The stat is accurate, however, if less than surprising. As the Sixers have drifted along this season, gaining a bit of momentum now and then, particularly in the last six weeks, a long winning streak has always eluded them.
There are two possible reasons, and we'll list both of them here:
This group is getting better, but hasn't quite turned the corner yet.
This group only appears to be getting better, and couldn't find the corner even with a bloodhound, a GPS tracking device, and those guys who followed Butch and Sundance across Bolivia.
So which is it?
This won't be a popular answer, but the truth is that it's hard to tell yet. The Sixers might be heading in the right direction, but their mission for this season has been so drastically altered that any progress could be a mirage.
When the team started the season 7-22, a mess that included a 12-game losing streak and the puzzling decision to rehire Allen Iverson, the Sixers went from trying to be something different to merely trying to be. The season became a search for survival, and new coach Eddie Jordan had to jettison all his pretty ideas the way a shipwrecked heiress will throw the heavy jewelry overboard when the lifeboat begins to take on water.
Princeton offense? Splash! Instinctive read-and-react basketball? Ker-plop! Build for the future with youth? Glug! Glug! Glug!
The boat is riding a little higher now - the team is 10-9 since Dec. 28 - but whether it will ever reach shore is another question. Jordan did what he had to do (probably mindful that the last time the Sixers fired a coach, it was after a 9-14 start), and he did it in a fairly standard way.
