Sixers knock off World Champion Celtics!............. in exhibition opener

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

The Sixers have beaten the defending World Champs!! Ok, so it was only an exhibition game but it still feels good to say. The Sixers are expected to make "the leap" this year and be one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, so any time they can play with and even beat the Celtics is something worth noting.

For the game, the Sixers started the group that is likely to start for most of the season: Andre Miller at the point, Andre Iguodala at shooting guard, Thaddeus Young at the small forward, Elton Brand at power forward and Samuel Dalembert at center. Each of the starters played a minimum of 20 minutes with Young leading the whole team with 36 minutes. Louis Williams came off the bench and led the team in scoring with 27 points while Brand had 4 boards and 11 points in his Sixers debut. The Celtics played with all their big stars and got out to an early lead but the Sixers fought back in the 3rd quarter and held on to win, 98-92.

In all, not a bad way to start the exhibition season. The Sixers will play 6 more games as they prepare for the season opener on October 29th.

Click here for the box score for the game.

And, here's an impressive dunk by Bill Walker over Theo Ratliff: