When the Sixers won their final regular-season game - thereby avoiding a first-round playoff meeting with Boston - my pal seemed pretty happy. Without Kevin Garnett, he said, he didn't want the C's anywhere near the Sixers .

I thought he was crazy. The Sixers were an inconsistent blob all season - an amoeba with a .500 record and a bunch of interchangeable, unspectacular, uninteresting players. But the Sixers surprised a lot of people by winning that first game down in Orlando. Then they surprised some more people by winning another game here in Philly. Now the series is tied at two games apiece, and they're in a real fight with the Magic.

While all this has unfolded, the e-mails from my buddy have trickled in. They've all featured the same one-line, eight-word message:

Do you know who the Sixers are yet? It's his way of asking whether I've noticed what's happening, if I'm aware that the Sixers are more than just a boring extension of their unemotional head coach, Tony DiLeo (a man who somehow makes Andy Reid seem gregarious and garrulous by comparison). After 86 games, they've finally gotten my attention. I'm intrigued now. Are you? Or are you still focusing on other matters?

It's no secret that the Sixers have been largely ignored in Philadelphia this year. During the regular season, they averaged 15,802 fans per game in a building that holds 21,000 for hoops. Only seven NBA teams out of 30 had lower attendance figures.

On Sunday night, just 16,464 fans showed up at the Wachovia Center to watch the Sixers lose an awfully close game on a last-second shot by that no-good Hedo Turkoglu. At a time the Sixers are making the Magic sweat, you'd think Philly would be buzzing about playoff Basketball.

But the Sixers don't play in a vacuum. They have to fight the other teams in town for attention, and that's no easy struggle. Not lately.

Over the weekend, the Eagles traded up to get a wide receiver, then dealt two picks for cornerback Ellis Hobbs. That's the kind of stirring news that will distract a lot of fans. Meanwhile, the Flyers went down in abject fashion, while the Phillies hammered the Florida Marlins and inched closer to first place in the NL East. I suspect some people were too busy mourning hockey and praising the Fightin's to bother with hoops.

Even the fans who attended Game 4 seemed semi-apathetic until the final, dramatic minutes. They waved their white rally towels the way AARP members ride the exercise bike at your gym - slowly, and without energy.

The Kings of Leon were on hand for a while. Supposedly they're a big deal. They left before the game ended.

During halftime, I asked one of the Wachovia Center security guards for his opinion. I meant of the game. He proceeded to give me a detailed explanation of why he would have preferred that the Birds had taken Brandon Pettigrew instead of Jeremy Maclin.

quot;I'm just not happy with their draft,quot; he said.

It's hard to get a feel for where the Sixers fit locally. Do you sit around with your friends and bellow quot;10, 9, 8, 76ersquot; chants? Or do you remain indifferent? I'm honestly asking, because I don't know the answer.

Do you know who the Sixers are yet?

First, Adam Eaton had the guts to show up for the World Series ring ceremony. Then, he had the temerity to tell the Baltimore Sun, quot;If you guys want to talk about last year, I also won a World Series . . . but that's not here nor there.quot;

And then, in the ultimate slap to Philly's face, the Baltimore pitcher earned his first win last week and threw so well that even the guy who authors the Orioles' Web site couldn't believe it, writing:

quot;Eaton shocked everyone involved with the Orioles last Thursday when he made one of the best starts Baltimore has seen this season. Eaton struck out nine batters, the most he's struck out since 2005. . . . The pressure is on Eaton to prove that he can get deep in the game on a regular basis.quot;

Eaton throws against the Angels tonight. If he ultimately proves quot;he can get deep in the game on a regular basisquot; while the Fightin's are still paying him more than $9 million, Philly and Baltimore are going to have to rumble. There's no way around it.

Either he reverts to his old, incompetent ways or we're headed for an unpleasant intercity smackdown.

The Eagles wasted no time. Not long after drafting Jeremy Maclin, the team's Web site alerted fans that they could preorder his jersey. . . . Jon Gruden wasn't half bad as an NFL Network analyst during the draft. And he liked what the Eagles did. quot;This is my team right now,quot; Chucky said. quot;The Eagles are for real.quot;. . . Comcast SportsNet anchor Ron Burke never fails to amuse me. Yesterday, he threw out a particularly funny line. Burke worked in an old Naughty by Nature reference while calling the highlights of the Nationals vs. Mets game. When Jesus Flores hit a homer off Oliver Perez, Burke quipped quot;Jesus Flores is down with OPP - that's Oliver Perez's pitch.quot; Genius.

Contact columnist John Gonzalez at 215-854-2813 or gonzalez@phillynews.com.