Ep.3: Time for Payback

It all started with the New York Knicks. With all the legends coming back to the league, the Knickerbockers had a very serious task in hand: deciding wether to keep or waive the team's recent years star, Carmelo Anthony. The team did all what they could to convince "Melo" to stay in New York, but he opted out of his contract and became a free agent.

As soon as Anthony hit the free agency market, the Denver Nuggets offered him a max-deal, thus making Melo their franchise player. But sacrifices had to be made in order to have enough cap space for the deal, and the odd one out was Andre Iguodala. "Iggy" was waived from the team, and almost instantly resign with the Philadelphia 76ers, even though they had traded him just a few weeks ago.

Destiny wanted that the Nuggets and the 76ers faced against each other for their season opener. But Carmelo wasn't the only acquisition the Nuggets had made during the crazy offseason. Keeping 9 players of their current squad, including Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried and Andre Miller, they signed Dikembe Mutombo and Robert Horry. Also, Knicks' historic player John Starks signed with the Nuggets as he also hadn't room in the new NY squad.

Iggy wouldn't forgive the Nuggets for waiving him...

The game was played in the Wells Fargo Center the day of Halloween. For the first few minutes of the match, the Sixers' offense relied on their best player, Allen Iverson, as he single-handedly gave the team an 8-0 lead. Although, two deffensive breakdowns allowed John Starks to drain two three-pointers to bring the Nuggets back in the game.

However, another member of the Philadelphia 76ers started to step up in the final minutes of the first quarter: Andre Iguodala. Willing for payback, he shut down Carmelo Anthony, forcing him to end the first 12 minutes dry, with an awful looking 0-5 shooting. In the second quarter onwards, the combined efforts of Andre, Serge Ibaka and Alonzo Mourning completely shut down the Nuggets' offense.

The match was already out of reach for Denver at the end of the first half, with Philadelphia leading by 16. After reaching a 23 point-differential during the middle of the third quarter, the Nuggets tried to make a comeback relying on the sharp shooting of small forward Danilo Gallinari. Although, the Sixers' defense made the necessary adjustments to stop Denver's efforts. The game ended with an incredible poster of Allen Iverson on his former teammate Dikembe Mutombo.

The final result: 20-point win for the Sixers and an awesome game both by Iverson, who ended with a double-double, and by Andre Iguodala, with lockdown defence on "Melo" and great offensive plays.

As Denver left the Wells Fargo Center with a lot of doubts about how good was the decision of letting Iguodala go, the party continued for the Philadelphia squad. Four of the five starters scored double digits and their performance already had told the NBA that "The Brotherhood in the East" was hungry for an NBA title.


Post-game stats:

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