Losers of seven of their last eight games, and starting a season-long, seven-game road trip 1-3, it might be meeting time for the Sonics. Seattle forward Chris Wilcox said he would be willing to call a team meeting, if guys were willing to listen.
"I wouldn't mind hollerin' at the guys," Wilcox said. "But it ain't really nothing if I holler at the guys and it doesn't mean nothing to them. I just think, for real, we just have to have some pride. We've got to dig deep down and look at ourselves, everybody." Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo is faced with a tough dilemma Saturday, wanting to go hard at practice to establish some momentum for Sunday's game at Toronto, but also needing to make sure he doesn't run his team ragged before the game.
"We have to find a way to play our way out of it," Carlesimo said about the team's recent slump. "It's one of those things you deal with sometimes in the league. You're down. Yes, it's late in the year. Yes, we're running into teams where every game is really meaningful to them, and there ain't any pity, and we're bouncing around from one coast to the next. But it is what it is. We have to do better than what we're doing. And 'we' starts with me."
With only three games left on the road, the Sonics need to figure something out quick.
"We all need to talk, because like I said, this is embarrassing," Wilcox said. "It might be too late to talk. But at the same time when you're getting beat by 40 (points), I think something needs to be said."
SIXERS 117, SONICS 83: Only trailing 63-58 early in the third quarter, the Sonics were outscored 54-25 the rest of the way. Philadelphia controlled the paint, outscoring Seattle 62-38 inside. The Sonics also turned the ball over 20 times, resulting in 30 points for Philadelphia. Samuel Dalembert led the Sixers with 22 points and 13 rebounds.
