Thursday, June 7 Give Sixers credit, but deal isn't sealed By Mitch Lawrence Special to ESPN.com LOS ANGELES -- The brooms have been put away. The parade plans have been put on hold. The streak is over. "Now," Shaquille O'Neal said, "it's a series." Kobe Bryant, right, and the Lakers are playing catchup to Allen Iverson's Sixers. The Sixers know it, too. Even after their stunning 107-101 win in overtime in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, they understand that they aren't David and the Lakers aren't Goliath. If it were one of those one-game, winner-take-all showdowns, Pat Croce would be on his motorcycle, leading his parade down Broad Street . According to the rules, the Sixers still have to win three more games. They left Staples Center, after their improbable comeback win, thinking big. And why not? "We now know that we can win," Allen Iverson said after his OT heroics and 48-point effort. They have a right to have a world of confidence after making all of America and Vegas look stupid. They came into the opener installed as 11½point underdogs. As Iverson pointed out, "there's some broke people out there." But just a friendly reminder: The Sixers have still got a Shaq problem. They've still haven't seen Kobe Bryant. Those issues aren't going away anytime soon. Against Dikembe Mutombo, Shaq found a Defensive Player of the Year who happens to give ground as easily as any other center. A few times, Mutombo almost wound up in the basket along with Shaq's dunks. Mutombo doesn't have the strength to keep Shaq out. He'll continue to back up and try for the block. Mutombo insisted afterward that he played "great," but O'Neal should be able to continue to put up monster numbers. And remember this: If he hadn't reverted to his Finals foul shooting from last year -- he missed 12 of 22 attempts, reminiscent of his 38 percent accuracy from the line vs. the Pacers -- the Lakers would have won this game. It's merely one of the many lost opportunities that has put the Lakers down in a series for the first time under Phil Jackson. Their biggest mistake? How about when they had the ball and were up five with 2:40 to play in OT when Robert Horry was called for an offensive foul? It's the first time all spring when the Lakers stumbled. But give the Sixers all the credit. When they fell behind late in regulation and looked deader than San Antonio in OT, they kept fighting. They'll continue to do that. They officially have gotten the Lakers' attention. The best thing about Mutombo's defense is that the Sixers relied solely on him to guard Shaq. That meant every other Sixer was able to stay at home on his man. The ripple effect of Larry Brown's deicison to single-team O'Neal impacted Bryant more than anyone else. For the first time in the the playoffs, he didn't have the paths to the basket, created when the defenses doubled down on O'Neal. He never had the chance to swoop in unmolested for an easy shot. Bryant also saw something he hadn't seen when he drove against the Spurs, Kings or Blazers: A 7-footer waiting for him and challenging his shots. Unlike Tim Duncan and David Robinson, who, mysteriously never had a presence, Mutombo will be there throughout the series, as he was in the second quarter when he blocked Bryant's driving dunk attempt. The whole night, Bryant didn't look like the Next Anybody. For that to continue, the Sixers have to stick to their gameplan and probably will. "They got into Kobe's body, and bodied him on the dribble, stripped the ball when he picked it up," Phil Jackson said. "He didn't clear himself for shots very easily." Bryant ended up missing 15 of 22 shots. If the Sixers had any fear of Bryant coming in -- they obviously didn't -- they now know he's not always Michael Jordan. That is going to work in their favor. "We have the best on the ball defenders in the league," Larry Brown said, naming four of his players. "They can guard anybody one on one. But Kobe didn't have one of his better games. We were just trying to make him not shoot layups." The difference was, as Bryant was fumbling chances and committing turnovers, Iverson did get his shots when it counted. He took 41 in all and figures to get as many in the next game. His seven-point flurry in overtime came after he carried the Sixers in the middle stages, then went about 17 minutes scoring only three points. He even stopped moving to get the ball, and later admitted that he felt that Tyronn Lue was holding him and getting away with it. But the "little kid," as Brown calls him, never gives up. He's all heart, all right. Then again, quit isn't in the Sixers' vocabulary. "We might have shocked a lot of people," said Tyrone Hill. "I don't think we shocked ourselves. We knew we had a lot of confidence coming in. They eat like us and they put their clothes on like us." On Friday, the Sixers will probably find out that the Lakers will fight like them, too. Mitch Lawrence, who covers the NBA for the New York Daily News, writes a regular NBA column for ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories

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