Playing without their top player in point guard Devin Harris, the New Jersey Nets should have stood no chance of winning when they walked into the Wachovia Center Friday night.

Instead, the Philadelphia Sixers gave them every chance to earn their first win of the season.

It turned out, the Nets didn’t want it.

The Sixers overcame a small fourth quarter deficit to pull out an uninspiring 97-94 win. The Nets came into the game as the worst team in the league at 0-5 and were without six injured players, leaving them with just four players on the bench. Still, they almost took down a Sixers team that looked lost at times on both ends of the court.  

Elton Brand – who was signed last year to be the Sixers go-to player – was never in foul trouble, yet played just 18 minutes. He produced eight points and the team was -6 while he was on the court. Andre Iguodala made the biggest bucket of the night, a three pointer with two minutes left to give the Sixers a 95-92 lead.

After the game, Iguodala was quoted as saying. “I wish we could have played better. We’ll still take the win it counts.”

It does count, just not for much.

The Sixers are now 3-0 against Easter Conference bottom-feeders and 0-2 against top teams.

Expect that trend to continue all the way to the first round of the playoffs where the Sixers will exit with little fight. This team is stuck in a holding pattern and there seems to be no immediate way out of it.