Looking back, everything turned around for this team starting on that charter flight home after losing to Atlanta. The Sixers were sitting at 18-30 and had gone 4-13 since the start of the new year. At that point, I don’t think anyone was thinking that people would be talking about who we were matched up with in the first round of the playoffs. Flash forward two months and this team has gone 22-7 for almost a third of a season now, which is about .750 ball. It has been one of the most unbelievable turnaround I’ve seen since I’ve been in the league. Compare Portland and Philly. One got hot early and caught the world by surprise, and one got hot late. I’m not sure I would want to match up with this team in the first round with the way they’re playing right now.

In basketball there are only four ways you can run. You can run off missed field goals, off steals or turnovers, off blocked shots, or after makes. To me, this team is most effective on the break when they’ve gotten deflections at or above the top of the circle. By playing Thaddeus Young, Andre Iguodala, and Rodney Carney – all guys with length and quickness – out on the top of the floor, they’ve been able to deflect passes out on the free throw line extended and above, which is a great way to get out on the break, something they’ve been very successful in doing.

If you are going to pressure the ball the way the Sixers have of late, you better have someone like Samuel Dalembert to back you up. There are times when you are going to get beat trying for a steal or to deflect a pass and guys in this league are too good off the bounce to let you do that and not make you pay for it. But the one fallback position the Sixers have had is Samuel Dalembert, who has been a monster protecting the rim for this team. They’ve been able to pressure the ball on the perimeter and the times they do get beat, he has been there to make things difficult for the other team.

Another thing that Dalembert brings to this team defensively is the ability to be able to do less double-teaming. As a team, the less often you have to double team, the better you are defensively. There have been a half a dozen times this year where he has played one on one against Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard, or Shaquille O’Neal. Without having to double team, they haven’t had to get into rotations and scramble to defend the three-point line. When you have one guy who can guard those monsters in the post and everybody else can stay at home on their guy, it makes it a whole lot easier from a team defensive standpoint.

I have worked for Pat Riley, who is the most organized human being on the planet Earth and I worked for Don Nelson, who is maybe the most unorganized. They’re kind of like Felix and Oscar on The Odd Couple, though you wouldn’t say either one of those guys is a bad coach. I think Maurice Cheeks knows the game from an X's and O's standpoint at the same level as those gentlemen, but I have never seen anyone in coaching deal with people, deal with hardship, deal with good times as well as Maurice Cheeks has. He was the same guy when they lost seven in a row at the start of the season as when they won five home games in a row going into the All-Star break. To me, that is a huge reason why this young team believes in him and continues to believe in him.

One of the things I didn’t know about Andre – and everyone says he is this quiet reserved guy – is that he is as competitive a player as I have ever been around in the NBA. He genuinely enjoys matching up against the Baron Davis’s and Steve Nash’s of the world and really sees it as a mano e mano competitive situation, almost like, “The whole world is talking about these point guards, but does the whole world realize that I am a good point guard too” kind of thing. His competitive spirit is something the other players have rallied around. Thaddeus Young sees that. Rodney Carney sees that. Early on they were like, wow, I didn’t know this about this guy, and they’re trying to follow and play with the same type of intensity.

In the halfcourt they have been able to open things up and really play more of a dribble penetration game, not necessarily set plays. They have had a few pick and rolls where they have been able to get into the paint and get that drive and kick game started. They have the ability to put four guys out beyond the three point line and play with four guys that can put the ball on the floor. There were numerous times this season where Thaddeus Young was playing the power forward spot and the Sixers in were playing the drive and kick game in the halfcourt. That was pretty successful.

When opposing teams get to focus their attention solely on the other team, there is a good chance that that team might know you as well as you do by the time that series gets under way. Teams will say that the one way you can beat the Sixers is to get back in transition and make them play a halfcourt game. This is a hard team to figure out. They’re 30th in the league in free throw percentage and 30th in three-point percentage, but they’ve improved. There are times when guys can make perimeter shots. Rodney Carney has shown an ability of late to make three point shots. Willie Green has been hot and cold shooting the ball from the perimeter. Andre Iguodala’s perimeter shooting has improved tremendously, but I really believe it’s going to be tested. People play percentages in the playoffs, and if you’re playing percentages against the Sixers, I think you stop them at the rim first and let them beat you from the perimeter second.

With that said, I think the Sixers have done a nice job of not just running early, but in critical junctures in the game like in fourth quarter in a four point game. Whether it’s a deflection or a rebound, they’re still looking to run. It will be a challenge for Maurice Cheeks to continue to run in these playoff settings, in these tight game situations, because that is definitely the Sixers strength.

The question is going to remain of whether a team like Phoenix that plays a wide open style and that has had regular season success doing it can win a championship. No one really got to find out if that style could win last year because of how that Suns-Spurs series ended. I am anxious to see myself how well this team does in a playoff setting considering how they’ve played the last two months of the regular season.

Bob Salmi joins the 76ers broadcast team as the full-time analyst, providing insight to the game while working courtside with Sixers play-by-play announcer Marc Zumoff. Salmi has an extensive television and basketball background, including his work as an analyst on Comcast SportsNet’s Sixers Post Game Live and more than 500 NBA telecasts during his career.

A graduate of Florida Southern College where he played for three seasons, Salmi continued his career in basketball as an assistant coach at Kings College (Pa.) and Muhlenberg College before joining the NBA ranks. Salmi spent two seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers (1987-89) as the team’s video coordinator and shooting coach, working under head coaches Matt Guokas and Jim Lynam. Salmi went on to work with the coaching staffs of the New York Knicks for five seasons (1989-95) working with Stu Jackson, John MacLeod, Pat Riley, Don Nelson and Jeff Van Gundy. He also had a stint as an assistant coach with the Dallas Mavericks during the 1996-97 season, as head coach of the CBA’s Rockford Lightning (2001-02) and as an advanced scout with the Washington Wizards (2001-03).

Salmi continued his career as an analyst for NBA game broadcasts and has been awarded two Emmys for his work as NBC’s “Coach in the Truck.” This ground-breaking program utilized Salmi’s coaching background in the production of the game to bring that unique experience to the viewer. He has served as an analyst for Comcast SportsNet, ESPN and NBC, working alongside personalities such as Bob Costas, Marv Albert, Doug Collins, Mike Breen, Al Michaels and Bill Walton. Salmi’s broadcast experience has given the opportunity to work as part of the production team for every NBA Finals since 1997.

Salmi currently resides in Bryn Mawr, Pa., with his wife Erin and two children: Bradley and Alexandra.