Help and recover.

It is one of the most common defensive laws in basketball. Through four games this season, in which they've won two, the 76ers appear to have the help part down. It's the recover part that is giving them the trouble. And that has led to an alarming number of made three-pointers by their opponents.

Of the 438 points scored against the Sixers this season, 153 of them, or 35 percent, have come from shots beyond the arc. Opponents have made 51-of-113 treys, or 45 percent.

In the season-opener at Orlando, the Magic drained 16 of 29. In the home opener in Milwaukee, the Bucks shot a pedestrian 7-for-23, then Halloween night in New York, the Knicks launched 41 threes, converting 14. Then in Tuesday's disastrous 105-74 loss to the Celtics, Boston canned 14 of 20.

The help and recover principle goes like this: The farther your man is from the basketball, the more the defender slides to the lane for help against penetration and to cut off passing lanes. As the ball moves closer to his man, the defender also gets closer. Once the ball comes to the defender's assigned player, he should be there as the ball gets there. That's the recover.

"You're supposed to be in a help position off the ball," said coach Eddie Jordan following yesterday's practice at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. "There are positions on the floor where you're supposed to be when the ball's on the side of the floor. [Tuesday night] we didn't get those positions. The most important thing in help defense is your posture. Are you standing the right way? Second of all is your positioning. Are you in the right position when the ball is on the wing or in the corner or at the top? And then there's your vision. Are you seeing the ball and your man? Those are the most important things in help defense."

Again, all of which his team seems to have down. But about that recovery part.

"It all comes from communication," said forward Thaddeus Young. "We have to communicate better as a team. Those guys started knocking down shots and we didn't communicate. We were just going with the flow and trying to play through it. I think if we talk through it better, we'll be fine.

"As long as we're helping, we do have to recover back and try to get back to our man and try to push guys back to their man. We've been doing a poor job of doing that. That's why teams have been able to hit a lot of threes. We definitely have to do a better job of recovering. We're doing a great job of helping, the recovering part is just the hardest part right now."

Rookie Jrue Holiday knows there's a problem at the defensive end, but like Young, thinks correcting it won't be that difficult.

"I think it's about the rotation," said Holiday. "I think we help too much. I know there were times when I was stuck down low with a big man because I was waiting for my man to come back. Maybe sometimes we need to be a little more selfish and keep our eye on those outside shooters."

Whatever the problem, the Celtics certainly exploited it Tuesday. Subs Rasheed Wallace and Eddie House came off the bench and combined to hit 10 of their 13 three-point attempts.

"I just think that if you've got a guy who can make six out of eight threes [Wallace] and a guy who can make four out of five [House] coming off of screens on the move, then that's the way the night is. I don't think we have horrible three-point defense. I just think you have tremendous shooters out there. When a 6-10 guy can make a shot 3 feet beyond the three . . . Let's just see over the next six or seven, let's take it to 10 games and see if we have horrible three-point defense or not."

Six shots

 

The team will practice today before hosting the New Jersey Nets tomorrow at the Wachovia Center . . . Rasheed Wallace was his usual demonstrative self in his first visit to his hometown as a Celtic, yelling one time to a heckling fan then screaming several times after knocking down his shots . . . Jason Smith was the first sub off the bench Tuesday night after not seeing any playing time in Saturday's overtime win against the Knicks.