Road turns rocky for slumping Sixers

LOS ANGELES - Rather abruptly, this road trip has turned bumpy.

Heading out from Philadelphia with a victory over the Boston Celtics tucked under their belts, the 76ers looked poised to collect a handful of road wins and settle down for the season's final dozen games.

Now, with back-to-back losses against the Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz, this five-game trip looks like a tough climb: Wednesday night's game against the Los Angeles Clippers will be tricky, followed by back-to-back games against the Sacramento Kings and Portland Trail Blazers.

Early talk of sweeping this trip has turned into talk of refocusing.

The Sixers held a light practice Tuesday in Los Angeles. Swingman Andre Iguodala, found after Monday's game to have right knee chondromalacia (better known as runner's knee), did not practice. He will be a game-time decision Wednesday night.

On Monday, the Sixers trailed by as many as 21 points, 15 points early in the fourth quarter, before clawing back to force overtime. They still lost to Utah, 112-107.

After the game, coach Doug Collins seemed somewhat heartened by his team's comeback and somewhat frustrated by the mostly lackluster performance.

"I told our guys after the game, if there's anything we learned it's that if we're not blue-collar tough and give great effort all of the time, then we can't beat anybody," Collins said immediately after the loss. "I told our guys, 'If you don't play hard, I'm going to find somebody that will.' All we did in the second half was compete."

Monday's loss came two nights after a 28-point defeat in Milwaukee.

"We fought it and didn't just lay two eggs in a row," said Sixers power forward Elton Brand, whose team looked ambivalent through the first 36 minutes of Monday's game.

Collins was straightforward after the game, explaining exactly how he communicated with his team both during and after the loss. He said he was concerned, very frustrated, and made it quite clear to his players that they can't "Cadillac" to victories - that they can't beat anyone if they stop playing hard.

"If we don't give great effort, we're no good," Collins said.

Lessening the load. On Monday, Collins said he was aware of the toll this season has taken on his guys, physically and emotionally. He conveyed the team's game plan to go light on Tuesday before Wednesday's game and then light on Thursday before Friday's game.