When the 76ers got up on Thursday morning they were 18-28. This should have had them buried so deep in the standings that they were safe making their offseason vacation plans for the third week of April.

Instead, they found themselves just one and a half games behind New Jersey for the eighth spot in the East.

How ridiculous is this, that a team 10 games under .500 could even sniff a playoff berth at this point of the season?

But the hard truth is that the Eastern Conference is so weak that you'll have more than a handful of sub-.500 teams gunning for the right to be crushed by Detroit or Boston.

Worse is the fact that teams with actual winning records in the Western Conference won't make the postseason. If the season ended today, Portland with a 26-19 record would be on the outside looking in. In the East, they'd be fourth behind Boston, Detroit and Orlando.

Maybe it's time for the NBA to scrap the East vs. West mentality and just go to a one through 16 format in the playoffs. It would make the entire playoffs less of a joke, and re-invigorate the Finals.

It hasn’t been a happy new year for the 76ers so far. In 2008, the Sixers have just three wins, including Saturday night’s 103-96 win over Charlotte.

Despite the paucity of wins, the Sixers say there’s no finger pointing going on, no morale problems, and their demeanor in the locker room bears this out.

After losses, they’re quiet and subdued, but by the next day they’re usually ready to go at it again.

“This is like a family team,” forward Reggie Evans said. “This isn’t a knucklehead team. Other teams go through stuff like this they just give in and get ready to go home. But we’re not. Everybody here has one goal and that’s to win so we don’t have time to be pointing fingers because we’ve got a lot of young guys and this is a learning experience and we older guys know that. We’ve got some good rookies and we’ve got some good older guys. You put that together and there’s no sense pointing fingers because we know it can get better.”

One thing that many around the league will give the Sixers is resilience. They work and work and work.

As one scout put it, the Sixers might lose some games by a lot, but you never doubt their effort.

Former Sixer Bobby Jones doesn’t get to see that much of the Sixers these days.

The former sixth man lives in Charlotte and is an assistant coach at a public high school, and the Sixers aren’t on national television much for apparent reasons.

Still, Jones likes what he sees.

“I think they’ve got a lot of potential,” he said. “They’re young, they’re teachable and they’ve got a good teacher. I think they’ve proved they’re good athletes: now they’ve got to work at making themselves understand the game and make it easier for their teammates to get scoring opportunities, defend and transition. There’s a lot of upside here.”

The 76ers haven’t made the playoffs for the past two years, and chances are they’ll be sitting out the dance again this season.

Is it Maurice Cheeks’ fault? Or has he done the best job he can with the talent he has?

That’s a decision that ultimately will be left up to his boss, Ed Stefanski, who isn’t going to say anything at this juncture for obvious reasons.

Still, when all things are added up, you have to put Cheeks’ positive approach in the plus column. He is saddled with a team of young, inexperienced players, a team that has just three players who would start on most other NBA teams.

They haven’t won a lot of games and just recently went through a seven-game losing streak. But say what you will, they didn’t quit and that’s a reflection on the coach, though he tries to deflect it elsewhere.

“That’s a reflection of the players themselves, that’s my opinion,” Cheeks said. “They never hung their heads enough for it to suffer on the court and if you lose six, seven games in a row it can be hard to get up the next day and keep trying to fight it. What I do is explain to them it’s gonna turn and I always explain to them about moments in life, a little more philosophical about things. Whether it’s a good moment or a bad moment it’s gonna pass. And the only way it’s gonna pass is if you keep going out there and doing the things you’re capable of doing. And that’s all they’ve ever done. I think you’ve got different players out there that really want to win and they want to keep putting the effort out there.”

As for his own job security, Cheeks said he can't worry about that right now.

“I just go out and try to do the best I can and I’ll live with the results afterward,” he said.

Should Cheeks get more time?

Samuel Dalembert, according to Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks, is playing like an All-Star.

On Monday night, he had 20 rebounds against defending NBA champ San Antonio, going head-to-head with Tim Duncan. It followed a 20-rebound performance against Chicago on Friday night.

Yet the Sixers can’t win. Against the Spurs they gave up 12 points to Manu Ginobili in just over two minutes in the last 4:10 of the game. That was the difference.

“Sam’s been playing great,” Cheeks said. “It’s unfortunate we haven’t won a game with him playing the way he’s playing and rebounding the ball the way he’s rebounding and defending the way he’s defending. What can we say? He’s playing great basketball and I told him before the game he’s playing All-Star caliber basketball as far as I’m concerned.”

Over the last five games, Dalembert has averaged 15.4 rebounds, 13.4 points and 2.4 blocked shots. In four of the five games he’s had a double-double.

With Dalembert playing arguably the best ball of his seven-year career, he’s not the problem with the Sixers.

What is? Perhaps their inability to defend the 3-point shot, or a 3-point threat of their own that would keep defenses honest? While Kyle Korver might have been a luxury for a team going nowhere, is it a coincidence that the Sixers have won just one game since trading away their only legitimate outside threat?

Andre Iguodala looked angry after Wednesday night's loss in Toronto, and who could blame him.

It was the fifth loss in a row for the Sixers, and the fourth in which they've given up 109 points or more.

Iguodala's frustration is no doubt fueled by a number of factors. He has tried to take on the role of team leader, a role he's not necessarily suited to. Iguodala is, in all likelihood, a complementary player, not a franchise player. But he wants to be the latter.

He also apparently wants to be paid like the latter, and last summer turned down a contract worth reported $57 million over five years. His play and the team's make a better offer this summer seem unlikely, which probably doesn't make what's going on on the court any easier.

Wednesday, he looked angry, and admitted that he was.

"If anybody is happy where we're at, they don't need to be part of this team,” he said.

The late-game lapses are particularly galling to Iguodala, and only one thing will make it better.

“Just winning, that seems to cure everything,” he said. “Just put a game together for 48 minutes and once we get a win that’ll clear things up.”

Iguodala also offered an explanation for not speaking to reporters after Tuesday's game. He said his son was sick and since he was leaving for Toronto he wanted to see them. Besides, he said, he did wait for awhile. That's more than possible since Maurice Cheeks routinely goes over the 10-minute cool-down period alloted to coaches before they talk to the media.

Before Tuesday night's game against Milwaukee, new Sixer Gordan Giricek was talking about how happy he was to be a part of the Sixers.

While he’s still living in a hotel, he said he planned to look for a place of his own after the trip to Toronto and settle in.

Not so fast, Gordan. For one thing, the 6-foot-6 forward is an unrestricted free agent this summer, so signing a long-term lease isn’t a good idea.

For another, there’s the Philly factor to deal with. On Giricek’s first shot of his first home game at the Wachovia center, a miss, he got a taste. One fan yelled from the stands, “Korver would’ve made that.”

Giricek plays six minutes against the Bucks and was 0-for-2

Kyle Korver helped his new team beat his old team Wednesday night, and he did it playing the kind of minutes a player like him should play.

In his second game with Utah, former Sixer Korver hit 3 of 4 shots from the field and went 6-for-7 from the free-throw line for 14 points in 11 minutes and 23 seconds. Five of his free throws were in the final minute.

A long-range shooter -- he went 2-for-2 from 3-point range -- and a dependable free-throw shooter who led the NBA in that category last year, Korver is going to be at his best in a system that doesn't need him for more than 20 minutes a game.

With Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and point guard Deron Williams, not to mention a strong supporting cast, Korver is a luxury the Jazz can afford because he won't have to play major minutes and have his defensive deficiencies exposed. He's averaged 14.5 minutes in two games with Utah, but averaged 26.3 minutes a game for the Sixers. That's just too much.

Korver will have a chance to win with the Jazz, and he'll be a role he's better suited for, though whether he'll be happy with the reduced playing time remains to be seen.

In the meantime, the Sixers got more cap room and a pick down the road that can be used as a bargaining chip and a player who should fill in adequately for the rest of the season.

Does that make it a good trade for the Sixers?