Sixers look to rebound at home

In the NBA playoffs - as serious basketball people say - a series hasn't begun until one team wins on the other team's floor.

If you're the 76ers, this is an especially hopeful saying.

Although the Miami Heat won the first two games of this opening-round series, and won the second of those games convincingly, the Heat have not yet won at the Wells Fargo Center.

So on Tuesday afternoon at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, where the Sixers held the first of two practices before Thursday night's Game 3, the Sixers seemed surprisingly capable of clearing their heads and tackling the daunting task ahead of them.

Miami simply has done what it's supposed to do: win its home games. And now the Sixers must do the same.

When one reporter brought up the grim statistics facing NBA teams trailing two games to none in a best-of-seven series, Sixers coach Doug Collins interrupted.

"We want to win Thursday," Collins said. "I want to win Thursday. I don't want to get into NBA statistics."

What the Sixers have gotten into is ways in which they can score some points - specifically by swingman Andre Iguodala (nine in this series) and power forward Elton Brand (17 in the first game, three in the second).

"We definitely need, for us, we need Dre and E.B. to get their average," Collins said. "We need 30 points out of those guys, because our bench has been good."

Collins called his team "receptive" during Tuesday's practice, and forward Thaddeus Young said players were "upbeat."

"We have a chance to get back into this series and win it," Young said. "We are definitely a team that is going to go out there and keep fighting hard. We just didn't play well offensively."

Excluding the first quarter of the first game, the Sixers have not scored more than 21 points in any quarter.

In watching film, both with the team and separately, the coaching staff feels it has pinpointed some areas in which Iguodala can score. Couple that potential improvement with additional transition offense and improved team spacing, and the Sixers are hopeful that Thursday's result can surprise some people.

"Home court is going to make a difference," Brand promised.

The Sixers have played the Heat five times this season, including the playoffs: four times at AmericanAirlines Arena and only once, the opening game of the regular season, at the Wells Fargo Center.

Miami has won all five games.

"We are a much different team than when we played them the opening night here," Brand continued. "So, absolutely, home court can make a difference. That's what helped propel them to the Game 1 win - having the home court."

Miami won the opening game, 97-89, and won the second game, 94-73.

"One of the things you have to do against Miami is somehow, you have to get the ball in the paint either by dribble or pass," Collins said.

The Sixers stressed that they felt improvements must come from the offensive side of the ball.

"Looking at the defensive numbers and stuff like that, we did an OK job, a pretty decent job," Young said. "We just have to go to the drawing board and figure out ways to get ourselves into it offensively."

More Lou. One limiting factor on offense has been the play of guard Lou Williams, who scored 10 points on 3-for-10 shooting in the first game and eight points on 1-for-8 shooting in the second game.

Those were Williams' first two games back after straining his right hamstring on April 2.

Collins explained that he left Williams in Monday night's blowout because he wanted him to get his game legs back.

"It's not something that is going to happen overnight," Williams said of getting back his touch. "I'm just going to go out and play and give them everything I got. . . . They did what they were supposed to do in Miami. Now it is our turn to go out and show and protect our home court."