They have to pull the plug on Reggie Miller the first chance they get. What the Sixers don't need to do is give Indiana any reason to believe they have assumed that this series is over because they have regained home-court advantage, and swagger around town as if they have accomplished something. They need that killer instinct, something they haven't always exhibited this season. We've got to let them know they shouldn't be playing with us in this series. We can't give them any life.
Some explanations sound better than others, but it all means the same thing.
They had been up by 18 points in the first half of Game 1 and by 16 in the second half of Game 3. They allowed Indiana's Travis Best to record 16 points and 10 assists and Miller to travel from one end of the court to another before drilling a three-pointer with 2.9 seconds remaining to steal Game 1. Allen Iverson erupted for 45 points in Game 2, and Aaron McKie helped him out in a reserve role in Game 3 with 22 points, coming within a point of outscoring the Pacers' entire bench for the third consecutive game. But it took just that for the Sixers to escape defeat in Game 3 of this first-round series, which goes to the heart of their problems. All season, the Sixers have had leads and then lost them, with Iverson and McKie repeatedly coming to the rescue while their teammates became spectators.