OK, I'M SOLD.
When the Sixers returned home with a 3-2 record after starting the season on a five-game road trip, I said I was thisclose to completely buying into everything they said about what type of team they wanted to be and how it would translate into success.
They were right.
A group of players and coaches working on the same page, with the same vision, the same work ethic, the same drive can achieve more than it would appear from its individual parts.
Through the first 12 games of this season, we had gotten used to coach Doug Collins tinkering with his lineup to find what in-game combinations would work at the appropriate time.
We had seen that the Sixers can legitimately go nine players deep without suffering a lapse in the fundamental way they want to do things.
But in yesterday's 94-82 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, Collins came up with a combination that had to make all of the 17,281 in attendance at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee do a double take.
With Evan Turner sitting out with a bruised right quadriceps, Collins was going to have to change things a bit.
Still, who would have thought that when the Sixers came out to start the second quarter, two of the players would be deep reserve Tony Battie and even deeper reserve Andres Nocioni?
What was even more surprising was how well the Sixers performed with the veteran duo on the floor.
In a 3 1/2-minute span, Battie and Nocioni combined for four points and three rebounds as the Sixers extended a six-point lead to 13.
They never lost control again.
That was just about the extent of the contributions from those two, but the fact these two veterans, who have been counted on mainly to make sure younger players benefit from professional challenges during practices, could contribute at a crucial time was further evidence of the special quality of this Sixers team.
"You need to be prepared, especially in my situation," said Nocioni, who finished with two points and three rebounds in 6 minutes. "You want to be able to help when you have your opportunity.
"It's about being professional, nothing else. You practice hard each day, try to stay in playing shape, lifting, shooting. Someday, you'll get an opportunity to play, and you have to be ready."
That's the kind of attitude that makes the Sixers' stellar 10-3 start more than an aberration. Last season, the Sixers didn't get their 10th win until their 25th game.
