Sometimes, what professional basketball players do cannot be appreciated fully by watching games on television. At times, a player's contributions cannot be measured properly by looking at the box score. Both statements are true of Iverson.

d 42 points, five rebounds, four assists and five steals. Yet those numbers don't come close to capturing how he dominated the game.

Iverson is so small that 6-foot-1, 168-pound, Kenny Anderson seemed to dwarf him. Sure, Iverson is listed at 6-0 and 165, but on the court he looks much smaller. What he brings, though is a preternatural quickness, a dangerously high tolerance for pain, and a psychotic competitiveness unmatched by anyone since Michael Jordan.

n got big games from both their stars, yet Iverson kept driving the ball to the hoop, getting hammered to the floor, then scraping himself back up to make the free throws (19-20).

The contrast with Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker could not be greater. All three played hard, so it's not about effort. Pierce plays the game like a knife-fighter, picking his spots and slicing deep. Walker plays like the old guy at Y. It seems like he barely moves, yet at the end of the day he's hit for seven three pointers and 27 points.

Iverson plays like someone is holding a gun to his child's head. He's in constant motion, running through elbows, knees, hips, forearms, and full body blows. In game three, he ran down so many loose balls that I lost count. Here's the perfect illustration of what Iverson means to the 76ers: He hit the three-pointer with less than two minutes remaining to keep Philly ahead, then battled all the big men to corral the game-sealing rebound in the final 20 seconds.

With his combativeness and blue collar game, Iverson is the perfect match with his Philadelphia fans. I've been going to NBA games for nearly 20 years, but they've all been Wizards/Bullets games. I'd heard that Philly fans were nuts, and I'd heard the stories of their legendary boorishness and vulgarity. Who boos Santa Claus?

titive and energetic as its star. Three spontaneous "Boston Sucks" chants broke out before the opening tip. Each engulfed the arena. The crowd did the "De-Fense" cheer without scoreboard prompting. They made noise coming out of timeouts without the encouragement of some sideline DJ, like they have in DC. Homemade signs were plentiful.

Unlike Boston, they didn't need to play canned crowd noise over the PA system.

When the game was over and fans were filing to the parking lots, I counted six more "Boston Sucks" chants. What Sixer fans lacked in creativity they made up for with enthusiasm.

I admit that I have no idea which team will win this series. Boston has the two-star tandem to be formidable. But Philly has Iverson and it's hard to bet against anyone with a heart so big.