Well, it's official. The 3-seed Celtics play the 6-seed Sixers in the first round. Dagnabit. They had a chance at Charlotte or Orlando, but instead face a team with poise and experience, that causes some real matchup problems for them. The keys? Well, Allen Iverson's health, obviously. It would take amputation or smallpox to keep A.I. out of the lineup in the playoffs; so the Celts have to be ready to assume he'll be functioning at 100%. It worries me that the presence of Mutombo in the middle (tonight at 8:30 on Fox) will force the C's to jack up even more 3's than usual. One approach could be to let Iverson run amok and work on shutting down the other guys; the problem is that the other guys are Eric Snow and Aaron McKie -- perfectly capable of putting the team on their backs for stretches.

The one time the Celtics beat Philly this year, it was largely on the spunk of the newly-acquired Delk and Rogers. Whether this bodes well for the Celtics in a five-game series remains to be seen.

Oh well. We suspected that the road to the Eastern Conference Title would lead through Hoagietown sooner or later. Frankly, though, I would have preferred later. At least I'm not in Milwaukee.