Sixers Notes: Sixers Carney: No tanking

MIAMI - It is possible to allow a bad team, playing poorly, to "play out the string" without making changes, essentially letting the team sink or swim when it has already proved it will likely sink.

But that's as close to tanking as the Sixers will get.

Entering last night's game against the Miami Heat, the Sixers were 23-42, the ninth-worst record in the NBA.

Before the game, forward Rodney Carney debunked the notion that the players would purposely lose games to gain the Sixers a better spot in the NBA's draft lottery.

"It's impossible," he said. "You get out there, your natural instincts are to try to compete to win the game. Rather than, 'Oh, I'll miss this shot.' No way."

Carney added: "You hear about it, but you don't want to do it. We want to win every game we can, regardless of some higher draft pick we could get. We don't worry about that, and we don't want to think about it, either."

Sixers big man Marreese Speights, who sprained his right knee in the March 7 game against the Toronto Raptors, did not play last night.

Speights did some pregame shooting.

"The injury is healed. It's just his soreness," Sixers coach Eddie Jordan said. "As long as he can get past the soreness, he'll be fine."

Jordan said his team was hoping to exact some revenge on the Heat, who defeated the Sixers, 105-78, on Feb. 16.

"It's a team that, when we came off the break, we were very disappointed in three games, and that was Miami, Orlando, and Chicago, and we want to redeem ourselves a little bit," Jordan said.

Miami center Jermaine O'Neal was ejected from the game midway through the third quarter. After making a free throw, he appeared to go after Sixers center Samuel Dalembert while running back downcourt. Dalembert and O'Neal were assessed technical fouls, with O'Neal receiving a second technical and immediate ejection.

Miami power forward Michael Beasley, who has an injured left thigh, did not play last night.

- Kate Fagan