76ers try to regroup against Celtics

"Perhaps no amount of extra shooting could wipe away Saturday night’s dreadful loss for the 76ers.

But after a two-hour practice on Monday, Andre Iguodala spent 20 minutes catching passes from assistant coach Aaron McKie, setting his feet, and releasing more than a hundred shots.

During one stretch, Iguodala made 18 in a row.

That’s also the number of consecutive shots the Sixers missed in the final 10 minutes, 38 seconds of an 85-83 loss to the New Jersey Nets.

More accurately, it was a haunting, backbreaking defeat in which the Sixers scored eight points in the fourth quarter and wasted a 17-point lead.

Before Saturday night’s breakdown, the Sixers (23-23) were above .500 for the first time since November and their up-tempo offense appeared ready for Tuesday night’s home matchup with the NBA champion Boston Celtics.

The game against the Celtics seemed the perfect chance for the Sixers to prove they were not just a mediocre team playing well for a few weeks, but rather a good team recovering from a mediocre start.

Any lingering thought that Tuesday night offered a chance for the Sixers to measure themselves against the 40-9 Celtics was lost with each successive empty possession Saturday night.

Monday, the Sixers’ practice at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine seemed to run just a little longer than a typical day-before-a-game session.

But who could blame them? There were demons to drive from the hardwood.

"I didn’t get much sleep," Sixers coach Tony DiLeo said. "But I’m OK today."

"It’s the way we lost," forward Thaddeus Young explained.

"What happened Saturday?" asked Iguodala, pretending for a second, as probably most on the team would like, that Saturday never happened.

But it did happen, and yesterday they watched the flickering images as proof.

"We broke off plays, really," said DiLeo, trying to explain the team’s 2-for-22 shooting in the fourth quarter. "Because usually we run plays all the way through. And it seemed like we broke them off early."

DiLeo said he also felt the Sixers might have lost the determination to get out on the fastbreak."



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