Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Scuffling Sixers taking it one game at a time
PHILADELPHIA – In a five-day span, the Sixers added three strikes to the loss column. Not the way they would have preferred to emerge from the All-Star break. Nothing they can do about it now, either.
Moving forward requires a one-at-a-time approach. By choice? Not exactly. It’s how Sixers coach Doug Collins wishes to proceed. And it’s the only way his guys know how, he said.
“The thing about it is with this group, I can’t be like that one soap opera. They start out every day, the sands of time, you turn it over and when it runs out, it’s over. We can’t do that. It doesn’t work,” Collins said. “With this group, it’s today. Then we’ll talk about tomorrow. You start looking down the road, we don’t do well doing that.”
Monday, the Sixers held a brief workout at PCOM. According to Thaddeus Young, a few players broke into impromptu games of 2-on-2 and 3-on-3, while others received medical treatment or went to the gym for weight-lifting sessions.
It wasn’t much, but it was something – enough to get the blood flowing, and enough potentially to shake off residual sting from the 0-for-3 week that opened with a loss at stagnant Minnesota, and featured Saturday’s home loss to Miami and Sunday’s road defeat against New York.
A win over the Knicks might have persuaded Collins into giving the Sixers the day off.
“We can’t take days off,” he said. “We have 50 days left in the season. We have to be in the gym.”
Next up for the Sixers (22-32) is equally down- trodden Orlando, which also carries a five-game losing streak into tonight’s meeting at Wells Fargo Center.
The only difference is the Sixers had anticipated better. In the same trade that brought Andrew Bynum here, the Magic shipped Dwight Howard to Los Angeles. A dropoff for Orlando was expected. That wasn’t the case for the Sixers.
That’s why, with each loss, the Sixers likely feel compelled to look at the remainder of their schedule: 28 games, only 11 of them at home, while they sit 10 games under .500 for the first time in three seasons.
“Each and every game, the clock is ticking,” Young said. “Personally, we have to go out there and find ways to win games. I think the biggest part for us winning games is those spurts. We have to be able to withstand those spurts. If we can’t, then it’s going to be hard for us to win.”
Tonight’s against the Magic is certainly a winnable one, which is precisely the one the Sixers are focused on. Looking ahead isn’t an option. Not under Collins’ watch, anyway.
“In Detroit, I had a group of guys who could bite off five games and say, ‘What do we want to do?’” Collins said, “and with these guys, we have to bite off one.”
Thad Young received treatment Monday on the left hamstring that kept him from six games before suiting up Sunday against the Knicks. Young said his leg was fine, his body a little sore … and his ability to predict the future a smidge off.
Getting on the court for 36 minutes Sunday kind of surprised him, he said.
“It did, actually,” Young said. “I noticed one time I was almost out there for a whole quarter and I was like, ‘OK, a sub is coming at some point in time.’ But I felt good. Early in the game, I got a little winded really quick. I remember I was telling (New York’s Carmelo Anthony), ‘Man, my chest is on fire.’ But other than that, I felt pretty good.”
Andrew Bynum, who practiced with the Sixers Friday for the first time this season, was not available. A Sixers spokesperson it’s more likely Bynum will offer an update on his rehab prior to tonight’s game.
Bynum had said at one point that he’d require up to two weeks, from the date of his first practice, in order to get his body in game shape. When asked if it’s fair to assume Bynum is still on that timeline, and potentially ready to go in early March, Collins demurred.
“You’d have to talk to him about that,” Collins said. “I think the one thing I’ve been consistent with is I’m just the messenger. You have to talk to the athlete. He knows how he feels. I’m not trying to dodge, but I think it’s unfair for me to speak for somebody else.”