When hope left the 76ers, it left in a massive wave, one that burgeoned as the afternoon wore on, one they could not escape.
This was the wave Boston's Antoine Walker had waited 450 games for, that Paul Pierce had waited 285 for; their first NBA playoff experience. This was the wave that carried the Celtics back onto the basketball map, their first postseason game since 1994-95.

This was the wave that left the Sixers, even with the return of Allen Iverson, hopelessly lost at sea. The Sixers, engulfed by the Celtics' quickness, discipline and three-point marksmanship, went under in a 92-82 loss in the opener of their best-of-five, first-round series.

Iverson, who went through a full practice for the first time the previous day, wore multilayered padding on his left hand designed to protect him from further injury. Maybe the left hand didn't know what his right hand was doing? He shot 4-for-15 from the floor, missing his last 10 attempts, en route to a 20-point performance that included 12-for-15 foul shooting.

He knew he had missed just a month of the originally projected four-to-six weeks. He knew the risk of possibly getting hit again on his hand. He knew the potential consequences that, in a worst-case scenario, could mean surgery and a full summer of recovery. He seemed to never have a doubt that he would at least try.

"I was playing like I was used to playing,'' he said after Pierce had burned the Sixers for 31 points, Walker 20 and Walter McCarty 14. "I didn't think a whole bunch about it. I took what the defense gave me.''

Whether it was the Celtics' defense, Iverson's adjustment or his teammates' adjustment to them, something gave him - and most of the rest of the Sixers - fits. They shot 11-for-36 in the second half; in the course of the afternoon, they got outscored in the paint, 40-22. Eric Snow, an absolute tower of strength in Iverson's protracted absence, missed his last nine shots, finishing 2-for-12.