The Boston Celtics as a team rely on two players to win them games; Paul Piece and Antoine Walker.  When down 0-2 in the opening round against these Celtics the Philadelphia Sixers did their homework, reviewing tape and looking for weaknesses to exploit?  Did they find any?

Well, the series is now tied at 2-2 with the deciding game to be played today if that answers your question.  Boston has had their chances to close out the series in each of the past two games, but their stars either will not or can not do what is necessary to push their team to victory.  After all, a team is only as good as it?s stars, right?

So what did the Sixers do?  Looking at the game film, it was easy for Philadelphia to recognize that Pierce has suspect ballhandling skills, and that he is prone to mistakes the second you make him put the ball on the floor. Everyone knows Pierce and Walker rely on jump shots entirely too much, and that neither will spot wide-open teammates.

"We made them turn the ball over in certain isolated situations," said Sixers assistant coach Randy Ayers. "It was just good defense."

Pressure these two and they will turn it over.  Don?t worry about them hitting the open man because they don?t look.  They simply do not have confidence in their teammates, and sadly even the Celtic players have noticed this.

"They don't trust in the rest of us," one Celtics player told Steven Smith of the Philadelphia Enquirer. "They're great, but that's their problem."

"Sometimes, you force them to put the ball on the floor,? added guard Eric Snow.  ?It's not necessarily a knock on anybody. We don't want them to shoot open shots and play off each other. We want to make them make plays. It's about forcing guys into their weaknesses."