Collins looking to steal some wins
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Collins looking to steal some wins
Marc Narducci
In Doug Collins eyes, his 76ers team should be 26-24 instead of 22-28. That doesn’t make the current record any easier to take.
Collins understands the Sixers are still fortunate to even be chasing a potential playoff berth. They are currently three games out of the No. 8 and final Eastern Conference seed and visit the team that occupies that spot, the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday.
This is the third game between the two teams. Milwaukee has already won two of the first four games. A win on Wednesday would give the Bucks the all-important head-to-head edge, which would give them the tiebreaker.
Anyway, Collins reasons the Sixers should have four more wins due to his theory of stolen wins.
“We have not stolen any games this year but left a few slip away and those hurt,” he said.
He mentioned four games in particular.
The first was a 92-83 loss on Nov. 21 at Cleveland when the Cavaliers were playing without injured point guard Kyrie Irving. In fact current Sixer Jeremy Pargo had a game-high 28 points for the Cavs.
The second loss was a 95-89 loss at Phoenix on Jan. 2, one night after the Sixers earned a 103-99 win at the Staples Center against the Los Angeles Lakers. The victory snapped Phoenix’s six-game losing streak.
Collins also felt the Sixers let two home games slip away in January, losing 90-85 to San Antonio and 103-100 to Memphis.
Against the Spurs, the Sixers led 82-75 with under six minutes left before being outscored 15-3 the rest of the way.
In the loss to the Grizzlies, the Sixers led by as many as 17 points in the first half.
He said the Sixers had a mental letdown in the losses to Cleveland and Phoenix and the team allowed games against San Antonio and Memphis to simply slip away.
“We’d be 26-24 and you are in the playoffs,” Collins said. “That is how fragile it is. We haven’t been able to win any of those games.”
The Sixers have 32 games remaining and still have a chance to steal a few. Collins isn’t so sure these things even out.
“You have to make those things happen,” he said. “We haven’t made those things happen.”
So on a year when little has gone right, beginning with the knee injury that has sidelined Andrew Bynum, to the recent hamstring injury to Thaddeus Young, Collins is hoping to steal a win or two down the stretch. If the Sixers are able to do that, they may be able to steal something else – a playoff berth.
Word has it that the Sixers are in the running for an all-time NBA record....fewest free throws attempted. That must mean the Sixers shoot a lot of jumpers and according to the LAC announcers, Doug told them that his team can't shoot....lol....what a joke this has all become.— scmona
Clipper announcers also said that Hawes and Holiday "might" make the Clip's top 10 players, both as backups not as starters.— JBP- Hawes wouldn't make the clippers he shouldn't even be a starter — bgwille
- spencer and kwame: matt white's available.— capt.reasonable
- Clipper's announcers can make these judgement after watching one game. Amazing they should be General Managers with that much talent. Opinions are like a..holes, everybody has one. Good teams steal games from bad teams, that makes good teams good and bad teams bad. Guess which one we are?— lefty27
- DC can't stop making excuses. He still cannot blame himself for these losses. His offensive play sets are predictable. He also neglects to call timeouts before the game gets out of hand. The team shoots jump shots constantly because that is what the coach practices and preaches. If a team cannot get the FT with regularity, then the team is at a constant disadvantage. Get a new coach to breathe life into the team. Getting into the playoffs will the worst mistake the team can make this year since they will lose their draft pick to Miami. The only good thing at the moment Moultrie is getting PT and playing well.— Manok
- 32 games left and half against playoff teams and this team can't win back to back games, There will be no playoffs this year and Doug is the only person in Philadelphia that can't see that? now is the time to look to the future, play young players and get rid of players that you can't use in the long run. This is a bad team and with little NBA talent— bgwille
- Without a doubt, the Sixers' roster is thin, all too deep with untalented "mentors", and not enough hope for the future with "youth with an upside" (young players just don't fit this coach's mindset, and that's a problem)...This bellyaching,pure and simple, is DC's responsibility, as all who follow the Sixers close enough realize he was the true architect of this current roster...So yes, he's the "excuse machine", from the draining road shedules, to the lack of calls for his jump shooters, to the flowing turnstiles to address a quality backup PG with no Lou (glad Pargo's finally here, but Shaun Livingston was out there for a long time), to the constant crying of rebounding mismatches (while Kenneth Faried, and then Nik Vucevic both excel mightily elsewhere)...The Sixers have officially gone from an exciting fastbreaking team (albeit smaller with that perceived "Fools Gold" upside) who often displayed an uptempo style via liveball turnovers....to a dribble handoff,iso nightmare,overdribbling offensive quagmire that is "longer", but not all to athletic...a boring product..That's all on DC....Last, any notion that Spencer Hawes is not SUPERIOR to either Rony Turiaf or Ryan Hollins is sheer idiocy...Of course he'd make the Clippers, but so what...that team is truly 10-11 deep with few holes, while the Sixers generally get much less widespread contributions in a game....Eric Bledsoe would look great here, if this brass would realize that "multiple" ballhandlers is a good thing, taking pressure off Jrue, while adding needed speed,quickness, and explosion on the court.— bearsfriend
- Doug spoke in some sort of strange "gibberish" language last night after the Sixers debacle. Down by 32 at home. The boos were cascading down. Malik Rose said it was not "dunk city", but rather "dunk country" against the Sixers. Doug tried to shout down any questions about his poor front line at the post game press conference. All he did was blather endlessly about how great the Clippers were. LOSER TALK. He needs to prepare this team; this is his third year. He has a horrible career coaching record.— deanmartin
- Everyone is mad at this entire team. There's no defending anyone right now. The only move they need to make before the trade deadline is to dump Turner. Get what you can get and be done with it. Other than that there's no helping this team. The moves they made last offseason didn't work. They traded away valuable pieces and got nothing in return. That and the lack of Turner's development is the reason for this sorry team. You can blame DC all you want but there's nothing anyone could do with this group. I don't care what people you think they should pick up, or sets they should run. It wouldn't help. The "Trade" and the Turner debacle are too much to overcome.— regulus6633
- Doug Collins is the primary decision maker...he's resonsible for the coaching, the roster and the soft mentality.
DiLeo was promoted a full month AFTER the Andrew Bynum trade.
DiLeo was promoted 2 months AFTER Signing Kwame, Swaggy, and Wright.— scmona - LETS GO SIXERS!!FOR DIE HARD SIXERS FANS COME JOIN THE BEST SIXERS GROUP ON FACEBOOK....SIXERS 24-7— joey dibenedetto
- Haaaaaaaaaaa
How bout the misses layup by Beasley, the missed free throws by Mayo, the non call in swaggyP in the Toronto game, and teams like MEM, ATL, NYK and LAL coming out flat and uninterested resulting in 76er wins?
The team is closer to 15-35 than 26-24— Steve Toll - right dc, in my book you should be 49-1....blow it up and start over again— michael57
- first move is to fire the coach. see how the team responds to someone else's schemes, line-ups and in-game adjustments. and if they still stink, then you blow it up.— rzzzzz
John Mitchell is in his second year covering the 76ers for the Inquirer after joining the paper in November 2011. He covered the Washington Wizards for the Washington Times from 1998 to 2008. He's also worked at the Philadelphia Tribune, the Wilmington News Journal, Courier-Post, Trenton Times and Elmira Star-Gazette.Born and raised in West Philadelphia - not too far from Will Smith - he graduated from Overbrook High School the same year the 76ers won their last championship. He's a proud graduate of Howard University and the proud father of two sons, Jared and Jordan.
ABOUT MARC NARDUCCI
Marc Narducci has served in a variety of roles with the Inquirer since beginning in 1983. He has covered the 76ers as a backup and a beat writer. In addition, Narducci has covered everything from the Super Bowl to the World Series and a lot in between. Narducci also has a true passion for South Jersey scholastic sports, which he has covered for many years.
