2008-09 News and Features

Beyond the Shot - Sixers Beat Lakers

Tony Parker. Dirk Nowitzki. Devin Harris.

Each are All-Stars in their own right, but they also have one other thing in common: Each of them stole victory from the 76ers with game-winning baskets as time clicked off the clock.

But last night in Los Angeles, Sixers swingman Andre Iguodala was determined to turn the tide. After reigning MVP Kobe Bryant gave the Lakers the lead with 6.6 seconds left - after being smothered all night and held to only 11 points due in large part to the defensive tenacity of Iguodala - the focus in the huddle was not on Kobe's shot, but rather what the Sixers were going to do to win the game. In regulation.

Not to tie the game. To win.

You won't see it in the game stories or in the box score. Nor will you hear about it much in the media. But it was a point that Sixers guard Andre Miller hammered home to the team during the timeout. Loudly and to the point. There was not going to be overtime at the Staples Center. It was all or nothing - and Iguodala was ready to shoulder the load.

"We cleared it out for Andre and gave him the option," head coach Tony DiLeo said. "He could have drove to the basket, he could pitch for a 3, but he said coming out: 'I'm going to win the game.' So he knew what he was going to do."

But before Iguodala could finish the game - something Coach DiLeo talks to the team about on an almost daily basis - the Sixers had work to do. Down 11 in the fourth quarter, once again Donyell Marshall was called upon to ignite the Sixers on the offensive end. Just 19 seconds later he delivered, and his first of three three-pointers sparked a 20-2 Sixers run.

And when Bryant hit his shot to put the Lakers ahead, the Sixers simply would not be denied. This time would be different.

"I said, 'I'm going for the game right now,' " Iguodala said. "You just have to have confidence in yourself. It doesn't really matter what you did before. You have to close things out."

When the teams went back to the locker room, Iguodala's last-second heroics certainly didn't go unnoticed - even actress/director Penny Marshall asked Dre for his autograph as he walked off the court following his post-game interview with CSN - in the visiting locker room and back in Philly. Miller would say later that he didn't remember the last time he was on the winning side of a game-winning shot like that (he thought maybe once, but wasn't even sure about that).

But a certain member of the opposing team also had something to say about the shot.

"Hats off to him. He's an extremely talented player, and I think the world of him," Bryant said. "We spent a great deal of time talking in the summer, and I was happy with the way he played. He had a good look at it and he knocked it down."

In regulation. A Hollywood ending in L.A.