The Philadelphia 76ers are slipping out of playoff contention, and head coach Doug Collins is becoming more frustrated by the day. Collins has watched his team lose six straight games. It is the third time Philly has lost five or more games in a row this seasons, and the coach is running out of answers.
“Well I sure didn’t see this effort coming,” Collins said after watching his team lose to the 16-41 Orlando Magic on Tuesday, via CSNPhilly.com. “I thought we played incredibly hard against Miami. I thought we played incredibly hard in New York on Sunday. And this is mind-numbing to me. We went up 29-20, and from that point on, I couldn’t even tell you what occurred.”
Collins ripped his players for a lack of effort since the All-Star break, but did mention that the team they assembled in the offseason has yet to take the floor together because of injuries like the one to Andrew Bynum. When asked if there’s anything he can do to make his guys play harder, he gave the following response.
“Can I tell you something? If everybody looked inside themselves as much as I did, this world would be a CAT scan,” Collins said. “OK? I mean, believe me, there’s not two days go by that I don’t to go Rod [Thorn], I don’t go to Tony [DiLeo] — what can I do? Can I do anything different? How can I be a better coach? How can I be a better leader? How can I help these guys? Sometimes you’ve gotta help yourself. You know? Sometimes you’ve gotta help yourself. Youth is a very blaming thing.”
The Sixers made a major trade in the offseason and have had nothing to show for it. You can blame Andrew Bynum and his bowling adventures if you want, but that’s not going to bring the star center back any quicker. With Philly in 10th place in the East and Collins recently expressing doubt that Bynum will be back anytime soon, it may only get worse from here.
