Collins never lets teachable moment slip by with Sixers

Doug Collins is a basketball pundit. There is nothing about the game the man doesn't know, doesn't remember. He can recall his first 17 games as an NBA head coach with the Chicago Bulls as easily as he can this morning's practice with the 76ers.

There is nothing important during a game he doesn't see, often a second or a full play before it plays out.

He wants to convey that knowledge to this young team he has. From the smallest of details to the biggest of game-changing shots, Collins wants his team to be as cerebral about the game as he was as a player and as he is as a coach.

It was the reason he called a timeout on Monday night against the Phoenix Suns with 46.4 seconds remaining and a 10-point lead. There was a lesson to be taught, and Collins needed to educate.

"I wanted to get the guys to get the ball inbounds and I wanted to talk to them," Collins said. "We got sloppy."

Not so dangerously sloppy that the win was ever in doubt. But sloppy enough that a 21-point lead had dwindled to 10 in 3 minutes. Collins won't stand for that.

"I wanted to talk to them. I don't like our team getting sloppy at the end," he said. "I told them I have never coached a garbage minute in my life, so every play you are out there, you are being evaluated. I don't want to play to the score."

No matter the personnel in the game, Collins doesn't want a minute of mental lapse. Concentration is demanded for the full 48 minutes, and if there is a lesson to be learned, no matter the score or the time remaining, Collins will teach it.

"One of the other reasons I wanted to call timeout at the end of the game was because Evan [Turner] set a screen out of bounds, and I wanted to make sure that he knew the rule that that's a violation," the coach said. "I'm teaching all the time. That's one thing that I'm trying to do all the time is teach."

The team is listening. His big point of interest before the season was protecting home court. When the Sixers defeated the Suns by 105-95 on Monday, it was their 13th win in their previous 16 games at the Wells Fargo Center and improved the overall home record to 14-7.

It is a nice sign for Sixers fans that when Collins sets goals and sets out to have his team do something, the players are conscious of trying to reach them.

However, playoff talk right now is not something Collins wants to hear. After Monday's win, he said that all the talk about the playoffs is over with. He just wants his team to concentrate on one game at a time. Right now, that will be tonight against the Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre.

The Sixers are getting the Raptors at a good time; Toronto has lost eight straight games. The Raptors are severely shorthanded, also, as they played Monday against Memphis with only nine available players. Out for that game were Jose Calderon (flu), Leandro Barbosa (hamstring), Reggie Evans (foot), Joey Dorsey (knee) and Linas Lkeiza (knee). Calderon is listed as day-to-day and should be back tonight. Evans, a former fan favorite with the Sixers, broke his foot in late November.

The Sixers could overlook this game, against a struggling and hurting team.

There is a lesson to be learned for teams that do that, though. And you just know Collins already has preached it.

In the loss to Memphis on Monday, the Raptors failed to hit a three-pointer, bringing an end to the longest three-point streak by a team in NBA history at 986 games . . . The Raptors signed guard Sundiata Gaines to a 10-day contract to make up for some of the lost bodies. He played 17 minutes against Memphis . . . Heading into last night's games, the Sixers were in the seventh playoff spot in the East. *

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