76ers falls to Nets 95-89
Dennis Deitch
PHILADELPHIA – The 76ers prevented themselves from hemorrhaging their way right out of the playoffs with a pair of convincing road wins. That doesn’t mean a postseason berth will come easily.Three days after putting a good road hurting on the Nets, the Sixers invited them to Wells Fargo Center for a rematch Friday night and […]
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PHILADELPHIA – The 76ers prevented themselves from hemorrhaging their way right out of the playoffs with a pair of convincing road wins. That doesn’t mean a postseason berth will come easily.

Three days after putting a good road hurting on the Nets, the Sixers invited them to Wells Fargo Center for a rematch Friday night and put up a clunker. Thanks to an inability to finish at the rim and a few brutally bad unforced errors, the Sixers went down, 95-89.

Doug Collins had an uneasy feeling entering the game, even though the Sixers played their best games all month in wins at New Jersey and Toronto earlier in the week.

‘We did not have a focused shootaround,’ Collins said of the team’s morning walk-through. ‘The coaches and I all ride home together, and I said, ‘How did you guys like shootaround?’ And they said, ‘Didn’t like it, wasn’t focused.”

There were some epically hideous moments in this one. The crunch-time gaffe came courtesy of Thad Young, who with the Sixers trailing by three with two minutes remaining caught a pass 10 feet from the basket and had absolutely no Net remotely in the vicinity. As Young went to dribble in for an easy dunk, he lost the handle and as the ball rolled toward the end line he made a diving save.

One problem: He saved it to New Jersey, and instead of cutting the Nets’ lead to a point, they went down in transition and pushed the lead to five, 90-85.

At least that one could be chalked up to extremely ill-timed klutziness. Andre Iguodala’s stunt in the third quarter was out-and-out laziness.

After Kris Humphries (18 points, 13 rebounds) made a jumper to get New Jersey within two early in the third, Jrue Holiday threw the inbound pass to Iguodala, who was some 30 feet across and up court. Iguodala immediately caught the ball and threw a weak, underhand flip that wasn’t remotely close to Holiday.

Deron Williams had no problem hustling to the ball and taking a free dunk to tie it, 48-48. Collins immediately called a timeout, yet when the Sixers went back onto the court, Iguodala remained in the game.

Few of his teammates would have had that opportunity. From that point on, the game was a slog, with neither team putting together a run, the scoreboard wobbly to each side. It came down to which team’s shooters would start making, and Gerald Green (12 of his 23 points in the fourth) and MarShon Brooks (nine of his 22 points in the fourth) were able to hit down the stretch.

‘That’s the disappointing part. The lack of efficiency, the lack of a sense of urgency in the moment,’ Elton Brand said. ‘We have destiny in our hands and we’re turning the ball over, not getting shots at the basket. Our execution … we can’t have that.

‘This is a big challenge for us. We have to step up as a team and not fear it. This is an exciting time … It felt like we turned a corner winning those two games, but losing this one is a big step backward for us.’

The Sixers scored the first six points of the game, all on Brand mid-range jumpers. He was feeling it … and then the shots dried up. After making those first three shots in the opening 128 seconds of play, Brand would take just four more shots from the floor in his last 28-plus minutes.

It made little sense. But that was par for the evening.

‘It happens sometimes,’ Brand said, struggling to stay diplomatic. ‘Sometimes I get in the flow and get those touches, and sometimes I don’t … But yeah, I’d like to be out there touching the ball more, trying to do something positive with it.’

‘It was 11-4, and then it was not the same team,’ Collins said. ‘Sixteen turnovers, 20 points (for the Nets off the turnovers) … I don’t know how many times guys ran in from behind and knocked the ball loose. Just carelessness.’

It came against a 22-38 team, yet that wasn’t the reason why Brand was embarrassed by the performance.

‘Not because of the opponent’s record,’ he said. ‘There just wasn’t that sense of urgency to get this game. We couldn’t put the hammer down. That is what’s disappointing about it.’

NOTES: Before the game Collins said he has agreed to serve as a basketball color analyst this summer for NBC’s coverage of the London Olympics. Asked if he agreed with Dwyane Wade’s assertion that the USOC should pay pro players for their services in the Olympics, Collins said, ‘They are. They’re paying me to broadcast the games. And I’d probably do it for free if they asked.’ … The Sixers’ best hope to wriggle their way out of a first-round matchup with either Miami or Chicago likely will be to track down the Orlando Magic. However, they blew a shot to move within a game of them in Orlando Monday with the loss to New Jersey.

Follow Dennis Deitch on Twitter @DennisDeitch.

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