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Collins not afraid to look at Sixers' playoff picture

During the marathon that is an 82-game NBA season, 76ers coach Doug Collins has preached endlessly to his players, to the media and to anyone else who might listen that his team need not look at anything more distant than the next practice, then the next game.

Doug Collins and the Sixers are 8-2 in their last 10 games. (David Maialetti/Staff Photographer)
Doug Collins and the Sixers are 8-2 in their last 10 games. (David Maialetti/Staff Photographer)Read more

During the marathon that is an 82-game NBA season, 76ers coach Doug Collins has preached endlessly to his players, to the media and to anyone else who might listen that his team need not look at anything more distant than the next practice, then the next game.

However, a few times this season, Collins has allowed himself to too take off the 1-day blinders and look beyond what is directly in front of his team. Now is one of those times.

Certainly, Collins is focused on tonight's game against the Indiana Pacers, who, at No. 8, are directly below his team in the Eastern Conference standings. He spoke yesterday after the team's short practice at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine of how his players will need to keep tabs on Indiana's Danny Granger and how they'll need to play a very tight defensive team against the Pacers.

Collins then allowed a peek into his big-picture thoughts - about the next eight games, which include six on the road, and about the next four (at Indiana tonight, home tomorrow against Oklahoma City, home Friday against Boston and at Milwaukee on Saturday).

"We have to [look at this stretch of games]," he said. "This reminds me of the two stretches we had [earlier in the season]. We had eight road games through Christmas and going into the New Year, and then the nine-game stretch we had going into the All-Star break [six road games and home games against the Knicks, San Antonio and Orlando]. These are all tough games.

"I was telling Jrue [Holiday] today that we've got four games in 5 nights, and he's looking at [Darren] Collison, [Russell] Westbrook, [Rajon] Rondo and [Brandon] Jennings. Dre's [Iguodala] is looking at Granger and then [Kevin] Durant, then Paul Pierce, so we've got some tough matchups."

Of the two prior stretches Collins spoke about, the Sixers ended the first going 3-5 - decent, but not satisfying to Collins and his team. The other was a 6-3 run that included a huge win over the visiting San Antonio Spurs.

Now, the team is playing its best basketball of the season, having won six of seven and eight of 10. Iguodala has posted consecutive triple-doubles; Evan Turner is playing as though it is time to shed the rookie label; the bench has been nothing short of spectacular; and the team is winning games in a variety of ways, opposite of the beginning of the season, when it lost so many in so many different ways.

Tonight, they'll have a chance to put a little more distance between themselves and the Pacers, who are five games behind the Sixers.

"We want all those teams behind us to keep getting losses," Collins said. "I got home [Sunday] night and rarely do I watch a game, but I turned on the last 6 minutes and watched Boston beat Milwaukee. Any of those teams that are below us, if they keep getting losses, it keeps helping us."

He probably also has an eye above the Sixers, as the Knicks are only a half-game ahead at the sixth spot.

"Yes we want to look up, but you've got to give New York credit," Collins said. "They went in and won at Atlanta [Sunday]. It's been a really crazy NBA season with a lot of different outcomes with a lot of these games."

Collins might be affording himself to look ahead, but his players still find it hard to do that.

"I didn't even remember who we played tomorrow until you just said it," Turner told reporters yesterday. "I just worry about today, about taking it 1 day at a time. That's all you can worry about, finish off every step of the way and not look forward."

The coach has drilled that into his team. Even if he might glance ahead every so often. *

For more Sixers coverage, read the Daily News' Sixers blog, Sixerville, at www.philly.com/Sixerville.