Sixers sputter toward break

On Jan. 21, Sixers coach Eddie Jordan talked about the 11 games before the all-star break as a period in which they want to play "very focused, very intense basketball. Let's see if we can make some headway."

After losing to the Mavericks on Jan. 22, Jordan referred to the 10 games between then and the all-star break as "a 10-game playoff series."

By edging the woeful Nets, 83-79, on Sunday night, the Sixers improved to 2-3 in that time, losing to the Pacers, Bucks and Lakers, and beating the Pacers. They host the Bulls on Wednesday evening.

If the 16-31 Sixers plan on getting to the postseason for the third season in a row - they went into Monday eight games out of the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff position - they're going to have to play better than they did Sunday at the Izod Center.

"They (the 4-42 Nets) didn't play well at all for us to be able to win a game like that," said Allen Iverson.

The Sixers won despite shooting just 3-for-19 from the field in the fourth quarter, hitting 36.5 percent of their shots in the game (easily their worst in a victory), with no player surpassing Andre Iguodala's 14 points and while missing 11 free throws.

Jordan chose to emphasize the positives, such as the Sixers limiting the Nets to 7-for-20 shooting (35 percent) in the final period. They forced Jarvis Hayes to air-ball a contest 3-pointer that could've tied the score with 8.9 seconds remaining.

"We had pretty good defense," Jordan said. "We buckled down when we had to, especially at the end."

Samuel Dalembert had his 11th double-digit rebound game in a row. He's averaging 12.8 rebounds with six double-doubles (points-rebounds) during that stretch.

And while it was certainly a flawed performance, the Sixers won for just the fifth time in the last 25 games decided by eight or fewer points.

"We said at halftime, 'Look, this is not going to be pretty,' '' Jordan said. "It wasn't style points. At the end, it wasn't pretty, but we got it done."