The streaking Sixers unwind with paintball

Proving the adage "The players that matter to each other, splatter each other," or something like that, the 76ers gathered their weapons and assembled for their second annual paintball outing on their day off.

But it seemed to be a different atmosphere this time around. Unlike last year, when the players felt as if they needed something to ease an uptight mood around the team, Monday's excursion appeared more to be a bunch of close friends wishing to spend time together.

That's how it goes when there are good vibes going around the locker room, and you've won four straight games, to boot.

"That gets the guys going, having fun and everything," rookie Rodney Carney said. "The chemistry is good on and off the court. Now we've got to continue winning. It's real fun being with the guys."

It's not exactly the way Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks would spend his spare time, especially the part about getting bruised during the paintball games.

"I had a little back problem," Cheeks said, laughing, when asked if he had been invited. "If I had been out there, I probably would have been the one getting banged around, so I chose not to do that."

But Cheeks does like to see the way his players get along, and he said this togetherness went back even to the time when the Sixers were apparently going nowhere.

"Even when we were struggling a little bit, we still had camaraderie on this team," he said yesterday after practice at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. "That's the reason why we're playing better now, because the guys kind of hung together while we were going through some tough times."

Of course, that doesn't mean the Sixers don't want to compete and win at paintball just as hard as they play basketball. They separated into teams, but the target of one of the teams appeared to be 6-foot-11 center Samuel Dalembert, who probably is the team's resident paintball aficionado.

"He has a lot of equipment and everything," Carney said. "He brought a sniper rifle and some smoke grenades and stuff."

"We are all amateurs when it comes to paintball," guard Willie Green said. "None of us are professionals except maybe Sam. Sam had a bazooka. I think he had like two 9-millimeter paintball guns and grenades. He came ready. I had to rent."

Sonics in town. The Sixers go for their fifth straight win and sixth in a row at home tonight against the Seattle SuperSonics, who are making the second stop of a four-game Eastern road trip.

In their last four games, the Sixers have averaged 101.0 points while holding opponents to 93.5 points and 42.6 percent field-goal shooting. They have outrebounded the opposition by an average of 11.2.

"Our rebounding has been the main focus of things that we're doing, and our defense has gotten better," Cheeks said. "I think with Sam and Steven [Hunter] inside, and when Joe [Smith] comes in the game, they certainly give us a presence in the middle. And our perimeter defense has gotten better."