It was not a move born of surrender. No, midway through the third quarter of the 76ers' game at Utah last night, coach Larry Brown pulled his starting unit because, quite clearly, the players were not getting the job done.

The Jazz led by 60-33. The Sixers were shooting horribly, bouncing the ball off one another's feet, and allowing the Jazz to do whatever they wanted, inside and out.

So with 7 minutes, 1 second remaining in the third quarter, Brown sat Allen Iverson, Eric Snow, Aaron McKie, Keith Van Horn and Todd MacCulloch, and put in John Salmons, Kenny Satterfield, Greg Buckner, Kenny Thomas and Brian Skinner. They played the bulk of the remaining minutes in the Sixers' worst loss of the season, 98-69, before a near sellout crowd at the Delta Center.

This was not exactly how the Sixers wanted to start a five-game Western Conference swing that continues tomorrow at Golden State.