It’s a notable feat for a team to go on a 10-0 run at any point during a game, but when a player goes on a 10-0 run on his own… it’s truly amazing. Andre Iguodala’s abilities as a team leader and genuine Star have been a point of contention in the media and with the fan base his entire career, but last night he figuratively choked his critics and brought back nightmares of Andrew Toney raining jumpers to the horror of Celtics fans.

Trailing by 5 heading into the fourth quarter last night in Boston, the Sixers turned on the jets and outscored the seemingly lackluster Celtics 29-19 to take the win, and more importantly build further on the great momentum they’ve created for themselves.

With the 95-90 victory, the Sixers move ahead of Toronto for the 6th playoff seed, just a game back of Washington for the 5th. And you can thank Andre for that.

With just over 8 minutes left in the game, Eddie House’s3 point jumper put the Celtics up 80-69, but that would be the last time they would score until only 1 minute and 38 seconds were left. During that time the Sixers rang off 19 points including a stretch of ten in which Iguodala connected on two free throws, 3 dunks and a fall away jumper.

People will make the point, like I did above, to point out that the Celtics seemed to be going through the motions. It’s pure speculation, but they have wrapped up the division and would be hard pressed to lose home court, however they really needed this game, at home no less, to narrow the chances of Detroitmaking a run to catch them. They had the game in hand, although the Sixers kept themselves annoyingly close throughout the contest.

Andre Miller did what he does, finishing with 20points to go along with 6 assists and 6 boards as well. Thadeus Young, playing beyond his years, poured in 16 (5 during the 19-0 run) to go along with 9 boards, to truly compliment Iguodala’s dominant fourth quarter performance.

The routine of praising the young and inexperienced team is getting tired, but it truly is deserving. The Sixers are putting excitement back into the game in Philadelphia, something I thought had died long ago. But maybe we should actually turn our focus on what this team actually is, and that’s a nice team. They have their faults, but they are where they are because they’ve earned it during the toughest part of the schedule this year.

At the time of the All Star break it was assumed that they would eventually fall back into the depths of the draft lottery, something a lot of fans (including myself) sort of looked forward to as an area of hope. Most people assumed with a few road trips in the way, and several match-ups against the Western Conference, that they would start to show their true colors, but they just keep on winning and some are starting to believe they can make some noise in the playoffs.

I will say it right here, if this team moves up and gets into the 5th seed… they will beat Cleveland and move onto the second round. I won’t comment on any other scenarios for now, but I think that’s their best shot, in any case… no mater what happens, they’ve made plenty of noise already.

At this time last year, many people (again… myself included) were rooting for the team to lose. It was nothing personal against the players, they all certainly seemed to be a group of potentially talented kids. Nor did it have anything to do with the coach, I mean… no one wants to see Maurice Cheeks to do poorly.

The prevalent notion was simply that the best way to increase their chances of becoming better was through the lottery. Billy Kingsaid he be damned if the Sixers would just roll over to get a better chance in the lottery. He argued it was better for the future of the team to win and build confidence, and you can’t deny that philosophy had had an impact here. Iguodala is consistently getting better down the stretch, and although he still has a ways to go, he’s still ascending, and that’s great to see.

It’s been a long time, but it’s an amazing feeling to root for this team to actually win, and with players like Miller, Young and especially Iguodala it’s hard not to.