Jrue Holiday

Because they had just eliminated a team whom they had put in the untenable position of being down 3-1 in a best-of-seven series, the Sixers knew this was not where they wanted to be heading into Boston for Game 5 of their semifinal series against the Celtics. Only eight times in NBA history has a team rallied from a 3-1 deficit to come back to win a playoff series, something the Sixers heard repeated over and over again after going up 3-1 against Chicago in the first round. And had the Sixers not overcome a huge third-quarter deficit with an unbelievable rally on Friday, this is where they would find themselves.

These two youngsters are clearly under the most pressure to deliver on the expectations. They are the face of hope for the Sixers. Veterans Andre Iguodala and Elton Brand make the most money by far, but Sixers fans are staking everything in Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner becoming the best backcourt since Maurice Cheeks and Andrew Toney. That's asking a lot of two kids who have a combined 51 NBA starts between them, and one of the two has zero. At 19, Holiday was the youngest player in the NBA last season, but once former coach Eddie Jordan gave him the ball for good, he began to show flashes of a top-notch floor general.

After Sunday's practice at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, 76ers coach Doug Collins thought Jrue Holiday was planning to play more basketball with his teammates in a pickup game. Collins persuaded Holiday to take the rest of the day off. The first-year Sixers coach is doing his best to preserve the strength of his second-year point guard. Though Holiday is only 20, he has shown some signs of fatigue. Collins has said he is trying to monitor Holiday's minutes in games and his activity once practice is over.

With each selection of the NBA draft, the 76ers knew they were that much closer to landing Jrue Holiday, a projected lottery pick, at the 17th spot. Earlier in the night, general manager Ed Stefanski said, he had debated moving up for Holiday, the 6-foot-4, 19-year-old point guard from UCLA whom most analysts considered a top-10 pick. Stefanski soon realized that Holiday might last without the team's improving its position. And he did. "As it got further and further in the draft, there was a comfort level," Stefanski said.

Until he actually gets into the Staples Center, actually steps on the floor, Jrue Holiday remains more excited to see his family than to play in Friday's Rookie Challenge. Holiday, the 76ers' second-year point guard, is the team's only representative this weekend in his hometown of Los Angeles, site of NBA all-star weekend. In addition to seeing family, Holiday also seems concerned about the weather. "I'm excited to go home," Holiday said. "I'm excited to be home. I've heard it's been raining.

Slowly but steadily, 76ers coach Eddie Jordan is moving away from power forward Elton Brand and toward a faster, sleeker style of play. On Monday night, Jordan moved Brand to the bench in favor of rookie point guard Jrue Holiday. Yesterday, in advance of tonight's game against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Wachovia Center, Jordan refused to commit to the same, Brand-less starting lineup, but his words sounded awfully like a commitment. "I really don't know," said Jordan, when asked if he'd keep the same lineup tonight.

WATCHING the video from the Sixers' Game 5 loss on Monday night was going to be unpleasant, like Snooki trying to portray Margaret Thatcher instead of Meryl Streep. So Sixers coach Doug Collins, in order to soften the blow and change the negative vibe, went to the archives and also popped in footage from when the Sixers beat the Celtics in the 1982 Eastern Conference finals. The rivalry with the Celtics was at its best when Wilt Chamberlain traded elbows with Bill Russell in the 1960s, first as a Warrior and later as a Sixer.

Long before this year's birth of the Crazy Fans Section, Alan Horwitz was a lone-wolf Sixers fanatic — sitting, standing, kneeling, jumping, fist-bumping at the end of the 76ers bench, exchanging death stares with Kobe Bryant, hovering physically closer to Coach Doug Collins than some of the reserves. "I'm in the huddles, hearing what the next play is — it's like a dream come true," said Horwitz, chairman of Campus Apartments, which develops student housing in 26 states. "I grew up sitting in the Convention Hall rafters, watching Wilt Chamberlain, and now I'm so close, it's like I'm the sixth man on the team.

A 15-point deficit at the half could kill a team's confidence. So could the thought of falling behind three-games-to-one in a series. But no, Lou Williams said. Adversity made things easier. "Everything's off the table. When you're getting your butt kicked, you've just got to compete," he said after scoring 15 points in the Sixers' 92-83 win. "When you're down [by 18], the basket gets bigger because there's not really a lot of pressure on that next shot. Everybody just played like that.

ELTON BRAND strode through the corridors of TD Garden dressed like a stockbroker, as amiable as a preacher. A security guard congratulated Brand on his exceptional effort in a losing cause. "Thanks," said Brand. "See you Saturday. " It was Monday. The Sixers had just lost Game 5. Brand was, in effect, assuring a Sixers win in Game 6 on Wednesday night. A return to Boston for a Game 7. Which meant that he would be a Sixer for one more game. Maybe more.

GAME 6 RECAP Score: Sixers 82, Celtics 75 What happened: For the sixth straight game, it came down to the third quarter. The Sixers, behind the rejuvenated play of Elton Brand, held the Celtics without a field for the first 5:37 of the quarter (0-for-7) and forced Boston into five turnovers. Brand, who played 33 minutes, began the quarter by blocking Game 5 hero's Brandon Bass' shot and would score six points of his own. The Sixers, meanwhile, hit six out of nine shots, didn't commit a turnover and turned a 36-33 deficit into a 46-43 lead.

There is mutual admiration by coaches Doug Collins and Doc Rivers when talking about each other's point guard. Long before the Eastern Conference semifinal series between the 76ers and the Celtics reached win-or-go-home status - the winner will be determined in Saturday's Game 7 at Boston - Collins recognized that Boston's Rajon Rondo was capable of controlling not only the tempo of games but the series outcome as well. And Rivers, at the start of the series, had this to say about Jrue Holiday, the Sixers' third-year guard.

PRINCETON - Lauren Cheney went through a gamut of emotions leading up to the U.S. women's soccer journey in the 2008 Olympics. Cheney went from initially being spurned, to being added to the team at the last minute, to competing in the final three games, including the 1-0 win over Brazil that earned the U.S. the Olympic gold medal in Beijing. First named as an alternate, she was added to the 2008 team when Abby Wambach broke her leg. "It was hard, initially, not to make the team - but to be back on the team was bittersweet because I didn't want Abby to get injured," Cheney said after a recent U.S. women's national team practice at Princeton University.

WATCHING the video from the Sixers' Game 5 loss on Monday night was going to be unpleasant, like Snooki trying to portray Margaret Thatcher instead of Meryl Streep. So Sixers coach Doug Collins, in order to soften the blow and change the negative vibe, went to the archives and also popped in footage from when the Sixers beat the Celtics in the 1982 Eastern Conference finals. The rivalry with the Celtics was at its best when Wilt Chamberlain traded elbows with Bill Russell in the 1960s, first as a Warrior and later as a Sixer.

IT COULDN'T last. Not for the Sixers. The beauty of the game played by both teams Monday lay in the abandon with which each passed and caught and shot the basketball. The Sixers lost the game when they lost their abandon. The season will be lost Wednesday night if they don't find that freedom again. The Celtics won Game 5 because they were refreshed, yes, but also because they were confident in their capabilities. Similarly, the Sixers controlled the first portion of the contest because they played without a thought of failure.

Watching the video from the 76ers' Game 5 loss to Boston on Monday night in the Eastern Conference semifinals was going to be unpleasant - like Snooki, instead of Meryl Streep, trying to portray Margaret Thatcher. So Sixers coach Doug Collins, hoping to soften the blow and change the negative vibe, went to the archives and also popped in footage from when the Sixers beat the Celtics in the 1982 conference finals. The rivalry with Boston was at its best when Wilt Chamberlain traded elbows with Bill Russell in the 1960s, first as a Warrior and later as a Sixer.

Long before this year's birth of the Crazy Fans Section, Alan Horwitz was a lone-wolf Sixers fanatic — sitting, standing, kneeling, jumping, fist-bumping at the end of the 76ers bench, exchanging death stares with Kobe Bryant, hovering physically closer to Coach Doug Collins than some of the reserves. "I'm in the huddles, hearing what the next play is — it's like a dream come true," said Horwitz, chairman of Campus Apartments, which develops student housing in 26 states. "I grew up sitting in the Convention Hall rafters, watching Wilt Chamberlain, and now I'm so close, it's like I'm the sixth man on the team.

ALL THIS rest might kill the Sixers. Tied at 2 in their Eastern Conference semifinal, the Celtics own homecourt advantage. Both Celtics home games come off 2 days of rest. They had Saturday and Sunday off, at home, with balmy temperatures and light breeze. That's nectar for the elderly. Three of their top seven players rank in the top 14 in games played among active players: Kevin Garnett (No. 2), Ray Allen (7) and Paul Pierce (14). All three rank in the top 15 of playoff games played by active players.

Because they had just eliminated a team whom they had put in the untenable position of being down 3-1 in a best-of-seven series, the Sixers knew this was not where they wanted to be heading into Boston for Game 5 of their semifinal series against the Celtics. Only eight times in NBA history has a team rallied from a 3-1 deficit to come back to win a playoff series, something the Sixers heard repeated over and over again after going up 3-1 against Chicago in the first round. And had the Sixers not overcome a huge third-quarter deficit with an unbelievable rally on Friday, this is where they would find themselves.