The days of his season slip by, loss upon loss, injury upon injury and, yet, those who see him every day find Larry Brown to be remarkably calm as his team suffers through a current six-game losing streak on top of the five straight losses to start the season.

	“	Players around the league don't think we play as hard for 48 minutes as we have in the past. I think that's right on the money. Our effort is not as good as it has been. We've got a lot of new guys, a lot of new players, but that's not our M.O. We don't win unless we out-hustle people. I don't coach effort. I assume you're going to give great effort. I coach execution. I find myself now imploring guys to play harder. ”
		— Larry Brown, 76ers coach

Maybe Brown appears so relaxed because he knows there is nothing he could have done to prevent his players from going down in alarming numbers. Or maybe it's because he knows three-fourths of the schedule remains or because the teams in the East remain so closely bunched.

Through Thursday night, 13 of 15 Eastern Conference teams were separated by a span of only six victories.

"We're fortunate," Brown said, looking ahead. "None of the teams in the East have been able to separate themselves from the pack. So, we still have a chance, but we knew coming into the season the first 2½ months were going to be very difficult, the most difficult part of the schedule in fact. We have to do something over the next month to stay in the race."

Philadelphia will have played 28 of 41 road games by the All-Star break, completing all of its work west of the Mississippi. If the Sixers turn this thing around this may be the week that marks that point in their season, and Friday night's home game against Milwaukee could be the pivotal one. Yes, it is a meeting between the two teams that played for the Eastern Conference title last June. But it is also a collision of two teams that find themselves in various stages of collapse.

The 76ers have dropped in a straight line. The Bucks went West at 9-1 and have dropped six of eight.

Different problems, however, for while Milwaukee's troubles appear to center on roles and personalities, the 76ers stand together -- well try to stand together -- some on crutches, some with their arms in slings.

But Aaron McKie is back and so is Allen Iverson. Eric Snow will play against the Bucks, his first action of the season, and Derrick Coleman, out three games with a hyperextended knee, could be back tonight or early next week.

Like everyone else, Brown has found it utterly remarkable that the so many Sixers, past and present, have been knocked out by injury.

"Each guy with a different thing," he said. "Some of the strangest injuries you could imagine."

Not one player who started the 2000-01 season was in uniform for Philadelphia opening night.

"Every one of our main guys was knocked out," Brown noted. "Aaron (shoulder surgery), Allen (elbow surgery), Eric (broken thumb), Matt (Geiger; arthritic knees, retired)..."

Those were the key figures who remained. How about George Lynch, traded to Charlotte, still with a stress fracture in his foot? Or Tyrone Hill who missed all of training camp and every single game Cleveland has played because of back spasms? Or Theo Ratliff, traded away last February with a broken bone in his wrist? The bone healed, but Ratliff suffered torn cartilage in his right hip a week before training camp. He played the first two games of the season and now is recovering from surgery. Or Toni Kukoc, who could not run from mid-April to late September while hoping a radical procedure would cure his plantar fasciatis?

This is not to mention Pat Croce, the team president who reached for more power and was, in effect, fired. Croce had that famous motorcycle accident, remember? Even Brown missed games last season with an internal ailment.

Ratliff, the central figure in Philadelphia's defensive scheme before suffering his injury a week before he was to play in the All-Star Game, says, injuries aside, he is not surprised his old team has struggled.

"They changed their team so much," he said. "When they traded for Dikembe I told the guys they would be making more changes to adapt to his style of play. He's a defensive specialist and they needed some offensive players.

"As a group we were together three years -- me, Eric, Aaron, Allen, George. We each knew everyone's personality. We understood what coach wanted. When we went out to play we went out to play as a single unit. It's going to take time for their team to feel that way again."

Brown essentially echoes Ratliff's assessment. "It's the older guys not showing the newer guys how we play by example," Brown said. "Some of our new guys commented that hey, we're not playing like they envisioned the Sixers play ... Players around the league don't think we play as hard for 48 minutes as we have in the past. I think that's right on the money. Our effort is not as good as it has been. We've got a lot of new guys, a lot of new players, but that's not our M.O. We don't win unless we out-hustle people. I don't coach effort. I assume you're going to give great effort. I coach execution. I find myself now imploring guys to play harder."

And Snow on the eve of his return said he is also very unhappy. "Ticked" is the word he used. "We should've never put ourselves in this situation, so I'm just disgusted with everything in general right now. I'm going to try and bring us new life. I'm sick and tired of everybody talking about what we did last year. This is about right now. Everything is being compared to how things were last year, but this is a different team. But just because we're different doesn't mean we're not supposed to be playing the same way."

As McKie put it after returning from treatment for an irregular heart beat, "For all the complaining we sometimes do about an 82-game schedule, this is one time when that might be beneficial to us."

Jeffrey Denberg, who covers the NBA for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.