Show The Salt Lake Tribune E6 SPORTS Friday January Iversons Hot Hand Gives 76ers a Spark tunately it worked out night he said THE ASSOCIATED PRESS British VANCOUVER Co- scored 29 points Thursday night nothing unusual about that He also had 11 assists and that meant just as much for the Philadelphia 76ers in their victory over the Vancouver Grizzlies Iverson scored 10 of his 29 points over the final four minutes of the third quarter as the 76ers pulled away with a 14-- run that gave them an 11 point lead But it was Iverson's distribution of the ball early in the game even with the 76ers trailing by 13 points that impressed Philadelphia Coach Larry Brown ' Alien had a phenomenal game" Brown said "When Allen plays like that he Games To Add Dull Playoffs Intra-division- al Spice to to- So-F- ar NFL PLAYOFFS BY GARY MYERS Allen Iverson lumbia 2 1998 NEW YORK DAILY NEWS The shock will take some time to wear off No team lead At home In the playoffs In should blow a the final two minutes The New York Giants were the only home team not to round when they collapsed d hold serve in the were against the Minnesota Vikings The other three games not very compelling: The Denver Broncos avenged last by years monumental upset to the Jacksonville Jaguars the the New England Patriots beat wiping them out Miami Dolphins for the third time this season and second time in seven days and the Tampa Bay Bucs won their first Barplayoff game since 1979 by making the Detroit Liens d ry Sanders disappear ending his streak of 14 straight games The second round includes two more in tra-- visional Tampa Bay at Green Bay and Denver at Kansas games and rematches of games played in December City New England at Pittsburgh and Minnesota at San Francisnine-poi- 115-10- 4 wild-car- Toull 25 S4 115 ! McKie 0 42-1- FT 718 4r8 5U0 Thomas Iverson FG 557 Percentage! toata Teun Rebounds Blocked shots 8 2 Davis 2 Withe- 5 (Raliff rspoon) 14 Thomas Turnovers 2 Iverson 2 Weatherspoon 13 (Iverson 4 Steals larkson Ratliff) None Technical fouli Illegal defense 100-yar- Jackson 5 Davis 3 21 The theme: survive and move on Heres a look at the divisional round: makes everybody better at PITTSBURGH (11-5- ) ) NEW ENGLAND 1997 Meeting: Steelers 24 Patriots 21 OT at Foxboro (11-6- Dec 13 FG 500 Percentages 3 Point Goals Darnels Robinson 0 FT 645 429 (Edwards 6 14 3 3 Mayberry Blocked Lvnch) 10 (Darnels Steals None 27 3 25 33 33 23 23 25 485(19 Officials Ron Dee Ranter A 15 3 None Illegal defense Philadelphia ancouver 4 Edwards Lvnch) Mayberry Technical fouls T 2 10 Garretson -- 115 KM 1931 Ed Middleton Maybe for Playoffs Ewing Vows to Return fine I'm going to be back and get on with my quest to win a championship As for a possible return in tune for the playoffs Ewing would not rule it out "There is still a possibility that I might come back for the playoffs Ewing said Like I told the guys keep the fort down and lets see what happens Im going to keep the faith and hope that that will happen Apart from the doctors telling me that I cant come back this year they the skys the limhavent said that it NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Patrick Ewing NEW YORK made yet another promise on Thursday a promise that is the most important one of his career Ewing making his first public appearance since breaking a bone and tearing ligaments in his right wrist Dec 20 in Milwaukee said he will definitely return to the New York Knicks next season I'll be back Ewing said I wiU definitely be back for next season You gotta believe and I believe I believe that my hand is going to heal The Skinny: It was just a couple of weeks ago the Patriots were a fractured team after giving one away to the Steelers Thats when the Patriots coaches foolishly called for Drew Bledsoe to throw instead of handing off on third lead late in the game Steelers DL down with an eight-poiKevin Henry dropped back and picked it off Pittsburgh conversion won the coin drove for the TD got a toss hit a field goal and as a result this game is at Three Rivers instead of Foxboro In last years playoff game Kordell Stewart in a relief This is his first playoff start You can role was expect a heavy dose of The Bus Jerome Bettis along with the Pittsburgh defense to end this Patriots season The Steelers are not impossible to beat at home in the playoffs the Chargers did it in the AFC title game in 1994 but the Pat3 offense isnt making enough plays to win this one Prediction: Steelers 23 Patriots 13 O MINNESOTA (10-7- ) at SAN FRANCISCO (13-3- ) 1997 Meeting: 49ers 28 Vikings 17 at San Francisco Dec 7 The Skinny: Ten years ago after a 13-- season the 49ers lost at home to the Vikings in the playoffs Minnesota was so dominant Bill Walsh benched Joe Montana and put in Steve Young It was a huge upset But dont look for Minnesota to do it again even though it is coming off the incredible comeback against the Giants Until the final two minutes the Vikings had not done a thing Randall Cunningham will have to take his game up about five levels for Minnesota to have a chance Now is the time the Niners will really miss Jerry Rice And it makes you wonder if he had to come back this season why they didnt just wait until the playoffs And with RB Garrison Hearst ruled out Monday for this game with his broken collarbone they really could have used Rice to take the pressure off Young This Niners offense isnt explosive like in past years but the defense is good enough to at least get them past this round Prediction: 49ers 27 Vikings 10 two-poi- Rebounds 8 3 Thorpe 8 (Daniels shots Reeves Edwards Mavbeny Chilcutt) 2 13 (Thorpe 3 Turnovers Edwards 2 Mayberry 2 Reeves Darnels RobTeam inson New England at Pittsburgh 10:30 ajnJCh 5) Minnesota at San Francisco 2 pm (Cn 13) Sunday's Games Tampa Bay at Green Bay 10:30 am (Ch 13) Denver at Kansas City 2 pm (Ch 5) Contefenc Championships Sunday Jan 1 1 Divisional playoff winners TBA Super Sow) (at San Diego) Sunday Jan 25 AFC champion vs NFC cixxTipton 4 pm di 4 Davis 3 Mchie co That was one of his better games in a long time He came out early trying to get everybody involved that was very significant That opened the game up for himself and everyone else and that became contagious Iverson who shot from the field but struggled from the free throw line gosaid he made a ing conscious effort to move the ball around to his teammates early That's what 1 have been trying to do all season trying not to do too much out there overshadow my teammates Hit them when they're open try to keep them happy For Divisional Playoffs Saturday's Game 2 Ewing 35 appeared to be in a good mood flashing his trademark wide smile His wrist which is In a cast was held up by a sling with only his fingers visible He occasionally clenched his fingers into a fist effect EwThere is no long-terDoctors just said everying said thing is fine its healing right They teU me that they did a very good job in putting it back in place and it was good that I had surgery as quickly as I did that the nerves and everything should be fine Apart from the pins that are in there it looks like a normal wrist at GREEN BAY (13-3- ) ) TAMPA BAY 1997 Meetings: Packers 21 Bucs 16 at Green Bay Oct 5 Packers 17 Bucs 6 at Tampa Dec 7 The Skinny: Tampa did a great job on Sanders ana a Not only did great job running the ball against the Lions Herman Moore the limit and to 65 Sanders hold yards they NFLs leading receiver to four late grabs but both of the Bucs hanirs Warrick Dunn and Mike Alstott outrushed Sanders This has been a wonderful story The Bucs had not had a winning season since 1982 their last playoff year They bad not won a playoff game since 1979 And despite nose tackle Brad Culpepper saying We were hoping Minnesota would win so we could play Green Bay It s hard to beat a team three times in a row in the NFL The Patriots did it Its not impossible But we like our chances this is their stop to get off the playoff train of the NFL MVP They Tampa shut down one will not be able to shut down the other Brett Favre will take care of the Bucs Remember When the Bucs were 0 they went to Lambeau and lost In their history the Bucs are 6 when the thermometer dips below 40 Favre has never lost when the temperature is 35 or below It does not look good for the Bucs Prediction: Packers 30 Bucs 7 (11-6- 5-- DENVER (13-4- ) at KANSAS CITY (13-3- ) 1997 Meetings: Broncos 19 Chiefs 3 at Denver Aug 31 Chiefs 24 Broncos 22 at Kansas City Nov 16 The Skinny: This is one of the great rivalries but amazhave never met in the playoffs There is plenty of ingly they of the history and bad blood here This is the best game weekend So many subplots: John Elway has been a Marty postseason heartbreaker beating him in two AFC title games including The Drive The Chiefs pretty much won the division when Pete Stoyanovich hit a FG with no time left to beat Denver on Nov 16 That was the game when stories surfaced that Schottenheimer offered to take care of fines if his players were ordered to pay up for hits on the Broncos Hes denied it Then theres Schottenheimers decision to go back to Elvis Grbac in the final game of the year although he had missed six games with a broken collarbone and Rich Gannon was on a roll Grbac was rusty in his return but will start against Denver And the backdrop to all this is Schottenheimers miserable playoff record: 0 Look for Elway to make a play to break Schottenheimers heart again Prediction: Broncos 24 Chiefs 20 Schot-tenheim- er NBA ATLANTIC DIVISION STATISTICS AVG BG 216 134 118 102 94 68 67 60 60 42 39 31 28 150 144 128 27 19 90 25 22 53 16 18 14 5 2674 2728 li 11 MU 917 133 TO BIX 4 4 3 122 36 118 121 10 58 25 31 22 6 18 62 0 41 30 24 15 23 2 28 0 4 8 4 22 17 19 7 23 0 12 6 BLK 14 I 09 114 18 7 17 TO 40 6 10 14 13 15 4 6 16 7 23 18 13 955 74 12 45 7 34 15 50 29 42 4 2 2 4 499 149 627 165 HG AVG FGFGA Pll'PT Hardaway G MIN 29 37 8 Austin 29 182 367 PCT 444 496 55 144 PCT PTS AVG 782 557 192 33 667 468 161 33 112 160 153 24 U4 99 76 60 22 52 50 20 7 302 297 528 500 Mashbum Lenard 26 36 3 138 305 452 766 397 28 31 7 112 259 432 878 319 Brown 28 31 1 507 681 277 Murdock 29 164 I)a Mills 5 13 8 444 355 29 17 8 417 9 204 131 122 26 51 T1AM 29 240 UKP ft 240 Mourning Mitjerk 22 Strickland 21 A&kins 21 S mi til ( ausweU 6 Flaw 52 132 4349 35 m 2 12 667 30 762 151 600 111 10 419 39 93 220 32 21 17 15 16 1138 210 10412274 83 224 RFBOIND TUT OPP DEP Hardawav 24 112 176 Austin 82 146 228 79 IS 96 26 21 Mourning 24 47 71 101 30 1 14 Maih'mm 37 80 117 77 23 8 ICTtard 25 73 98 78 23 6 Brown 90 137 227 114 31 40 Murdock 14 43 57 70 2 6 10 36 7 2 4 11 23 19 10 24 14 81 12 6 30 19 3 28 8 16 38 12 a o Majerlf 14 51 90 65 Slndand 28 49 77 4ft 3ft 61 20 12 31 30 37 Asku 12 25 37 M lav Mills Snulii ('aaswll TUM OPP 23 67 li 04 04 02 00 6 10 2 6 8 09 3M 83 777 1223 m 1173 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