Wroten: Winless Sixers need to 'buckle down' on defense

NINE HUNDRED and eight days ago the 76ers and Boston Celtics played in a terrific Game 7 to determine who would face the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.

It seems like 908 years.

The Celtics are a shell of what they once were and the Sixers are now, really, a shell of an NBA team. For the 11th time in as many tries this season, the Sixers failed to grasp victory, dropping a 101-90 decision to the visitors in green.

A tied first half became a convincing Boston win because the Celtics (4-6) have a commodity that the Sixers are lacking right now and that is a go-to player. When there was a play that needed to be made, Rajon Rondo did it for the Celts, orchestrating the second half by dealing 11 of his 13 assists. And when the Celtics slowed it down to a halfcourt game, the Sixers couldn't guard 280-pound forward Jared Sullinger, who both bulled and finessed his way to 22 points and nine rebounds, many times at the expense of Nerlens Noel.

"We just have to buckle down better on defense," said Tony Wroten, who led the Sixers with 21 points and seven assists off the bench. "In the fourth quarter there was miscommunication on the switching on screens and this and that. The NBA is the best of the best and you have to be a perfectionist.

"[Rondo] is a great player, an All-Star. He can affect the game without scoring, just a quarterback of the team. That's what you want from the top player. It's not so much about scoring but what he does to get his teammates better."

Besides Sullinger, sub Brandon Bass benefited from Rondo's feeds as he scored a season-high 23 points.

The second-half numbers were the difference in a game many felt was the one in which the Sixers would break their streak. Boston hit on 53 percent of its shots, dealt 18 assists on 21 baskets and outrebounded the Sixers, 25-17. The home team missed 25 of its 40 attempts and was doubled in fastbreak points (20-10), an area where it needs an advantage due to the style of play the coach wants.

"They took us for a layup right off the bat [in the second half] and we called a quick timeout and our transition defense, which was great in the first half, I felt like we didn't do a good job of getting back," said Brett Brown, who got 14 points from Henry Sims, 11 each from Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Michael Carter-Williams along with 10 from Noel. "Some of it was us trying to go get cheap offensive rebounds when we shouldn't. Some of it was our bigs taking stabs in the backcourt when we want them to sprint down the court and keep the game in front of us. They turned the pace up in that third period."

You've lost your first 10 games, some of them by eye-popping margins. You are the worst scoring team in the league at just 88.5 points per contest while giving up nearly the most at 105.4 a game.

That wouldn't really seem to be the time to take your leader in scoring, assists and steals out of the starting lineup, but that's just what happened to Tony Wroten for last night's game against the Boston Celtics.

During the team's morning shootaround, it appeared that Wroten had been relegated to the bench. His less-than pleased demeanor after the workout was an indication, which coach Brett Brown confirmed before the game.

"It's coach's decision.," Wroten said. "That's what he gets paid for. We get paid to play, he gets paid to coach. It's his decision. I'm fully behind him. Nothing is going to change except not hearing my name in the starting lineup. I'm going to be the same me. We've got a great understanding, so I'm just going to come out and play.

"Everybody wants to start but it's not going to be life or death. I did it before, all of last year so it's not going to be a big adjustment."

Wroten still played just over 28 minutes in the Sixers' loss. He had been averaging 32.5 minutes as a starter in the first 10 games.

There are a couple of logical reasons for the move. Michael Carter-Williams has a few games under his belt after offseason surgery and is ready to get starter minutes while taking over point-guard duties. And, Brown is going to need some kind of spark coming off the bench, and no one fits that role better than Wroten.

"He's prideful. You have to sit him down and explain it," said Brown. "He's done nothing wrong, he's had a hell of a year. In regards to the flow of a game, what he should be more concerned about is how does it end. We [San Antonio, Brown's last team] brought a gold medalist and a multiple NBA champion off the bench for years in [Manu] Ginobili and he fit into a role. With Tony, we're trying to sell that there's an element of sacrifice for the profile and the excitement of starting. I get it, especially for somebody that's 20 years-old. He's fine. He lets me coach him and I think for balance purposes that's the way it needs to be."