning.

Boston hosts the Seattle SuperSonics and the action tips off at 7:30 p.m. ET. The Celtics opened as a 1-point favorite.

Raji