NEW YORK - The pattern is becoming painful, frustrating and dangerous for the 76ers, who again found themselves facing an uphill climb in a basketball game for the fourth time in as many games this season.

The Sixers buried themselves under an avalanche of turnovers last night at Madison Square Garden, dug themselves an 18-point first-half hole, and wound up losing, 96-88, to the New York Knicks, a team that lost its previous home game by 34 points.

Turnovers plague Sixers in loss to Knicks

By Joe Juliano, Inquirer Staff Writer

NEW YORK - The pattern is becoming painful, frustrating and dangerous for the 76ers, who again found themselves facing an uphill climb in a basketball game for the fourth time in as many games this season.

The Sixers buried themselves under an avalanche of turnovers last night at Madison Square Garden, dug themselves an 18-point first-half hole, and wound up losing, 96-88, to the New York Knicks, a team that lost its previous home game by 34 points.

In dropping their third straight game, the Sixers committed a season-high 28 turnovers. Nine came from Allen Iverson, who had to play a mistake-free fourth quarter to avoid a triple-double.

Coach Jim O'Brien, on different occasions during his postgame interview, referred to the turnovers as "indescribable," "dissatisfying," and "ridiculous."

"This is a major problem that we have to do something about," O'Brien said. "The guys who are playing are the guys that are going to play for us, and they have to do a better job of making decisions and not being involved in getting themselves into traffic."

O'Brien didn't point the finger only at Iverson for the turnovers, noting "there were a lot of guys that didn't do a good job of taking care of the rock."

Iverson, however, pointed the blame at himself. "If I turn the basketball over, we don't have a shot of winning the game, it's as simple as that," said Iverson, who finished with 29 points and 10 assists. "You can talk about other things happening, but if I don't turn the ball over as much as I did, we would have had a better chance."

Turnovers weren't the only thing that ruined the Sixers' effort. The Sixers did little on defense to stop the Knicks, who hit their first eight shots of the second quarter to build a lead that eventually reached 55-37 with 1 minute, 12 seconds remaining until halftime.

That marked the second time this season that the Sixers trailed by more than 10 in the first half. In the other two games, the opponent got up by double figures (18 vs. Boston, 18 vs. Detroit) in the third quarter.

"Certainly that's not our plan to dig a hole like that," O'Brien said. "But we have done that and that is, among other things, of tremendous concern. We got down by double digits because we turn the basketball over. You can't do that and expect to hold your own. You just can't."

The fact that it happened against the Knicks was a bit surprising. New York was coming off a devastating 107-73 loss to the Boston Celtics in its home opener Saturday night, and the reign of coach Lenny Wilkens appeared to be in jeopardy.

But the Knicks were a step faster than the Sixers in many aspects of the game. They came out with more energy, capitalized on Sixers turnovers for 28 points, made their shots and repelled any of the Sixers' mild attempts to come back.

"We're just not coming out and playing with a sense of urgency," Iverson said. "We're not playing hard at the beginning of the game and then we're fighting an uphill battle. It's tough losing three games in a row. We watch film and see what we're doing bad, but then we don't get it done on the court."

The combination of 15 Sixers turnovers (they had the same number of field goals) and 53 percent shooting by the Knicks led to a 55-42 halftime lead for New York. The Sixers scored on seven of their first nine possessions of the third quarter, and cut only one point off the deficit because the Knicks hit five of their first six shots.

A dunk by Jamal Crawford, who led the Knicks with 22 points, extended the New York lead to 73-56 with 5:16 left in the third quarter. The Sixers rallied late and went into the fourth quarter with a chance, trailing, 76-67.

Iverson's three-point basket with 6:24 to play narrowed the gap to 83-75, but the Knicks scored the next eight points - four by ex-Sixer Nazr Mohammed - and had a comfortable 16-point advantage with just under four minutes to play.

Again, a second scoring option behind Iverson was difficult to find. Rookie Andre Iguodala added 13 points and Willie Green contributed 12. Kenny Thomas managed just seven points and two rebounds in 33 minutes.

With tonight's game against the New Jersey Nets at the Wachovia Center kicking off a five-game homestand, Iverson said it's not time to get down.

"We've only played four games into the season," he said. "It's a long season, 82 games. I'd rather start slow and play real good at the end than playing bad at the end. We won't let our heads get down. We'll stay together, stay positive and get as good as we can."