DEEP SIXED

The Sixers lost a winnable game tonight, dropping to 0-2 against the Celtics in their best of 5 series. They are but a shell of last year's team that made a heroic run to the Finals. All the talk has been about the changed cast - Harping, Coleman, Claxton, Blount and McKey replacing Lynch, Hill, Jones, Geiger and MacCulloch. With the exception of MacCulloch, the Sixers do not miss their departed supporting cast. No, the biggest drop-off has come from their man-mountain of a center, Dikembe Mutumbo. While in last year's playoffs, Mutumbo dominated every center not named Shaquille O'Neal, so far in this series he has been a non-factor. Without Deke's dominance inside, the Sixers have simply not been able to match the speed and shooting of the Pierce-Walker Celts. As Mutumbo is just getting older, this may signal the beginning of the end of the Sixers' run as contenders.