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Sixers nearly done quick training camp

One more day of training camp, first preeason game on Friday in Washington.

There's a lot of sore legs trudging through the Saint Joseph's campus, all of them belonging to the 76ers as they wind down their abbreviated training camp. Wednesday there will be a three-hour workout at Hagan Arena before the team breaks camp. The first of two preseason games will be at Washington on Friday night, the other will be against the Wizards at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday.

During the morning session Tuesday, coach Doug Collins and his assistants did a lot of teaching - going over various offensive sets against zones. The team finished the morning with a lot of shooting, breaking up into four different groups.

Evan Turner's shot still looks improved and quicker to be released. When the media was allowed in, Turner was running with the second team while Jodie Meeks took the 2 guard spot with the first five.

There wasn't a lot to read into the session that we were allowed to watch. Afterward, Collins couldn't say enough about swingman Andre Iguodala, saying he loves the way Iguodala has been communicating with his teammates, showing aggressiveness on offense and defending.

Collins also said that rookie Nikola Vucevic has been struggling, mainly due to the fact that Vucevic came over from Montenegro and has had a hard time adjusting to the time change.

Collins said Vucevic has been waking up at 4 in the morning, unable to get back to sleep. In Monday's scrimmage, the rookie admitted that he had no legs at all - and it showed. The coaching and training staff will do its best to "get the juice back" in Vucevic's legs, with ice and massage treatments.

Collins also talked of minutes for his big men. He said that starting center Spencer Hawes will probably get closer to 25 to 27 minutes a game, up from the 20 he averaged last season. He also said that Elton Brand will play around 33 and Thaddeus Young could be up to about 30 minutes. "There's 96 minutes we need to get out of the bigs," Collins said. He also said Tony Battie and Marreese Speights will gobble up some time.

The team scrimmaged in Tuesday's night session, playing three 12-minute quarters. With the short training camp and the season-opener on December 26, Collins is trying to build the team's stamina so that they'll be peaking when the season starts in Portland the day after Christmas.

One last thing. It appears the organization is trying to secure an open practice at the Palestra on Sunday night, but as of Tuesday night, nothing could be confirmed.

More to come.