After nearly eight weeks away from basketball action while recuperating from surgery on his right shoulder, McKie rejoined his teammates on the floor last night. He played 42 minutes, rotating from shooting guard to point guard to small forward, and contributed 8 points, 10 assists and 6 rebounds.

But as had been the case in their four games without McKie, Allen Iverson and Eric Snow, the Sixers could not put together a win last night. They lost to the Houston Rockets, 77-72, at the Compaq Center.

As they were early in Larry Brown's first year of coaching them, the Sixers are 0-5. They are the only winless team in the Eastern Conference after having won the conference title last season.

The schedule does not get any easier. Tomorrow, the Sixers will be in Dallas to play the Mavericks, a team that already has beaten them. On Tuesday, they will play in Miami, and on Wednesday, they will return home after this eight-day trip to face Derrick Coleman's former team, the Charlotte Hornets, at the First Union Center.