Collins tries to find positives of road trip
SAN ANTONIO – Not one to get nostalgic nor to look ahead, 76ers coach Doug Collins took a moment to conjure up the positives of his team’s eight-game roadtrip, which ended Saturday against the Spurs.
To be fair, many of them.
At the very least, the Sixers can head home knowing they hung with almost every team on the docket during a road stretch that began Dec. 26.
“If you go back and look at every game in the fourth quarter – other than (Friday at Oklahoma City), when we were down double digits – we were never down,” Collins said. “The positives are we’ve put ourselves in position to win a lot of those games and we haven’t finished them.”
Part of that has to do with the Sixers’ sudden propensity for turning over the ball. In advance of facing the Spurs, the Sixers had committed 96 turnovers in seven games. That’s a 13.7 turnover-per-game average. For a team that averages the third-fewest turnovers per game, that’s a disconcerting tally.
Jrue Holiday had a theory about those miscues, which included 20 turnovers in OKC.
“I think some of it is fatigue,” Holiday said. “When I’m tired is usually when I turn the ball over or try to make something out of something that’s not there. Again, I know last night it could’ve been fatigue or whatever else. Sometimes you have games like that.”
Compounding the Sixers’ problems was the misfortune of having to close out their trip against the Spurs, who own one of the league’s stingiest scoring and shooting defenses.
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*** Clearly disappointed in his team’s inability to draw fouls or create contact, Collins said Friday he wants to see more from the Sixers at the free-throw line. But if you were to ask Spencer Hawes, it’s not something they can exactly practice.
“I can’t remember the last time we’ve been able to practice,” Hawes said.
Mired in this season-long roadtrip, the Sixers have been taken out of their norm. However, a failure to get the free-throw line has been commonplace. The Sixers entered Saturday ranked 28th in freethrow attempts and makes.
Hawes, a big who’s more comfortable taking jumpers than driving the lane, isn’t prepared to alter his playing style.
“I think that’s the way our offense is set up,” he said. “We have guys capable of getting in there. You hear that over the course of the season, trying to motivate guys a little bit. We do have to get to the line more. We do have to make a concerted effort.”
*** Rookie big man Arnett Moultrie has done well since he was assigned to the D-League last month.
Moultrie, the forward out of Mississippi State, is averaging 9.3 points and 5.5 rebounds in 25 minutes per game for Sioux Falls, the Sixers’ affiliate. He’s started two of the six games in which he’s appeared.
Sent to Sioux Falls Dec. 21, Moultrie was having a lackluster first season for the Sixers, netting only 11 appearances.
Visit Christopher A. Vito’s Sixers blog at delcotimes. com for more coverage.