PHILADELPHIA - The distance between MCI Center and First Union Center is about a 2 1/2 -hour car ride, one of the shortest between NBA cities.
However, the difference between the Washington Wizards' play Saturday night at home against Miami, when they set a franchise record for fewest points allowed, and last night, when the Philadelphia 76ers hectored and harassed them into a 100-84 loss was worlds apart.
The Sixers applied constant pressure to Washington (6-5), turning a season-high 23 Wizards turnovers into one easy basket after another.
"Before the game, I wrote three numbers up on the board - turnovers, steals and points off [turnovers] - and that was the whole game," said Washington coach Doug Collins.
"This [the 76ers] is a team that thrives off other teams' mistakes. We play at a tempo on the road that gets us in trouble. It's an area that we're going to have to get much better at if we're going to be a playoff team. Anytime we gave ourselves a chance to get back in it, we then would turn the ball over."
Philadelphia (7-3) turned Washington's turnovers into 28 points - double what the Wizards could convert off the Sixers' 15 turnovers - stole the ball 14 times and, just for good measure, outscored Washington 42-18 in the paint.
Allen Iverson had 28 points to lead Philadelphia, while Keith Van Horn chipped in with 23.
"We've seen that kind of pressure before," said Wizards guard Jerry Stackhouse, who had a game-high 29 points. "It was more a matter of us not being in our spots and attacking the way we have before."
The Wizards twice sliced what had been a 16-point Sixers lead to four in the fourth quarter, but Philadelphia broke it open with a 15-5 run.
"The one thing about this young team that we have to learn is that when you go on the road, you have to have a certain poise about you," said Michael Jordan, who had 19 points. "The referees are not always going to give you the calls. Obviously, we had a bunch of calls go against us, and along with the pressure and the crowd, I think we lost our poise.
"For us to be a good team, we're going to have to learn to play through those situations, especially on the road. You have to learn to be very smart, and almost be like a veteran team. [Last night] we played like a young team."
Oddly enough, Jordan and Stackhouse, two of the team's more veteran players, each committed five turnovers.
Stackhouse opened the game on fire, hitting five of his first seven shots in the first six minutes of the quarter for 12 points. Then, inexplicably, he didn't attempt a shot for 11 minutes as Jordan came in and tried to find his stroke, taking 10 shots in the half, making five.
The Wizards came apart in the second quarter, physically and mentally, as the 76ers used a 21-7 spurt to break open what had been a tie game at the end of the first period.
Philadelphia repeatedly brought a half-court trap that seemed to unnerve the Wizards, who committed 14 turnovers in the first half, which the Sixers turned into 17 points.
"Man, it was unbelievable," said Bryon Russell. "We made mistake after mistake."
Next for Wizards
Opponent: Houston Rockets
Site: Compaq Center, Houston
When: Friday, 8:30 p.m.
TV/Radio: Comcast SportsNet/WTEM (980 AM)