For Sixers, will to win not enough

NEW YORK - Doug Collins has a saying about his team he likes to pull out often - "Fresh minds, fresh legs."

Playing their fifth game in 6 nights and third in a row, the 76ers' minds were a little mushy, and the legs followed closely behind as the Sixers had their six-game winning streak snapped by the hot New York Knicks, 85-79, last night. The Knicks (6-4) have now won four straight.

The Sixers were strapped from the very beginning, as center Spencer Hawes, who has been rock solid for the team from Day 1, sat out with a back strain. The team severely missed Hawes and his 11.1 points and 9.1 rebounds. Collins started veteran Tony Battie in Hawes' place as the coach said he wanted a veteran to start against New York's formidable front line of Amare Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler.

Hawes' absence proved huge, as the Knicks' defense forced the Sixers to one side of the court, limited their ball movement and forced them into 39.5 percent shooting. The Sixers' defense, so instrumental in their early success, wasn't there at the start, as the Knicks drilled 10 of their first 15 shots - mostly from long range and mostly uncontested. The Sixers also turned the ball over nine times in the first half.

With Hawes out, Collins expected to rely on rookie Nikola Vucevic for some heavy minutes. But Vucevic picked up his second foul midway through the second quarter and Collins decided to go small. During that spell, Andre Iguodala was forced to cover the bigger Stoudemire (20 points, nine rebounds), who continually backed Iguodala down to the basket.

"They had 15 points off turnovers," Collins said. "They really got into us defensively. They had a day of preparation, and I thought they really did a good job defensively with trying to keep us on one side of the floor, as witnessed by our 10 assists tonight. We really miss a guy like Spencer, because he's our best passing big guy and we like to play out of the post. I was really trying to work on the fly to get some stuff that was working for us."

The Sixers fell behind by as many as 16 early in the second quarter, hindered by turnovers and poor shooting. They clawed back, but at times it seemed as if they were reaching for an extra energy source that just wasn't available.