Doug Collins

Coach Doug Collins did not attend the 76ers' practice Sunday because of a sinus infection. The Sixers listed Collins as day-to-day. The 61-year-old coach left in the third quarter of Saturday's 97-80 victory over the New York Knicks to be treated for the infection. Collins was examined by team internist Daniel Lazowick after the game. He was replaced in the game by associate head coach Michael Curry, who ran Sunday's practice. The Sixers coach has left the bench before because of health issues.

NEWARK, N.J. - Goodbye, New Jersey; hello, playoffs. While the Nets marked their final game in North Jersey after 35 years (they will move across the river to Brooklyn next season), the 76ers held a mild celebration of their own Monday night after beating New Jersey, 105-87. The win clinched a playoff berth for the Sixers, who improved to 34-30 with their third consecutive win on the road. They are tied with New York for the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference, but the Knicks own the tiebreaker.

Duke assistant coach Chris Collins, the son of 76ers coach Doug Collins, was named the head coach at Northwestern on Wednesday. Before the Sixers game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Collins said he hoped his son would get the job. "Chris had a very good interview there the other day, and obviously [Northwestern] fits the profile of what he's been looking for in his career," he said. Chris Collins replaces Bill Carmody, who was fired March 16 after his Wildcats went 13 years without an NCAA berth.

SALT LAKE CITY - If the Miami Heat keep streaking - they have won 27 straight - they could tie the NBA record by beating the 76ers on April 6. The record of 33 straight wins was set by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers. Sixers coach Doug Collins believes that the Heat are good enough to break the record. "Sure they can," Collins said Monday. "They have been pulling rabbits out of their hat lately, but they are in a rhythm. "Absolutely, they could do it. They have great players, a great coach, they defend every night and they have championship players like Ray Allen and Shane Battier coming off their bench.

NEW YORK - Los Angeles Clippers forward Grant Hill is looking forward to being reunited with one of his favorite coaches, Doug Collins, on Monday. Hill played an instrumental role Sunday in the Clippers' 102-88 win over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. The Clippers will play Collins' 76ers team on Monday night at the Wells Fargo Center. Collins coached Hill when he was an all-star forward with the Detroit Pistons. The coach has often referred to Hill in glowing terms.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - With just two games remaining in his coaching tenure with the 76ers, Doug Collins still wasn't talking about the end. Before the Sixers played the Detroit Pistons on Monday, the team's director of public relations, Michael Preston, told reporters that Collins would not answer any questions regarding his future. Several sources with knowledge of the situation said Sunday night that the team and Collins are working on a buyout and that he will not return next season.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Like many across the world, 76ers coach Doug Collins spent much of his time Monday before a 109-101 loss to the Detroit Pistons transfixed by the two explosions at the Boston Marathon. Before the game, Collins said he and the Sixers would say a prayer for those touched by the tragedy. "I am pretty good with perspective, and I don't need any tragedy to remind me how blessed my life is," Collins said. "Watching that today was very sobering. All I could think about was those runners' loved ones standing at the finish line and waiting to greet them.

Had the 76ers not been eliminated from the playoffs over the weekend, their reward would likely have been swift elimination in the first round, courtesy of the Miami Heat. They would also be looking at losing this year's first-round pick, which is lottery protected through 2015 as a result of last year's draft-day trade with the Heat that brought them Arnett Moultrie. Still, with six mostly meaningless games left in the regular season, Sixers coach Doug Collins said the Sixers will not try to lose games to improve the team's chances of acquiring more ping-pong balls in the lottery.

It should be beneath Doug Collins for it to play out this way. He is a good man and an excellent basketball coach. But if the funhouse-mirror reporting of the last week is all accurate, he has badly mishandled the final days of his 76ers tenure. According to Yahoo Sports - and silly name aside, that translates to the very, very respected and accurate Adrian Wojnarowski - Collins told Sixers ownership Sunday he plans to resign at the end of the season. He did this, if he did this, on the day that: Collins told reporters anything other than the titanic clash against the Cavaliers was "moot," refusing to answer questions about his future as if they were somehow a product of the media's collective fever dream.

INDIANPOLIS - 76ers coach Doug Collins and the team are in "discussions" for Collins to resign as coach and become a special consultant to the club, according to Ballard Spahr, the law firm for which Collins' agent, John B. Langel, is chairman of the litigation department. On Tuesday afternoon, Ballard Spahr released a statement that read in part: "Doug Collins left the team as its head coach after three years and became a special consultant to the franchise. " Later, however, it followed with another release saying: "That information is not correct.