But it must say something about their current state that Kevin McHale benched his starters, started his subs and his Wolves offered their most competitive performance in a week.

McHale walked into the locker room immediately after Tuesday's loss at Atlanta and told his players the regular starters were out and the reserves were in next time after only his second unit kept games Sunday against Oklahoma City and Monday against the Hawks.

So Bobby Brown, Kevin Ollie, Brian Cardinal, Craig Smith and Rodney Carney started Wednesday while Randy Foye, Sebastian Telfair, Ryan Gomes, Kevin Love and Mike Miller sat.

"I was rewarding those guys for playing hard," McHale said afterward. "We weren't very competitive the last couple games, so anything would have made us more competitive (Wednesday night)."

McHale said he swapped the two units as reward rather than reprimand and dismissed a question that suggested the official season of playing for better lottery odds has begun.

"I tell you what: I'd say the way we've played the other games, that looks like a lottery play to me," McHale said. "Holy cow. Those guys deserve to go out there and play."

McHale said he received little reaction from his starters when he told them Monday he was flip-flopping his lineup.

After Wednesday's game, they offered no complaints.

It was time for a change, a shakeup," Gomes said. "We've been talking about sluggish starts for a while now. The way the second unit has played the last four games -- almost coming back from insurmountable leads -- it was time. It's different when you're not making shots, but the lack of energy and effort was not there. I think that's what the coaches saw."

SIXERS 96, TIMBERWOLVES 88: Kevin McHale made his starters sub and vice versa and instead of trailing by 32 or 26 points this time, the Wolves led by 10 points in the second quarter and by six with two minutes left in the third quarter before losing for the sixth straight time and the 17th time in their past 19 games.

"We weren't playing well, I didn't disagree with it," Sebastian Telfair, the usual starting point guard, said about the lineup change. "(Wednesday night), we actually came out and played better."

Rodney Carney used the starter's stage against the team that traded him away last summer to score all of his 21 points on three pointers, a career-high seven. Craig Smith's 20 points led those reserves-turned-starters on a night when McHale's maneuvering did nothing to inspire his former starters to play better:

Telfair, Randy Foye, Ryan Gomes and Mike Miller combined to shoot six for 32.

The Sixers -- just back from a five-game Western trip where they beat the Lakers and Portland -- won the game with runs of 9-0 that ended the third quarter and 11-0 that came midway through the fourth.