This second round series with the Boston Celtics is guaranteed to last at least 11 days, which is just fine with the Sixers, but not what Boston had in mind.
Going back to Boston with the series tied at two games apiece is an opportunity the Sixers are embracing.
"It is a totally different scenario," Elton Brand said of the series being even as opposed to the Sixers being down 3-1. "Down 3-1 is tough -- historically it is tough. It is impossible to come back. A few teams have done it, but it's tough. But at 2-2, we feel good. We feel like we can hold the lead. We can come back and beat this team."
"We have pressure. We want to win this series," Sixers coach Doug Collins said. "We aren't in this just to compete, we want to win it."
For the first time in this series there are two days off between games, which should benefit the older legs that belong to the likes of Kevin Garnett, who has logged more then 50,000 minutes in his career. Ray Allen is approaching 47,000 and Paul Pierce has played more then 42,000.
Brand, who has seen his minutes decline in this series, has accumulated more than 32,000 minutes in his career, while Andre Iguodala has totaled less than half the minutes of KG.
After those two veterans there is little mileage on the Sixers' bodies.
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On one hand, you can say Boston's mileage equals experience, but fresh legs do not discriminate between age and youth.
"When it was one game, day off, then another game it was probably to our advantage," Brand said. "They have a lot of veterans on that team that could use the rest. It will help us, but definitely going to help them too."
"I haven't talked to our guys about the extra day," Collins said. "What I said to them today was we have to go up there and be prepared. We aren't facing elimination -- we are facing a Game 5 that gives you a chance to take the lead in this series and come home. I don't want our team to feel Boston has an advantage just because they had an extra day's rest. I don't want the to feel that at all."
The Sixers have won two games in this series in two very different ways, but consistent has been their competitiveness, whether it is LaVoy Allen's grit guarding Garnett or Evan Turner playing with reckless abandon, as he did in Game 4 when he shot 5 for 22 yet still had a positive impact on the game.
"The competitiveness of the young guys is definitely at a different level right now," Brand said. "They are attacking. If they aren't shooting well it doesn't matter. They are just being aggressive. They're playing defense, rebounding. It is special to see."
"He hears the word attack all the time, but when you attack, you attack with a purpose. And when you get in there you say what do I have," Collins explained of Turner. "He is so competitive that sometimes he just wants to go and try and finish and now he has to start getting a feel when he gets in there, can he kick that ball out and he is going to learn to do that, but I sure don't want to take away his competitiveness."
This is the 13th time the Sixers and Celtics have met in the postseason and thus far this series is every bit the entertaining rivalry that fans have been treated to in the past. Another chapter will be written Monday night.
E-mail Dei Lynam at dlynam@comcastsportsnet.com
