John Smallwood | It could be a sign of sunnier days on the horizon
OK, I think it's safe to say that nobody saw that coming. That was the NBA, not the NFL at the Wachovia Center and last night was a Wednesday, not any given Sunday.
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-pmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/LMIX5F5A7VG3DIPONLMKJNEWX4.jpg)
OK, I think it's safe to say that nobody saw that coming.
That was the NBA, not the NFL at the Wachovia Center and last night was a Wednesday, not any given Sunday.
Nevertheless, the shocking result on the scoreboard read 76ers 99, Phoenix Suns 94 – one of the worst teams in the league deep-sixing the second-best.
Let's not go overboard because beating the scorching Suns does not mean the Sixers are suddenly a great team.
After all, Phoenix was on the second night of a back-to-back after winning in Indianapolis on Tuesday, and the Suns were playing without All-Star forward Shawn Marion.
Still, when you're trying to build something and you end up beating a team with the second-best record in the NBA, you don't worry about qualifiers.
"As far as the quality of the opponent, it was obviously the best win of the season," said Sixers forward Kyle Korver, who scored 16. "But that's not what we really want to get into.
"We want to build on this. We don't want to now come out flat against Memphis on Friday. To play like we did tonight and then come out flat on Friday would kind of defeat this."
Phoenix (44-14) came in with a record second only to the Dallas Mavericks (48-9). The Suns were also looking to complete an unprecedented road sweep against the opposite conference.
But with Andre Iguodala scoring 24; Willie Green adding 20 points and the defense holding the Suns nearly 15 points below their NBA-leading 110.9 scoring average, the Sixers maintained a little organizational pride.
Phoenix now joins the 1982-83 Sixers, who went 12-1 against the Western Conference, as the only other team to loss just one road game in a season against the other conference.
"Eastern Conference pride, you know," Korver quipped on halting the Suns' quest to become the first team to sweep its interconference road record. "Well, whatever is left of it. At least we won't be first on ESPN tonight."
It's all about steppingstones for the Sixers.
Too many people are so caught up in acquiring more pingpong balls for the upcoming NBA lottery that they've overlooked the fact that a dysfunctional franchise has developed some character and gamesmanship since the Allen Iverson trade blew the status quo apart.
As big as it was to beat a quality team like Phoenix, the bigger thing was that the Sixers followed up Monday's victory over the Sacramento Kings with another solid effort last night.
"It was a big game for us," coach Maurice Cheeks said. "I think that the way that we started the game - paying attention to all of the things that we've been trying to do, including attention to detail - was working.
"Phoenix, being one of the better teams in the league, we knew they would come back at us, but we stayed strong.
"We've been talking about progress all year long and this is one of the things that we've been pushing for: The progress of playing a good team, even though they were without a couple of their good players.
"We've been trying to get ourselves into the routine of winning night in and night out."
The NBA lottery is going to end up the way fate dictates. If the Sixers are lucky enough to get the coveted first overall pick, they are only going to need one pingpong to come through for them.
Still, it's more beneficial for the Sixers to learn how to win games and be consistently competitive than to lose every night so that they can earn a couple of more chances in the lottery.
Memphis is one of the worst teams in the league, but a win against the Grizzlies would give the Sixers (20-38) their first three-game winning streak since starting the season 3-0.
That's a big deal for this team.
"We've got a young group and we've come a long way in a couple of months," Korver said. "We've still got a long way to go, but our potential is so far in front of us.
"I thought the win [against Sacramento] was great for us, and we could have come out tonight and said, 'They're the Phoenix Suns, so it's OK to lose,' but we came out to win.
"I know a lot of people don't want us to go on a winning streak right now, but that's our goal. We're not here to just get better and lose. We're here to win games."
Beating the Phoenix Suns, however, got a win nobody expected. *
Send e-mail to
For recent columns, go to