Success has been mental

CHARLOTTE - If there is one thing we've learned as this condensed NBA season approaches the midway point, it's that the grueling schedule is wreaking havoc on teams.

Injuries have already taken their toll on some of the better teams throughout the league.

The Knicks are playing without their Big Two in Carmelo Anthony and Amare' Stoudemire; Boston has had to make due without Paul Pierce at times; Atlanta All-Star Al Horford is out with a shoulder injury; New Jersey has yet to play a game with its starting center, Brook Lopez; Miami's Dwyane Wade (ankle and foot) and Chicago's Derrick Rose (back), both strong MVP candidates, have been grounded with ailments; Rose's teammate, Luol Deng, who was just selected to make his first All-Star appearance, has missed games with a bad wrist; Indiana's Danny Granger (foot) and Cleveland's Anderson Varejao (broken wrist) are two more.

And that's only the Eastern Conference. Things haven't been any better out West.

The 76ers have also felt their share of the injury epidemic. Starting center Spencer Hawes is still in Philadelphia getting treatment on his ailing Achilles', which will cause him to miss tonight's game against the Charlotte Bobcats and Wednesday's tilt against the Magic in Orlando. By then, Hawes will have missed 15 of the past 17 games and 18 overall. His backup, rookie Nikola Vucevic, missed four games due to a strained quad and power forward Elton Brand is playing with a right-thumb sprain that caused him to miss a couple of games last week.

Still, with their 99-84 win in Cleveland on Saturday, the Sixers keep churning along. The win snapped their only two-game losing streak of the season and improved their record to 19-9. They still hold a comfortable lead atop the Atlantic Division and are sitting in the upper half of the conference standings.

The numbers are impressive and far beyond where many people thought the team would be at this point, especially when you consider the loss of Hawes, who many believed had been the primary reason for the team's turnaround with his solid play.

There are many factors, obviously, that have played into the solid start. A beneficial early schedule, in which the team just completed a haul of 18 of 22 games at home, is one. An overall defensive effort that has been among the stingiest in the league, allowing only 86.1 points (second in the league) and an opponent's field goal percentage of .417 (tied for first), is another.