Doug Collins warned that the Washington Wizards would come into the Wells Fargo Center Tuesday and look like a different team than the one the Sixers led by 40 at one point last Friday.
He was right.
The Wizards outscored the Sixers by 10 in the second quarter to lead by five at the half. It took Jrue Holiday making a pair of late fourth-quarter threes for the Sixers to prevail, 101-94.
It wasnt pretty, nor was it the style of play we have grown accustomed to seeing from Collins team. As he said afterwards, his team just didnt have much juice early.
He knew it and they knew it.
You take the win, but tomorrow you have to have a solid practice because we made a lot of mistakes, Andre Iguodala said. Those are two types of games you are going to have during the season against lesser teams some would say, but everyone in this league has talent. We have to play well in both games.
One thing we need to realize is we cant start off like we did last year, even though we are starting off on a really tough road trip, Jrue Holiday said, referring to the Sixers 3-13 start last fall. But we need a good start. Every last person in here is disgusted how we played, but we are going to come back tomorrow and work.
NBA
Holiday was the star of the game, not just because he led the team in scoring with 24 points, but because with 4.7 seconds remaining he connected on two free throws to take the Sixers point total over 100, which earned the fans in attendance a free Big Mac from McDonalds.
One second earlier, he missed the second of two free throws, leaving the Sixers total at 99 points. There was a collective sigh from the announced crowd of 6,518 fans.
But Holiday grabbed the offensive rebound off his miss and was fouled. That allowed him to redeem himself. The place was chanting Big Mac as he connected on his shots from 15 feet away.
The bench, which Collins believes could be among the elite in the NBA this season, had three guys in double figures. Thad Young scored 13 points and Evan Turner had 13 points to go along with an impressive nine rebounds, while Lou Williams scored 10.
The Sixers reserves outscored Washingtons bench, 43-23.
The Sixers did not shoot the ball particularly well at 42 percent, shy of their desired goal of 47 percen, but because they held the Wizards to 35 percent shooting they were able to pull off the win.
I was proud of the guys. I thought we battled through, Collins said. We had some guys do some good things but we need to be much better.
For a second straight game, starting center Spencer Hawes had double-figure rebounds with a team-high 13. Collins liked that but was not happy the Wizards were able to grab 21 offensive rebounds.
We have to limit second-shot opportunities, Turner said. At the end of the game they grabbed two offensive rebounds that led to five points. Coach said that and I just try to cut that out when I am in the game so we can get out and run because thats what we are good at.
Observation
The experiment to have Marreese Speights be the fourth big man in Collins rotation did not go well. Speights committed a defensive three seconds penalty moments after he entered the game. He did not make jumpers as he did Monday in practice and finished 0 for 4 from the floor.
Speights did not rebound the ball as he had last Friday when he had seven boards in the fourth quarter. He had two rebounds in 12 minutes this game.
Count it
Rookie Nik Vucevic had the coolest basket of the night. At the end of the half there was confusion as to whether time had actually expired, so the refs reviewed the play and realized it should be the Sixers ball with 0.7 seconds on the clock. Vucevic took the in-bounds pass from Holiday at the top of the key and made a three-pointer.
E-mail Dei Lynam at dlynam@comcastsportsnet.com.