(Associated Press)

MILWAUKEE – Tuesday night, like a pot that's been on the stove too long, Doug Collins boiled over.

He vented his frustration, letting it all out in the moments following a 110-102 loss to the Bucks. He didn't hold anything back, either. The Sixers coach voiced his discontent with his team's penchant for starting slowly, argued that a lineup change would do his team no good, danced around calling his players individualistic and suggested that they'd be the same even if he wasn't the coach.

Yep, it got to that.

On slow starts dooming his team:
“First quarter. Again, first quarter. We let them get 28 to start out the game. It's a two-possession game in the fourth quarter and we turn it over three straight times. … But it's what I come to talk about every single night. It's unacceptable the way we're starting games. Unaceptable. We coaches have worked so hard to prepare these guys, and to come out and look up and see six points on the board, 5-for-20 shooting and the other team's up 10 or 12 every night? Every night.”

On neglecting team-first style:
“You've got to share the ball, you've got to help each other out, you've got to talk on defense. We're not good enough to do it by ourselves. We've got to do it collectively.”

On whether a lineup change would create a spark:
“I've got to have something coming off my bench. It's like rob Peter to pay Paul? Guys have got to play. Lavoy comes out and shoots the ball the first three times he touches it. How about moving the ball and go screen somebody?”

On giving up easy offensive rebounds to Milwaukee:
“As I've said, guys know what they're supposed to do. You know? Be it Phil Jackson or whoever you want to have to coach. It don't matter. It don't matter. Doesn't matter. They've got to play. They've got to play. They've got to compete.”

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My hope is that the Sixers' play -- which has resulted in 16 losses in 21 games -- won't cost Collins his job. There are far too many variables at play here.

For one, Andrew Bynum has yet to play and the team was designed around him, you know, playing. Second, they lost four straight without Jrue Holiday, during that four-game stretch he sat with a foot injury. Third, they had an eight-game roadtrip around the holidays, one no other team in the league embarked upon.

I'm not trying to make excuses, so pardon me if it sounds that way. I'm merely attempting to point out that the Sixers' performance isn't an indictment only on the coach. It's also circumstantial.