Sixers vs. Celtics: Keys to a Philadelphia Game 4 Victory

The Philadelphia 76ers suffered a crucial loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night, giving up 107 points to a team that averaged 91.8 during the regular season.

The Sixers lost Game 3 of the series, falling behind 2-1, because they allowed nearly 18 more points than they averaged all season.

In order to pull even, the Sixers will need to do a few things right to get their backs away from the wall.

Here are three of those things.

Keep Kevin Garnett out of the Post

Kevin Garnett must have eaten his Wheaties before last night's game, because he asserted himself in the paint all over the Sixers.

Spencer Hawes couldn't do anything about it. Elton Brand played a grand total of 15 minutes. And Lavoy Allen came in to foul everything in his path.

According to ESPN Stats & Info (via ESPNBoston.com), Garnett was 8-of-8 from 16 feet or closer through the first three quarters of Game 3. Throughout the entire game, Garnett shot an extremely efficient 12-of-17 and threw in 13 rebounds.

If Garnett is able to do that again, the Sixers are going to be headed back to Boston dead in the water, down 3-1 in the series.

KG isn't as good of a shooter as he once was—and he's playing center, not exactly a position that he's completely comfortable playing.

Put the Ball in Brandon Bass' Hands

If the Celtics' Big Three are being blanketed by great defense, the ball is going to be in the hands of Brandon Bass more often than Doc Rivers would like.

If Doug Collins needs to constantly have his players double-team the Celtics stars, Bass is going to get open shots. Bass cannot hit anything but an open shot.

Single coverage allows for Bass' man to stay with him, and Bass can't put the ball in the hoop with a hand in his face, as he proved with his Game 2 shooting performance of 5-of-15.

In that game, there was a stretch of three possessions in which the Celtics came down the court and saw Bass miss a shot each time. If the Sixers can make that happen, they'll be able to knot up the series at two.

Win the Second and Third Quarters

In Game 2, the Celtics scored just 24 points in the second and third quarters to the Sixers' 36.

Put that next to the Game 3 stat of 61 Celtics points to 33 Sixers points in the middle two quarters, and it's not hard to figure out when Philadelphia saw the game begin to slip away.

The Sixers had a five-point lead at the end of the first quarter, but Boston came out of the gate scorching in the second quarter, going on a 19-6 run to grab a 47-39 lead with 5:07 left.

The second quarter finished with the Celtics outscoring the Sixers 32-16. When your score is doubled by the other team in a quarter, you shouldn't expect to get back on track.

The same thing happened in the third. The Celtics led 60-49 at the half, but by the time there was 5:48 left on the clock, Boston had a 24-point lead thanks to an 18-5 run.

Starting strong and finishing strong are typically emphasized, but Philadelphia's problem is its inability to keep it together in the middle quarters of the game.