By JACK McCAFFERY

jmccaffery@delcotimes.com @JackMcCaffery

NEW ORLEANS --- Already down one center, the Sixers have acknowledged a concern that their troubles in the middle might be doubled.

Due to the calf injury that he'd battled in training camp and which caused him to leave the Sixers' last game against the Knicks early, Kwame Brown will not play in the 8 p.m. game against the New Orleans Hornets. The Sixers will also be without Jason Richardson, who was ruled out with an ankle injury Wednesday.

After a morning shoot-around in the New Orleans Arena, Doug Collins admitted that he is concerned that Brown's issue could linger, and all but ruled him out of a Friday night game in Boston.

“Any time you have a big guy like that who has a calf the size of a softball even when he is healthy, you worry about him,” Collins said. “He is a heavily muscled guy. Are we worried about that? Yes.”

The Sixers are playing without Andrew Bynum, who has been working to return from sore knees. They were hoping the 6-11 Brown could blunt the loss, but he has played just 11 minutes over the first three games, all in a 110-88 loss Monday to the New York Knicks.

“You look at our team right now with no Andrew and no Kwame and we are small,” Collins said. “We are a small front line. Now you are asking Thad Young to play the four. You are playing Dorell Wright some at the four. You are playing Damien Wilkins at the four.”

For those reasons, Collins is hoping 6-10 rookie Arnett Moultrie can become a factor. Moultrie has played only in the Monday loss to New York.

“We need to get Arnett ready,” Collins said. “He needs to be ready to play for us.”

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After the shoot-around, which was closed to the media, Richardson said he was “getting better” and that he'd experienced no swelling.
 

Just the same, Collins is not expecting Richardson or Brown to play Friday in Boston.

“Kwame, probably not,” Collins said. “J-Rich? My guess would be no right now. He is getting a lot better. But we miss him. We miss his toughness, his energy, his shooting. That's a big loss.”

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The Hornets Wednesday will be without heralded rookies Anthony Davis and Austin Rivers. Davis was the No. 1 player selected overall in the last draft. Rivers was the 10^th player selected.

Davis has a slight concussion. Rivers has a sprained left index finger.

Collins is expecting the Hornets to rely heavily on power forward Ryan Anderson. The Sixers will counter with Thad Young.

“That's a tough matchup,” the Sixers' coach said. “Sometimes, I think people think of him only as a three-point shooter. Absolutely not. He can post. He probably has 30 pounds on Thad. We have to be very aware of that matchup.”

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The Sixers (1-2) will attempt to snap a two-game losing streak Wednesday. In their two losses, both to the Knicks, they shot 34-for-79 and 29-for-86.

“The one thing about our group right now is that sometimes you have to look at the games that you play,” Collins said. “And New York did a very good job. I told our guys yesterday that we are not going to take these two games against New York and try to reinvent the wheel with who we are. We've got to do a little bit better I saw a couple of things in the tape that I think I can help our guys with to get a little bit better shots.”

Evan Turner shot a combined 5-for-18 in the dual losses to New York.

“It's not about what they do, it's about what we do,” Turner said. “It's about how we do it and how we execute. We have to just worry about ourselves right now, to execute and make things easier on ourselves.”