Keith Van Horn

The 76ers' season is getting more depressing with each game, and the coach and his players seem near wits' end. None of the frustration was unwarranted last night as the Sixers surrendered 40 points in the first quarter - and scored only 16 - en route to a 107-88 blowout loss to the New Jersey Nets in front of 17,845 at Continental Airlines Arena. The Sixers were so bad that coach Larry Brown refused to talk to them after the game. At his postgame news conference, Brown had tears in his eyes.

Keith Van Horn looks for all the world like a drawn-out version of Opie Taylor, the towheaded innocent with the questioning eyes who used to ask ethically challenging questions of his sheriff father on television's Andy Griffith Show. But even Opie, while helping give single-parenting a good name, never got compared to the legendary Larry Bird. "There are flashes of Larry Bird," Michael Cage, the New Jersey Nets' backup center, said of Van Horn, the team's 6-foot-10, 220-pound, pale-as-alabaster rookie power forward.

Like a boomerang, Todd MacCulloch went from one team to another, then came back, all in the span of about 13 months. That makes tonight's preseason game between the 76ers and the New Jersey Nets "interesting," as MacCulloch put it. "That's a very Canadian way to say it," Keith Van Horn said. Interesting, indeed. If anyone understands that, it's Van Horn, who was a teammate of MacCulloch's last season with New Jersey and, like the center from Western Canada, was part of the off-season trade that sent Dikembe Mutombo to the Nets.

Six technical fouls, one flagrant, 10 ties, 10 lead changes, a lot of trash talking and a playoff atmosphere. In most respects it was like any Knicks-Nets game, except this one had a new dimension, Keith Van Horn. The rookie scored 16 of his 29 points in a fourth-quarter show that co-starred Sherman Douglas as the New Jersey Nets defeated the visiting New York Knicks, 103-98, last night. "Did you see him in the fourth quarter? Did you see him drain those threes? That kid is a superstar," Nets center Jayson Williams said.

As is the case with anything in life, luck often factors into the equation that yields positive outcomes. Over the last six days, the 76ers can attest to that better than anyone. When they faced the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday, the Sixers didn't have to play against Sean Elliott, Avery Johnson or Malik Rose, who were saddled with injuries. When they met Charlotte on Monday, controversy over Derrick Coleman's role with the team was arguably as much of a distraction to the Hornets as Sixers forward George Lynch was to Jamal Mashburn, the Hornets' leading scorer.

A decision could be near. Although they are only two games behind first-place Detroit in the Eastern Conference, the 76ers might need to forgo their goal of winning the conference's top playoff seed in exchange for getting healthy. Allen Iverson has a bum left knee. Derrick Coleman has a bruised left thigh. Aaron McKie is having back spasms. And Keith Van Horn is out indefinitely with an injured left foot. "We can have as high a seed as we want to have, but if we don't have all our horses, it's going to be tough," Eric Snow said yesterday.

TOP 10 reasons Howard Eskin was speeding in New Jersey: 10. Barkley needed a caddy. 9. Had shopping date with John Street at Cherry Hill Mall. 8. Helping A.I. look for his wife. 7. Was trying to refund tickets for the Latin Casino. 6. Was going to a sleepover at Bobby Clarke's house. 5. Had a tip on a horse at the Garden State Park. 4. Had a dinner date with A. Charles Peruto Jr. at the Pennsauken Mart. 3. Wanted to talk sports with Bob from Marlton.

It was a typical New York Knicks game. Players diving for loose balls, great defense and big shots. It was a total team effort. The surprise was it was the New Jersey Nets doing it to the Knicks. Johnny Newman scored 18 points in his first start of the year, and the Nets had three other players record double-doubles in beating the visiting Knicks, 96-83, last night. "We wanted the game more than them tonight," said Nets point guard Stephon Marbury, who had 12 points, 12 assists and one game-breaking three-pointer in the fourth quarter as the Nets halted a two-game losing streak.

No matter how Byron Scott tried to modify it, the Kings-Nets game was best described with one word. "It was a little 'Wow,' " Scott said after the New Jersey Nets dealt the visiting Sacramento Kings their worst loss of the season last night, 117-83 in a matchup of the top teams from the Eastern and Western conferences. "I was a little surprised we were beating them like we were beating them, but our guys were really in tune tonight, they wanted to play really well against the team that has the best record in the league," Scott said.

New coach. Same old misery. Rookie Vince Carter had 20 points and a career-high 15 rebounds as the Toronto Raptors routed visiting New Jersey, 100-85, last night in Nets coach Don Casey's first game since replacing John Calipari. The Nets, who fired Calipari on Monday, dropped to 3-18 and looked miserable in the process. Only the Los Angeles Clippers, at 1-20, have a worse record than the Nets. "We need a breakthrough to get some tangible hope," Casey said. "A change of coach is not a magic wand.

After hiring highly regarded coach Doug Collins in May, and taking guard Evan Turner with the No. 2 pick in the June NBA draft, the 76ers on Thursday added the well-respected Rod Thorn to their front office by naming him team president. The move reunites Thorn with Ed Stefanski, who has been the Sixers president and general manager since 2007. Stefanski, who relinquished his title of president and will remain as general manager, was on the staff when Thorn began a 10-year tenure as president of the New Jersey Nets in 2000.

  Though it's not an official transaction and it took three years to complete, the 76ers and Nets, two of the three worst teams in the NBA's Eastern Conference last season, effectively have swapped general managers. New Jersey on Wednesday hired Billy King, the man Ed Stefanski replaced in Philadelphia in 2007, to be its general manager. The Nets' new owner, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, said he and new coach Avery Johnson interviewed several candidates for the position held by Rod Thorn, who decided last month to leave the team that finished the 2009-10 season with an NBA-worst 12-70 mark.

Stephon Marbury couldn't get over wearing the jersey of his hometown New York Knicks. He would have looked better if the result were different. Zydrunas Ilgauskas' 24 points led the host Cleveland Cavaliers over the Knicks, 107-96, last night. Marbury, traded from Phoenix to New York with Penny Hardaway Monday, had just eight points and eight assists. Hardaway had six points. Marbury, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native, was emotional after the game about donning his new uniform.

It can be the ultimate dream pairing, the association of Allen Iverson and Glenn Robinson on the same basketball court, confounding defenses and carrying the 76ers on any given night with their ability to score. Then again, it can be the ultimate nightmare, two guys accustomed to shooting and scoring and being the focal point of an offense allowing their egos to get in the way of playing team basketball. Take your pick, but consider this: On a team that has been starving for a second option on offense, the latest bust having been Keith Van Horn, Robinson, who has averaged 20.8 points per game for his career, is the best sidekick that Iverson has ever had, better than Jerry Stackhouse in 1996-97.

He expected it, the short shots and staccato rhythm to his play. Keith Van Horn missed six games late in the regular season, which is why, he says, he has scored just 14 points in the 76ers' two playoff wins over the New Orleans Hornets. His timing is off, his conditioning less than perfect. Reluctantly aggressive on a good day, Van Horn is trying to find a flow, trying to look inside, trying to help the Sixers advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals. It will come, he says.

Years ago, Dean Smith preached four principles to his North Carolina teams. Play hard. Play together. Play smart. And have fun. Last night, a Smith disciple got all four from his team. Larry Brown's 76ers did all of the above, having fun on the way to a 91-74 win over the Detroit Pistons at the First Union Center. It was a methodical, matter-of-fact dismissal that pulled the Sixers within two games of the New Jersey Nets, who lead the Eastern Conference, and within one game of the second-place Pistons.

A decision could be near. Although they are only two games behind first-place Detroit in the Eastern Conference, the 76ers might need to forgo their goal of winning the conference's top playoff seed in exchange for getting healthy. Allen Iverson has a bum left knee. Derrick Coleman has a bruised left thigh. Aaron McKie is having back spasms. And Keith Van Horn is out indefinitely with an injured left foot. "We can have as high a seed as we want to have, but if we don't have all our horses, it's going to be tough," Eric Snow said yesterday.

Houston, we have a problem - not that the Rockets care. Allen Iverson said after missing 16 consecutive shots last night in the 76ers' 88-79 loss to the Rockets at the First Union Center that he was considering taking "a couple games" off to rest his swollen left knee. His self-imposed sabbatical could begin tomorrow when the Sixers host the Sacramento Kings. Keith Van Horn went down in the first quarter, suffering an injury to the plantar fascia in his left foot. After the game, Sixers coach Larry Brown said he feared that Van Horn might miss the rest of the season, but an MRI exam revealed only a strain, and Van Horn was listed as day-to-day.

He seems to come out of nowhere. Lurking unattended along the baseline, Keith Van Horn rises up and dunks a perfect pass from Allen Iverson to demoralize the opponent. Several times in the 76ers' recent games, including Wednesday's against Chicago, Iverson and Van Horn have connected. The alley-oops come off set plays. Coach Larry Brown likes any plays that get Van Horn more involved in the offense. After their 108-101 win over the Bulls moved the Sixers to within two games of the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons, Brown implored Van Horn to shoot more - a lot more - and play more aggressively.

For most players, basketball is an escape, and the court is the one place they can forget whatever problems or issues they might have, even if for just a few hours. So it was last night, with war looming and the country's safety uncertain, that the 76ers and Miami Heat played in front of a spotty, quiet crowd at AmericanAirlines Arena. Leading wire-to-wire, the Sixers cruised to their 15th victory in their last 17 games, winning by 103-83. Because Detroit and New Jersey won last night, the Sixers remain two games behind the Pistons and a half-game behind the Nets in the Eastern Conference standings.