Sixers provide example of losing ugly, dropping fourth straight to Nets

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - If ever there were proof that there are exceptions to every rule, consider this statement from Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy that appeared in yesterday's editions of the Orlando Sentinel.

"I like college basketball, but certainly I don't think it's a better game than the NBA," Van Gundy told Sentinel sports columnist Mike Bianchi. "The NBA has the greatest players in the world. You'll see more great plays in one NBA game than you'll see in the entire March Madness."

Van Gundy might want to reconsider his position if he ever gets around to checking out the tape of last night's game between the 76ers and the New Jersey Nets at the IZOD Center. It was a hodgepodge of the good, the bad and the ugly, minus the good.

The Nets' 96-67 victory enabled them to sweep the four-game season series from the Sixers, whose three-game winning streak came to a crashing halt as they were held to their season low in points. But the Nets, on the verge of being eliminated from playoff contention, didn't play particularly well, and what the Sixers did throughout much of this unenchanted evening should have made the 13,345 hoops fans in attendance drool at the prospect of watching tonight's telecast of North Carolina and Michigan State for the NCAA championship.

A majority of the players for the Tar Heels and Spartans probably won't make it to the NBA, but give the college kids credit: At least they play with oodles of school spirit and sis-boom-bah.

Lethargic, shorthanded and mistake-plagued, the Sixers (40-36), playing their second game in a 28 1/2-hour span, looked not so much like a team on the upswing, with hopes of moving up to the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, as a group auditioning for membership in the NBA Development League.

The Sixers turned the ball over 14 times (it seemed like more) and made only 27 of 77 field goal attempts (35.1 percent), including 4 of 19 (21.1 percent) from beyond the arc. Those were pockets of failure that, taken separately, might have been enough to doom them to defeat. Put them all together and it adds up to one of the more humiliating losses in recent memory.

But that wasn't the worst of it. Coach Tony DiLeo has repeatedly said that one of the team's goals is to attack the rim and to frequently get to the free-throw line. Against the Nets (32-45), the Sixers attacked. They got to the rim fairly often. But camping out at the foul line is one thing; taking advantage of all those opportunities is quite another.

The Sixers sank only two of their first eight free-throw attempts, an omen. They finished the game 11 of 25, which is beyond lousy when you consider that these are uncontested 15-footers during which you're not required to shoot off the dribble, leave your feet or dodge a defender sticking his hand in your face.

"We just didn't have it offensively or defensively," shrugged point guard Andre Miller, who was limited to seven points and four assists, just 1 day after he posted a 31-point, 12-assist, 10-rebound triple-double in a 95-90 edging of Detroit at the Wachovia Center. "It was like we were stuck in the mud."

Small forward Andre Iguodala was right down there in the muck with the rest of his teammates. Iguodala, who leads the Sixers in scoring this season, finished the game with a season-low five points, on 1-for-8 shooting from the floor, and was 3-for-8 from the foul line.

"I just couldn't get into rhythm," Iguodala said.

And the difficulties encountered by almost every other Sixer?

"They made shots. We couldn't make shots," Iguodala said. "We couldn't make free throws. But it's pretty much been that way against [the Nets] all season. We never really adjusted from game to game. They beat us four times, so give them their props."

Some props are merited. The Nets swept the season series against the Sixers for the first time since New Jersey entered the NBA in the 1976-77 season. They made 11 of 25 three-pointers and held an opponent to fewer than 70 points for the first time all season. Seven Nets scored in double figures, led by Vince Carter (15) and Bobby Simmons (14).

Imagine how much they might have won by had they not missed nine straight shots in the third quarter, during which they scored only 18 points. Then again, the Sixers scored 12 points in that period, shooting just 5-for-16 from the field and turning the ball over seven times.

DiLeo hinted that it was the Sixers' worst game since that dreadful performance in a 89-74 loss at Oklahoma City on March 8. All things considered, it might have been even more inept.

"A lot of things went wrong," DiLeo said. "We couldn't shoot the ball tonight. We couldn't make baskets or free throws. It was just one of those nights we weren't in rhythm. Other than the first quarter [after which the Sixers led, 20-18], we weren't really in the game at all."

DiLeo said his team might have been fatigued and emotionally spent after its winning-but-uphill struggle against the Pistons a day earlier.

"We put a lot into the [Detroit] game," he noted. "It was an emotional game, a physical game. I think it caught up to us."

Miller, who has been playing with a strained right calf and a jammed middle finger on his right hand, didn't want to take the easy way out. Maybe he was tired, maybe he was hurting, but this is not the time to give in to any of that.

"We don't have time to rest," he said, noting that the Sixers must play at Charlotte tomorrow night, "and we don't want to make any excuses."

Guard Lou Williams came off the bench to lead the Sixers with 14 points. He was, in fact, the only double-digit scorer, although center Samuel Dalembert had a nice game with nine points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots. *