The lottery-bound Nets will host the Boston Celtics, the Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers during the truncated season's stretch run, and the effect of these games against their divisional foes is huge, especially three — two at home and one on the road — against the 76ers.
The 76ers (30-27) won the first of those games on Tuesday night, eliminating the Nets from playoff contention with a 107-88 rout. Philadelphia snapped a four-game losing streak that highlighted a free fall during which they lost 10 out of 14 games. The win put the 76ers a game ahead of the Knicks for seventh place in the Eastern Conference.
"We've got 10 games left," 76ers Coach Doug Collins told his team before the game. "No regrets."
The Sixers, 11-15 away from Wells Fargo Center, have two games remaining at home and close the season with five straight road games, mostly against mediocre competition.
Before the game, Collins said that he had a meeting with the owner Josh Harris. Explaining his decision to start Nikola Vucevic and Jodie Meeks in place of Spencer Hawes and Evan Turner, Collins said that he used a principle that Harris utilized in the business sector: intelligent risk.
"In life, that's what you have to take, you have to take intelligent risks," Collins said.
The intelligent risk initially looked foolish. The teams combined shot 4 of 23 to start the game, and the Nets crawled out to a 12-4 lead after seven minutes of play. But the Sixers' second unit turned the game around. Turner found Hawes with a pass in transition for a layup to tie the game at 20-20 at the end of the first quarter. Hawes took over from there, scoring 9 points on perfect shooting in the second quarter. The game was never in doubt afterward.
Collins said that he assigned the duty of telling Hawes he was not starting to the assistant Jeff Capel.
"Spencer was not happy at shootaround, but Jeff Capel is the best," Collins said. "He told Spencer: 'Go back to your room. Act like a little child. Tear up your room. Give me a bill. And then be ready to play tonight.'
"Spencer texted him. He said: 'Just went back to my room. Trashed my room. Busted up my TV. Charged my room to you, but I'm ready to roll.' "
"Just to clear the record, I did not trash the room," Hawes said.
The win was a salve for Collins, who has found himself in strange situations recently. Embroiled in the turmoil that comes with losing, Collins —part coach, part affable politician, and part ex-broadcaster — has offered some head-scratching lines in the past week.
On Friday, Collins called out an unnamed former 76ers beat writer for criticizing the team from a distance in a blog post that might not have otherwise caused a stir. Then, after the Celtics blew out the Sixers on Sunday, Collins questioned the sensitivity and fragility of his players.
Collins dismissed the minicontroversies, saying, "Get away from all the nonsense, which it is and was and always will be."
What Collins deemed nonsense was a far cry from the beginning of the season, when the Sixers were the league's postlockout darlings, a team of mostly equal parts that was rising above the superstar-driven fray with a stellar defense and a sharing-is-caring offense. Through 57 games, no player has led the Sixers in points or in rebounds more than 15 times. Lou Williams, who had 20 points against the Nets, entered the game leading Philadelphia in scoring at 15.1 points a game, the lowest average in the league for a team's leading scorer.
Asked if the Sixers needed multiple standouts in every game to truly be successful, Andre Iguodala said, "In order for us to be successful in the playoffs, we do."
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