Turner's seasoning spicing up playoffs for Sixers

Early in the season, Turner, and his coaches, struggled with finding the right position for the 6-7 Ohio State product. He prospered handling the ball, struggled playing off of it. He rebounded well at times, took the ball to the basket with strength and battled to find a shooting stroke.

Really, on the court, not much has changed with Turner's game. It's the mental aspect where he and his coaches have seen the growth.

Sunday, when the Sixers pulled out an 86-82 win over the Miami Heat to get to within three games to one in their best-of-seven series, Turner was as important as any of coach Doug Collins' players in securing the victory.

Turner scored 17 points, including a huge 10-foot runner down the stretch and the final two points of the game on free throws. While he was on the floor for much of the final quarter out of necessity due to Andre Iguodala's foul trouble, Turner's play made it impossible for his coach to take him out of the game.

"You have to come ready and come prepared and be ready to do a lot of things," Turner said after yesterday's brief practice at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. "In my case, I play a lot one game and the next game, not play so much. So it's important that I always stay prepared."

As head-scratching as this season has been for Turner, it appears he's more confused as to why he hasn't been able to do the things he did in college, which helped him win national player of the year honors last season. He knows he'll need to improve his shooting during the offseason, and he made a comment in the locker room the other day about how he has to "get his figure back" once the season ends.

But the signs that he has shown at times have been intriguing. He certainly can create for himself and teammates with the ball in his hands. He can be a very good defensive rebounder, enabling him to start the fastbreak that way. And he has an abundance of confidence, which he showed when he made that floater on Sunday after the team had missed its previous eight shots and trailed by six.

"I wasn't really aware [of his team's shooting slump] but I did know that we missed a few shots, but we were attacking. When you're attacking, and your back is against the wall, you want to keep fighting till the buzzer sounds.

"You just go for it. You can't really hesitate in those situations. Sometimes when you think, that's when you mess up."