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Coach Randy Ayers watched the 76ers go through their pregame workout last night at the start of a three-game preseason road trip that he had wanted to use to establish his substitution rotation.
However, two starters - Allen Iverson and Kenny Thomas - weren't on the floor
and weren't on the trip, which began with an 87-86 loss to the Utah Jazz. So
Ayers put his focus for last night on two of his other starters - Glenn Robinson
and Derrick Coleman.
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Iverson was attending to personal business in Virginia amid speculation that he had traveled there to visit his mother, Ann, who gave birth to a boy. She had been pregnant with twins, but one child died. Ticketmaster
Billy King, the Sixers' president and general manager, refused to confirm any
reports and remained tight-lipped as to the reasons for Iverson's absence.
"To us, personal business is personal business, and we're going to leave
it at that," King said. Ayers said he had not talked to Iverson yesterday,
but that he would call him today.
Thomas, meanwhile, stayed in Philadelphia with tendinitis in his right Achilles
tendon.
So rather than getting to see his starting frontcourt of Robinson, Coleman and
Thomas together for the first time, Ayers would have to wait a little longer.
"It's somewhat frustrating," he said before the game, "but we
may have to go through a period during the year where you don't play with Allen
or Kenny. It will give us a chance to work [Coleman] back in it. At times, we'll
make Glenn our focal point offensively to see where Glenn likes the ball. We'll
try to work some things out on this trip."
Coleman, beginning his 14th season in the NBA, was seeing his first playing
time of the preseason. He came back this week from a strained groin, and Ayers
said that he looked good in practice.
The coach said that Coleman would "go as long as he felt comfortable."
He said that he also wanted to give extended minutes to Robinson, acquired from
Atlanta in an off-season trade, and point guard Eric Snow. Ticketmaster
"We have a core of starters back from last year," he said. "Then,
with the guys who are going to back up, you really want competition in practice.
Number one, it makes you a better team. Number two, it helps you sort through
the substitution process.
"I've loved the young guys - [Kyle] Korver and [Willie] Green and [John]
Salmons - because they've all come in with the idea that they want to play."
Even with the rough spots facing Ayers as he prepares for the regular-season
opener on Oct. 28, at least he doesn't have to coach a team that has lost two
future Hall of Famers since last season. That is the scenario facing Utah's
Jerry Sloan, who is confronting life without John Stockton (retired) and Karl
Malone (gone to the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent).
"It's amazing looking down there and watching them warm up without seeing
Stockton and Malone, who obviously are two of the best that have ever played,"
Ayers said. "But, you know, from a coaching standpoint, it may be exciting
to coach young players." Ticketmaster
Without Iverson in the lineup, the Sixers blew an eight-point fourth-quarter
lead in the loss to the Jazz. Rookie Aleksandar Pavlovic hit a layup with 16.4
seconds left to put Utah up by 85-84, and ex-Sixer Raja Bell added two free
throws with five seconds to go to make it 87-84.
On the Sixers' last possession, Aaron McKie couldn't get open for a three-point
try and passed to Salmons. Salmons made the basket, but he had one foot on the
three-point arc, and the bucket counted only for two.