IS STOCKPILING DEFENSEMEN
It's not a hard-and-fast policy, but the 76ers — and most NBA teams — generally don’t practice the day after back-to-back games, particularly if the second leg was on the road.
But the Sixers, after beating Golden State Sunday in the Wachovia Center and losing badly Monday in Charlotte, spent a solid 2 hours today at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Most of that time was consumed watching tape. Never mind that the Sixers are 7-7 going into tomorrow's game against Orlando, or that they have won five of their previous seven games, or that they remain nicely ahead of last season’s 4-9 start. They don’t have much reason to feel good about themselves.
So, coach Maurice Cheeks, you don’t normally practice after a back-to-back, do you?
“Normally,” Cheeks said.
But you did this time, because ... ?
“I just thought we needed to do it,” Cheeks said. “We needed to clean up some things.”
Coaches sometimes schedule a practice on what would otherwise be a day off simply to remind the players of what’s expected. That clearly was a big part of Cheeks’ agenda.
“We just went through our offense, making it a little crisper, understanding all the things we were trying to get out of it,” he said. “The offense wasn’t everything in the [Bobcats'] game, but it was part of it.”
Bob Cooney has been at the Daily News for more than 20 years, working in the sports department for the past 15. This is his third season on the Sixers beat. He has covered just about everything, but mostly college basketball, where he was the La Salle beat writer for six seasons. E-mail Bob at cooneyb@phillynews.com and follow him on Twitter.
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