Tuesday, June 5 Sixers won't be scared off easily By Peter May Special to ESPN.com We're exhausting the ways to describe the Philadelphia 76ers. They're resilient, resourceful and remarkable. They've survived successive seven-game series and are about to embark on what for each current player and coach will be the biggest basketball journey of their professional careers. Finals schedule All times ET Game 1: June 6 at LA, 9 p.m. Game 2: June 8 at LA, 9 p.m. Game 3: June 10 at East, 7:30 p.m. Game 4: June 13 at East, 9 p.m. Game 5*: June 15 at East, 9 p.m. Game 6*: June 18 at LA, 9 p.m. Game 7*: June 20 at LA, 9 p.m. * - if necessary So let's add another word to the description: unfazed. The Sixers are many things and few expect the Lakers to be rattled or unnerved by them. But the Lakers cannot, nor should not, go into this series thinking Allen Iverson and the boys are going to be starstruck or in awe of the defending champions. That is one quality we can't say for certain was part of the package for the Lakers' previous conquest. We all thought the Spurs had the requisite toughness and persistence to make it a fight in the Western Conference. But at the first sight of the Lakers, they acted like the kid in the Disney commercial who babbles on endlessly about what he'll do when he meets Mickey Mouse and then is speechless when the encounter actually does occur. How else to explain those humiliating losses in Los Angeles in Games 3 and 4? The Lakers have all the earmarks of an intimidating, daunting team, not the least of which is the fact they haven't lost in sixty-something days. They have the aura of champions the same way the Bulls had it in the 1990s and the Celtics and Lakers had it in the 1980s. They expect to win. They have the game's most dominant player in Shaquille O'Neal. He is playing even better than last year, a terrifying proposition. They have the game's best coach in Phil Jackson, whose mere guru-like presence invokes an unspoken sense of one-upsmanship. The Sixers don't care and they won't care. We'll never know if the Bucks would have had that 'glad to be here' feeling, but we do sense that they don't have the resolve of the Sixers or the killer instinct (Scott Williams excepted.). Philadelphia quite likely will lose this series, but it won't be because they're going to have that 'deer-in-the-headlights' look because (a) they're finally in The Finals and (b) they're playing -- Ohmygosh! -- the Lakers! It all stems from Iverson, who has undergone quite a public metamorphosis over the last seven months. At the beginning of the season, he was seen as Evil Incarnate from the cavalier way he approached his job to his CD with the disgusting lyrics. Now, we never see him without his kid, he's the reigning Most Valuable Player, and you have the feeling that Disney would cast him in Bing Crosby's role in a remake of "The Bells of St. Mary's" in a nanosecond. (That's fine as long as Halle Berry gets the Ingrid Bergman role.) The Sixers' determination starts with Allen Iverson. Iverson has been a human sacrifice all year, battling every injury imaginable to play and play well. When he shoots like he did Sunday night -- and admittedly he doesn't do that often -- the Sixers become a very difficult team to beat. But it's more than just the scoring that he gives to his team. He also bequeaths a sense of single-minded determination as if by osmosis. He's the unquestioned leader and his teammates have seen what he has been through. More than anyone else, they feel his pain. They've watched him hurl himself into the air with nothing but a hard, wooden floor as a cushion. They've probably watched it too many times. The Celtics went through the same thing in 1987, when they made their last appearance in the NBA Finals. Kevin McHale was playing with a broken foot. Danny Ainge had a sore knee. Bill Walton was finished. Robert Parish rolled an ankle, took forever to rise, but limped back into action. "There's always that feeling that if one guy is doing it, then everybody should be doing it too," recalled Jerry Sichting, a reserve guard on that team. "Once somebody is hurt and goes out there and tries to lay it on the line, the next guy is bound to feel the same way. Once you're in all in that foxhole together, no one is going to be the one to call for the medic." That team, like the Sixers, survived back-to-back seven-game series to outlast everyone else in the conference. That team, like the Sixers, knew they had to play a better, deeper, healthier and more rested Lakers team in The Finals. Larry Bird, completely spent from the conference final against Detroit, went into the interview room after the game and said he really, really, really was hoping that his team didn't have to go through another series. But they did. And they lost in six. It was interesting to watch the Sixers after their big win Sunday night and all the attendant hoopla. We now are in the age of instant celebration, instant recognition and instant gratification. We have the obligatory fireworks before every game. We have confetti and streamers released in buildings when a team wins a single playoff game. We had the same Sunday night along with the attendant hats and shirts signifying the Sixers' conference crown. We can't imagine the 1980s Celtics or Lakers doing that -- can't you just envision Bird wearing a hat signifying he's a conference champion? But times have changed in the NBA and we had Stu Jackson (where were David Stern or Russ Granik?) giving the Sixers the trophy for the conference title. Winning the Eastern Conference title this year is like winning the New Hampshire primary: you'll get to beam for one night and you'll get the buzz for a day or two. Then you realize what lies ahead. That's the way it is now for Philadelphia. They're the Eastern Conference champions, a title they merit and deserve. But they're also something else, something that might actually make the final playoff series of 2001 more than just one more Laker romp. They're intimidation-resistant. They won't cower or flinch at the sight of those gold and purple uniforms or all those celebrities sitting courtside. They don't have the time to be burdened by such trivialities. It is not in their makeup. Being unfazed won't be enough to win against what looks to be a much better team. But it may be enough to make the Lakers know that the NBA Finals isn't simply the last, obstacle-free path to their presumptive coronation. Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories

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