Young helps 76ers improve to 4-1 in preseason with win over Nets

NEW YORK - Making their Barclays Center debut in Brooklyn, the 76ers used 24 points from Thaddeus Young and staved off a late Nets run to improve to 4-1 in the preseason with a 106-96 victory on Friday.

Of the players expected to be in the starting lineup when the regular season begins on Oct. 31, just two, Jrue Holiday and Jason Richardson, started for the Sixers on Friday.

Sixers coach Doug Collins continued his practice of shuffling players in and out of the starting lineup and it paid off early.

Dorell Wright, starting in place of a resting Evan Turner at small forward, scored 10 points in the first quarter and was one of three Sixers to reach double figures in scoring before halftime.

The Sixers closed the second quarter on a 21-12 run to lead by 54-46 at halftime.

With two preseason games remaining, Collins continues to tinker with matchups. On Friday he went with a lot of small lineups. Late in the second quarter he had Wright on the floor with Richardson, Young, Damien Wilkins, and Spencer Hawes.

The Nets, who got 22 from Deron Williams, were playing their fifth game in seven nights.

Offensive uptick. While it's not really a barometer for the regular season, the Sixers have been very good offensively in the preseason.

In their first four games before Friday, the Sixers were averaging a league-best 106.8 points per game. In victories over Boston and Cleveland, the Sixers scored 107 and 113 points, respectively.

In their 113-99 victory over visiting Cleveland on Wednesday, the Sixers connected on a preseason-high 12 three-point baskets, so not only have the Sixers been able to score without Andrew Bynum in the lineup, they simply have been more aggressive from long distance.

Last season, the Sixers ranked just 22d in the league in scoring (93.6 ppg.). It has been a pretty bad few years for the Sixers, who have ranked no higher than 21st in the league from behind the arc in the last seven seasons. In that same time frame the Sixers have made the fewest three-pointers of any team in the league.

"We have a very talented group of shooters out here," Richardson said. "It's just the preseason, but the key is to get a rhythm at the offensive end, get it established, and ride it into the regular season."

Scouting the Sixers. While the Sixers have yet to put their full complement of players on the floor, it is clear that they are going to play a different style of basketball this season.

Most of the changes are at the offensive end, where the Sixers are bigger - especially when Bynum is ready to play.

But it will be interesting to see what the Sixers defensive identity will be. Love him or loathe him, former Sixer Andre Iguodala - traded to Denver in the offseason - played a large role in the defensive identity of a team that last season ranked third in defensive field-goal percentage (42.7).

"He is a guy who might have been taken a little bit for granted in Philly," said an Eastern Conference scout in attendance Friday. "He was that guy who you could count on to make the other teams' best perimeter player work harder than he wanted to when they played the Sixers."

The scout added that Bynum, who blocked almost two shots per game, will have an impact.

Note. Kwame Brown (strained left calf), who practiced with the team on Thursday, did not play.