76ers roll past Cavs

Associated Press

Philadelpha

Doug Collins walked off the Philadelphia court a winner for the final time this home season.

The wait is on to find out if he’ll return to coach the 76ers for another year.

Dorell Wright scored 15 points and Thaddeus Young had 14 points and nine rebounds to lead the Sixers to a 91-77 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday.

With the team missing the playoffs, Collins’ future has become the focal point.

The Sixers picked up the option on Collins’ contract for the 2013-14 season in training camp and he said then he wanted to remain with the organization in some capacity when his coaching career is over. He may not want to return for another season to coach a team with little chance of success.

Collins has refused this week to discuss next season, and said he would only discuss the home finale because, “everything else is moot.”

His agent, John Langel, tried to diffuse the blossoming speculation and said Collins planned to return next season — for now.

“He’s here for another year, at least,” Langel said. “He’s the coach and we’ll see what happens.”

The Sixers finished 23-18 at home and are 33-47 overall, currently sitting in ninth place in the Eastern Conference.Spencer Hawes and Jrue Holiday both scored 14 points for the Sixers, who raced to a 19-point lead in the first half and sent the Cavaliers to their fourth straight loss.

Tristan Thompson had 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Cavs, Kevin Jones had 11 points and 10 rebounds and Kyrie Irving scored four points in 18 minutes.

The game was a matchup of potential lame-duck coaches. Cavaliers coach Byron Scott is on the hot seat with the team buried near the bottom of the East standings.

Scott is under contract for next year after the club picked up his option in October.

Scott has tried to not let the job speculation affect him.

“It really doesn’t bother me,” he said. “It’s part of the job. Whatever happens, happens.”

Outside of a rebounding edge, the Cavaliers had another dismal performance — 37 percent shooting, 5-of-16 from 3-point range, and only 10 of 15 free throws.

“Lack of effort, it’s as simple as that,” Scott said. “It’s disappointing. That’s why you yank guys out and bring other guys in, to see if they can get it going. They have to play with a lot more energy and a lot more effort than they did tonight.”

The Cavaliers missed 11 of their first 13 shots and finished at 31 percent in the first half. With the Cavaliers struggling, the Sixers stormed to a 16-3 lead and were ahead 53-34 at the break.

The Sixers never looked back and gave their fans one final reason to feel good heading into an uncertain offseason.

“We had a really good chance with Andrew of probably making it pretty deep in the playoffs,” Holiday said.