Sixers rout Raptors for second straight win

TORONTO - At the beginning of this season, the 76ers got into a nice pattern of beating bad teams, who oftentimes were left shorthanded because of an injury or two.

So good were the times then that fans spoke of the Sixers winning a playoff series, of what team might be a better matchup in the second round, of how close they could hang to the upper-echelon clubs of the Eastern Conference.

Then came the valley. The Sixers went on to lose 18 of their next 27 and talk turned to a coach who was losing his players, of voices getting tuned out, of rifts among teammates.

As has been said so many times, somewhere in between lies this season's Sixers. Obviously, getting closer to resembling the club in the first couple of months of the season is the goal.

Slowly, and - maybe - surely, they are getting there. A lineup shuffle has seemed to breathe much-needed life into the Sixers and Wednesday it resulted in their second straight win, this time by 93-75 over the Toronto Raptors in Air Canada Centre.

Toronto is playing for a draft pick. And Wednesday, the Raptors were without Sixer killer Andrea Bargnani (calf) and lost pesky point guard Jose Calderon to a cut over his eye in the third.

Kind of seems like old times.

"It's time to start winning games," said Lou Williams, one of six players in double figures with 10 points. "Whenever you can put a streak together, it feels good. Morale is up, the situation is what it is. We're just trying to make it the best that we can at this point and try to win as many in a row as we can."

Obviously, the Sixers are after wins. But for a team that is so young, with such a fragile mental state, winning brings about an ease that this squad needs to perform better.

Wednesday, they started slow, showing a wee bit of tired legs after having beaten the New Jersey Nets the night before. But with nine guys sharing minutes just about equally, the energy level picked up in the fourth quarter as the Sixers outscored the Raptors 30-18 to seal the win and up their record to 31-27.

"I thought Evan [Turner] came in, and was fabulous in the fourth quarter," coach Doug Collins said. "He [finished with] six points, six assists and eight rebounds and did a great job defensively. Once again, as a coach you look at it and we had [eight] guys play more than 22 minutes and Nik played about 20. I thought we were fresh in the fourth quarter, which was key, and we had six guys in double figures. This goes to my goal of getting more guys to play better and I think we're seeing that."

Things that went so well early in the season are starting to look good again. The Sixers defended, holding Toronto (20-39) to 36.3 percent shooting; they shared the ball, as they had 27 assists on 41 field goals; and they turned the ball over only five times, one of them coming on a shot-clock violation to run out the time at the end of the game.

"That's when we're good, when we move the ball," Collins said. "We had 27 assists and five turnovers. This is two big wins for us. I thought in the first half, we didn't have the same focus or the same juice that we had [Tuesday]. You could see we were on a back-to-back, but our guys really picked it up. I just kept saying that we had fought too hard, fought too hard. We've got to get this game. And we got a huge break with Calderon getting hurt."

While Turner has been relegated back to the bench after starting 18 games, most eyes are on how he will handle his new role. Wednesday, he did everything his coach wanted, and was acknowledged as the team's "Ace of Spades" after the game, an honor Collins bestows to a player after each win.

"It's cool, it's always about the team, it's always about the 76ers," Turner said. "That's all I really worry about. I'm just trying to stay on the court and give him [Collins] more reason to keep me on the court, I don't want to give him any reasons to not play me. That's all I'm worried about."

Amazing what two wins can do. Players joked and clapped and watched a game on TV together after the win. The mundane ritual of being together every day, which seemed so monotonous the past couple of weeks, has turned to fun again. The light appears to be back on as to what needs to be done. Whether they can accomplish what they want in the final eight games, with six of them on the road, remains to be seen.

"We know that we're one of those teams that once you get that one [win], you kind of get the ball rolling," Williams said. "In the past couple of games, we played our style of basketball - sharing the ball, playing defense and getting out and run. I think in the games before that, we kind of got away from that, and now we're getting back to it and everybody feels good about it.

"It would just be important to get through this week and see who we are. If you look at the teams that are right there with us, Boston and New York, they put their runs together, they've had great weeks in a row, and now we feel like it's our opportunity to put some games together. It's a big week, and at the end of it, we'll just see where we stand."