Allen Iverson 34pts Vs Michael Jordan 30pts 01/02 Season NBA

Sixers' Have Answer to Jordan's Big Half

Michael Jordan was unstoppable at the start, but Allen Iverson was better when it counted.

Iverson scored 22 of his 34 points in the second half as the Philadelphia 76ers won for the fifth time in six games, 91-84 over the Washington Wizards, who saw Jordan scored just two of his 30 points in the second half.

Jordan was dominant in the first half, scoring 19 of Washington's 23 points in the first quarter and adding 10 more in the second. But he disappeared after halftime and Iverson, who scored 12 points in the first half, took over as the most unstoppable player on the court.

The Wizards had a 54-53 lead with 8:32 left in the third quarter when Eric Snow sank consecutive jumpers to give the Sixers the lead for good and spark a 12-2 run.
Iverson, who scored 14 points in the third, sank two free throws and two jumpers during the burst and Philadelphia had a 71-62 lead entering the fourth.

The Sixers had their largest lead, 82-66, with 7:16 remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Wizards rallied with nine straight points.

Tyrone Nesby started the spurt with a three-point play and Tyronn Lue added a running jumper before Jordan scored on a breakaway dunk with five minutes left, his only basket of the second half.

Hubert Davis' jump shot 86 seconds later brought the Wizards within 82-75, but Snow responded with a jumper.

Rookie Brendan Haywood cut the deficit to seven with a layup before Aaron McKie drained a 3-pointer from the left sideline with 1:59 remaining to make it 87-77.

Iverson made 1-of-2 free throws with 55 seconds left and Snow sank 3-of-4 from the line in the final 31 seconds as the Sixers secured their first win over the Wizards in three tries this season.

Iverson made 14-of-32 shots overall but sank 9-of-17 in the second half, including all four of his 3-pointers. He continually freed himself from Lue and broke down the Wizards' defense.

"My whole thing was just getting (Lue) off me," Iverson said. "The whole time he was just grabbing on me and holding. But I've been in the league too long to let something like that bother me. That's why I just keep playing."

Jordan was 13-of-19 from the floor in the opening half but 1-of-8 over the final two periods and missed all five of his shots in third quarter.

"I felt good coming into the game," said Jordan, who made just 1-of-11 shots in the fourth quarter of Monday's loss to Minnesota. "In the second half everyone figured I was more or less tired, but their defense kicked it up a bit and you have to give them credit."

"We tried to play better defense in the first half, but Mike was just on," Iverson said. "When a guy is hitting shots like that, it really don't matter what type of defense you have in front of him. The most important thing you've gotta do is just get the ball out of his hands. In the second half, we made him give the ball up."

Snow finished with a season-high 19 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. McKie added 18 points, including a stretch of 11 straight in the second quarter.

"(McKie) and Snow hit some big shots," Wizards coach Doug Collins said. "They scored 37 points and we were counting on making their other guys try and beat us."

Lue scored 19 points and Davis added 10 for the Wizards, who have lost six of their last seven games.

Jordan scored the first six points of the game and made 9-of-14 shots in the first quarter, but Washington had just a 23-19 lead entering the second.

"I told the team after the first quarter, Michael had 19 points and the team only had 23, and sometimes that's not all bad," Sixers coach Larry Brown said. "We did a much better job on (Jordan) in the second half."

The Wizards scored seven straight points early in the second to take their largest lead, 32-23, with 7:26 left. But McKie provided all the offense during an 11-0 run for the Sixers, making three 3-pointers and a layup.

The teams exchanged the lead four times and were tied twice in the final 4:24 of the first half before Washington took a 46-45 edge into the break.


This was the matchup of the 2 of NBA greatest players. Jordan was playing better in the 1st half while AI brought the sixers back in the 2nd half.