Sports Tonight: Careless play is hurting Sixers

As a bit of housecleaning, Sports Tonight will now hit philly.com at noon, four hours earlier than previously, Monday through Friday.

Now, back to business.

If someone can point out the parts that Sixers coach Brett Brown said "you will find positives in" out of the 21-point trashing Golden State laid on his team Saturday night, please help me out a little.

Let's hope that Brown informed his players of them plus a few more because they play the Los Angeles Clippers at 10 tonight (TV: NBCSP; radio: 97.5 The Fanatic).

The first three games of this Western Conference swing have been a great illustration of how much more the Sixers have to grow to join the elite teams of the NBA in reality and not just potential. After getting a big win in Utah without Joel Embiid to begin the five-game trip, the Sixers stumbled badly against the putrid Sacramento Kings and then had their lunch and cookies snatched from them by the NBA champions.

Given their inexperience, it's acceptable that this young team is going to still make physical and mental mistakes.

What's not acceptable, however, are the number of mistakes the Sixers make because they're careless and/or lackadaisical in their approach to the game, especially at critical times that have determined some outcomes in the wrong way.

Until they respect that all possessions count in the final outcome, it will continue to be two steps forward and then one back.

Isn't quarterback play supposed to determine games at this time of year?

When the Miami Dolphins play at the Carolina Panthers at 8 on ESPN, both teams will be looking to keep a hand on the door to the postseason.

Panthers quarterback Cam Newton has barely passed for 150 yards in each of the last two games, with one touchdown pass, but Carolina won both to stay a loss behind New Orleans in the NFC South and hold a wild-card seed into the playoffs.

Miami generates the fewest yards and points per game in the league. The defense ranks 17th in points allowed. Still, a win by the Dolphins would give them the same record as Buffalo for the second wild card in the AFC.

Last week, quarterback Jay Cutler came back from missing two games because of injury and passed for 311 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, but Miami lost to the Raiders.

Heeeee's baaaaaack,  well at least almost, possibly maybe. A report by Pete Thamel at Yahoo Sports says former Eagles coach Chip Kelly is being vetted by Florida. The job at Tennessee is also open. Kelly would make Nick Saban, who also flopped in the NFL before going to Alabama, sweat with the recruiting bases for the SEC.

For as long as I've been in Philadelphia – nearly a quarter-century – the complaint about all the teams has been the refusal to go all-in for a title opportunity. Columnist Marcus Hayes writes the current Eagles brain trust is defying that.

Hall of Fame and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman isn't shy in his analyses for FOX. On Sunday, he gave some blunt assessments of the Cowboys during their loss to Atlanta.

The Major League Baseball "Hot Stove" season begins this week with the general managers' meetings in Orlando. Mike Axisa at cbssports.com discusses some of the issues that will top what is expected to be a busy week.

Anytime a nation doesn't win something for almost two decades, the event tends to fall in importance. Sunday, the United States won its first Federation Cup since 2000. It is the 18th title in an event American women's tennis once dominated.

Let's start out by acknowledging that the other NFL owners are not going to force Jerry Jones to sell the Dallas Cowboys. And frankly, if they could get past the instinctive hating, why would Eagles fans want him out when Dallas hasn't won a Super Bowl in two decades? Jones is exactly the guy you want calling the shots in Dallas.

Still, it's fun to see the other NFL owners let Jones know that the league is a consortium of oligarchs and he doesn't get to be the grand poo-bah of everything.

According to Pro Football Talk, "multiple owners already have been discussing the possibility, which flows from Article VIII of the NFL's Constitution & Bylaws. Specifically, Section 8.13 authorizes the Commissioner to determine that an owner 'has been or is guilty of conduct detrimental to the welfare of the League or professional football.' "

Jones has committed the ultimate sin by going public with private gripes among the illuminati.

Despite being annoying, however, Jones is not a useless and embarrassing buffoon like former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling was.

Jones has proven to be a shrewd businessman and money-maker for the National Football League, so the idea that the other owners would attempt to force him out the way the NBA League of Governors did Sterling is not going to happen.

NFL
Dolphins at Panthers, 8:15 p.m. (ESPN)

NBA
Kings at Wizards, 7 p.m. (NBA TV)
76ers at Clippers, 10:30 p.m. (NBCSP; WPEN-FM 97.5)

Soccer
World Cup qualifying: Italy vs. Sweden, 2:30 p.m. (FS1)

Men's College Basketball
Minnesota at Providence, 6:30 p.m. (FS1)
La Salle at Penn, 7 p.m. (NBCSP; WNTP-AM 990)
Gardner-Webb at Florida, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
St. Joseph's at Illinois (Chicago), 8 p.m. (NBCSP+; WPHT-AM 1210)
Rider at Xavier, 8:30 p.m. (FS1)
College of Charleston at Wichita State, 9 p.m. (CBSSN)
Wagner at Missouri, 9 p.m. (ESPN2)
Rhode Island at Nevada, 11:30 p.m. (ESPNU)

Women's College Basketball
South Carolina at Maryland, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Men's College Basketball
Penn vs. La Salle, 7 p.m., Palestra
Drexel vs. Arcadia, 7 p.m., Daskalakis Center

Women's College Basketball
Temple vs. Rutgers, 7 p.m., McGonigle Hall

Horse Racing
Parx Racing, 12:25 p.m., Bensalem