The seeds for the 76ers' 82-72 victory over the Miami Heat last night were planted during coach Larry Brown's pregame meeting with his players. And in a, shall we say, discussion between center Dikembe Mutombo and star guard Allen Iverson in the training room.
"Just two brothers talking, nothing insulting,'' Mutombo insisted after the Sixers had climbed back to .500 at 28-28. "Just a talk between two guys.''

Still, it was more than safe to say that Mutombo had not been pleased after Monday night's loss to Portland, when Iverson said that some of his teammates didn't know the plays.

Was this Mutombo firing back? "I didn't fire back,'' Mutombo said.

What then? "We locked the door,'' Mutombo said, laughing. "We didn't want anybody to hear. But it was no problem.''

The far larger problem, Mutombo said, was the situation in which the Sixers had placed themselves. They left the First Union Center last night tied with the Indiana Pacers for the No. 6 playoff seed in the NBA East, with an abiding respect for the race for the final three or four berths in the eight-team postseason field.

"We're fighting as hard as we can to survive,'' Mutombo said. "We have to keep our heads above water; otherwise, we're going to sink. We got to the point as a group where we realized no one was ready to go home. We want to see ourselves make something happen.''

Despite leaving the game with 1 minute, 11 seconds remaining with what was being termed a bruise of the left quadriceps, Iverson met afterward with reporters.

"We have to try to get better, not listen to anything negative, just try to stay together and play basketball,'' he said. "Once we start going one way and other people go another way, then we end up like the Sixers were when I first got here.''

Iverson knew what he had said after the loss to the Trail Blazers. They all heard Brown's comments about their inability to properly execute against a zone.

"I think the guys who have been around understand that we can turn things around,'' Iverson said. "But I don't know about the guys that haven't been here, because I haven't been around them a long time and you really don't know their character until you play a lot of games with them.

"I know the guys that have been here understand that we can win. And Dikembe coming in at the second half of last year should know that we can make some things happen.''

Iverson was not asked about his pregame discussion with Mutombo. Mutombo, who came to the Sixers at last season's trade deadline in the deal that sent Toni Kukoc and Theo Ratliff to Atlanta, seemed to have a firm grasp on that. And listening to Brown's pregame comments about the necessity of unifying seemed to help.

"We were caught by surprise [by Brown's approach],'' Mutombo said. "Usually, he comes in, sits in a chair and talks about the game. Today, he wanted everybody on the same page, told us what kind of a fight we're in, that it's going to be a fight night after night, that every game is going to be more important than it's ever been.

"It's already like a playoff situation. [If we don't win], it's going to be April 18 [the last day of the regular season] and we're going to be packing our bags, deciding what we're going to be doing this summer.'' *

THE 76ERS' destiny is in their own hands. If they handle it with greater care than they handled last night's free throws, they still have a chance.
In the light of their 82-72 victory over visiting Miami, they can shrug merrily at their 27-for-46 performance at the foul line. But Larry Brown pulled up a chair before the game and drove home the importance of not wallowing in the disappointment of Monday night's loss to the Portland Trail Blazers or the negativity that flourished in the aftermath.

"I talked to them a long time before the game, not about basketball,'' the coach said. "Billy [general manager Billy King] and I assembled this team; I would like to have had it happen a lot sooner, [but] I haven't lost confidence in those guys and their character.

"But we've got to truly be a team. That's the thing that's really important. We tried to show that tonight.''

This was a night when the Sixers' grit and determination allowed them to win in spite of themselves. They won for just the fourth time in the last 10 games, tying the Indiana Pacers for No. 6 in the NBA East playoff seedings. They did it with just two players - Allen Iverson (31 points) and Matt Harpring (18) - scoring in double figures.

They did it despite seeing Iverson hobble off with 1minute, 11seconds remaining after bruising his left quadriceps in a collision with the Heat's Eddie Jones.

"Basically, the playoffs have started,'' guard Eric Snow said. "There are five or six teams competing for three or four spots [in the East's eight-team postseason field]. If that's the situation, it's already started.

"Everybody knew we were down, upset. But we fought, we regrouped, put ourselves back in the top eight. Win a game, you're in; lose a game, you're out. If we win our games, everybody else can knock each other off. We have to take it game by game, practice by practice, stay focused."

Allen Iverson and Alonzo Mourning may be Georgetown products, but they are completely different.

For that matter, Iverson is unlike any Miami Heat player, based on his public criticism of teammates after Philadelphia's home loss to Portland on Monday.

"We've got guys out there -- some of them don't know the plays. And that's at crucial parts of the game," Iverson said. "How are you not going to know the plays at a crucial part of the game? There's no excuse for that.

"You're getting paid to play basketball. If a guy is getting a check, he needs to be giving effort every night and earning that money."

That 76ers have lost six of their past nine and are one game under. 500 at 27-28.

It's just the kind of outburst Heat players have avoided all season, even when the team was 18 games under.500 and once holding the league's worst record.

Iverson's statements could motivate his teammates and prompt them to make a late-season surge. But in Miami, that kind of motivation was deemed unnecessary and harmful.

"I think they understand that doesn't go anywhere," Heat coach Pat Riley said of his players. "I think the leaders handled the situation pretty well. We were taking everyone in and handling it here on the court.

"If there were some disagreements, and there were -- there were some guys that were disgruntled -- it was always handled here. If there was that kind of issue where somebody thought that someone else is not getting it done, then it's always best to handle it in-house."

Iverson didn't identify any specific teammates, but within the team players probably were aware of whom Iverson was speaking. What kept Heat players from pointing fingers was that it would have taken too many fingers.

"We just knew that it wasn't just one person," center and Heat tri-captain Alonzo Mourning said. "It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Everybody was messing up. It was just a matter of we knew collectively we had to get it done."

Said guard Eddie Jones: "We knew that things were bad, but the sign of a team that's not together is a team that starts pointing. If we started pointing fingers saying this guy or that guy, we might as well close the season down."

And despite a 5-23 record, Heat players were not willing to give up on the season, in part because of their trust in Riley.

"We got a lot of faith in him because he's been there and none of us has been there," Mourning said. "Nobody in here has won anything but some division championships. I explained that to all the guys and let them know that, 'Hey, man, we have no choice but to listen to what he has to say, because none of us has been anywhere. He's been there, he knows what it takes to get there. Doing it our way isn't going to get it done.' "

Mourning, who knows Iverson fairly well, said this might be Iverson's way of firing up his teammates. But Mourning prefers a different style of leadership.

"Yes, you can call your teammates out, but you have to lead by example, too," Mourning said. "There have been plenty of times where I have pulled my teammates up, like at halftime the other day (Sunday).

"I got them in the huddle at halftime and I said, 'Look man, we're playing like a bunch of wimps. They played last night and we played last night. There is no excuse for them to come here on our home court and outwork us. So we have to do something.'

"They responded. By me telling them that, I had to do the same thing. I couldn't just say it and go out there and lolly-gag."

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Unfair shake: Riley said the fans' treatment of point guard Anthony Carter on Sunday was uncalled for. Carter, playing in just his second game since abdominal surgery, was booed repeatedly at AmericanAirlines Arena against the Wizards while going 0-for-4 from the field.

"When the fans are booing him, what they can do is they can boo me because I believe in A.C. and I think when he gets his health back and gets his game back... he's going to be fine," Riley said. "But he's got to be a man and got to deal with it."

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Can you repeat that? Playoff talk has become so common around Heat camp lately that players are finding new ways to answer those questions.

Take Brian Grant's unusual metaphor: "If we don't win, it doesn't matter what the other teams do because we're still in the cellar. Once we're able to creep up those old steps and go through grandma's door and we're in the kitchen, then we can make dinner, we can make our own table. But right now we're still in the cellar gathering wood."

John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News understands the player moves made by the Sixers since last season.

"Say what you want about the Sixers' record being just 42-40 since they acquired Mutombo at last season's trade deadline, but it's flat-out wrong to say they did not benefit from the deal. Because of several circumstances, such as Miami center Alonzo Mourning's illness, New York center Patrick Ewing's trade to Seattle, Indiana center Rik Smits' retirement and Orlando's inability to land free agent Tim Duncan, an unexpected window of opportunity opened wide for the Sixers.

They were 41-14 at last season's trade deadline, but center Theo Ratliff was injured. The day before, when word leaked that the Sixers were contemplating trading Ratliff to the Atlanta Hawks for Mutombo, I wrote, don't do it.

My basis was that you don't mess with the chemistry of a 41-14 team and that the Sixers should have filled in with reserves Todd MacCulloch and Nazr Mohammed until Ratliff returned to the lineup. But Ratliff didn't play one more game last season.

During the same time, Mutombo played a critical role in helping the Sixers beat the Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks to win the Eastern Conference championship."

Check out the rest of the article for his thoughts on this season's changes.

THE PLAYERS barely could spit out the words.
And even when they did, the words remained, understandably, just non-specific enough for the players to remain protective of one another.

"A loss is a loss,'' Eric Snow said the morning after the 76ers had absorbed a discouraging, 88-83 defeat from the Portland Trail Blazers. "I think you should take them all the same. As a loss.''

The stinging truth is, they didn't take this one the same. Neither did the coaches, the reporters who regularly cover the games and certainly not the fans who consistently have packed the First Union Center.

This one dropped the Sixers, coming off an amazing run to the NBA Finals, to 27-28 and into a tie for the final Eastern Conference playoff berth. If this loss was the same as the ones that preceded it, then Snow would have spoken with reporters Monday night. And coach Larry Brown would have met with them after practice yesterday.

Both have been remarkably consistent and cooperative over the last several seasons; after wins, losses, injuries, illnesses and controversies. Snow declining to speak Monday night was a clear indication of exactly how he felt about the current state of things. Brown choosing to join members of his staff for a postpractice workout at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine instead of answering some more pointed questions sent the same, succinct message.

Brown had said Monday night he had gone over the techniques of attacking a zone "a thousand times and they ain't got it right yet.''

Allen Iverson had said after the loss that, even at this advanced stage of the season, some players didn't know the plays. Aaron McKie, who had gamely tried to play on a bad left ankle, already had openly agreed with Iverson.

When a reporter yesterday asked McKie to get more specific about the situation, he said: "Do we have to tell you everything? I mean, that's something within that we've got to figure out as a team. You're supposed to protect your brothers. You [should] be your brother's keeper. Whatever goes on that's not right sometimes is not for everybody to know. It's our job collectively as a team and as coaches to try to figure it out and correct the situation and make it better.''

THERE'S NO REASON to believe in the 76ers. Not when they're 27-28 with 27 games to play. Not when they follow up a blowout loss to Orlando by coughing up a nine-point fourth-quarter lead last night in an 88-83 loss to Portland.

Not when with two-thirds of the season gone, the coach and star player talk about guys' not knowing the plays at crucial moments in a game. Faith is a big thing to ask for, and based on their performance, the Sixers don't deserve much.

Still, the question remains: Is it officially time to write off the Sixers for the 2001-02 season? How many more nails before the coffin is sealed for good? I guess the real question is: Are the Sixers a basketball team playing badly or really just a bad basketball team?

That's an important point of semantics because the perspective from which you look will determine whether there's anything positive to cling to during the final third of the season. If the Sixers are simply a bad team, and most of the tangible evidence leans that way, then this season is pretty much over.

Tinkerbell isn't floating around the First Union Center sprinkling fairy dust, so there is no magical cure to be found. A team capable of turning things around wouldn't have lost last night to the Trail Blazers - not when it led, 71-62, in the fourth quarter.

A team capable of pulling things together in time to become a viable factor in the playoffs doesn't get outscored, 26-14, in the fourth quarter of a game it desperately needed to win to position itself for a credible push down the stretch.

"I don't know," Sixers coach Larry Brown responded when asked what is a reasonable expectation for his team.

Wasn't he too quiet, too reserved? Was he really sure he wanted to be an NBA head coach? Hadn't he simply found his comfort zone in seven seasons as an assistant with the 76ers?
Maurice Cheeks was surrounded by questions about coaching the way he once was surrounded by stars as the Sixers' point guard for 11 seasons. He had the answers then, and - in his head-coaching debut with the Portland Trail Blazers - he has them now.

Witness a 31-24 record, including 18 victories in the last 24 games. Witness his resolute willingness to confront problems, to establish his modus operandi, to establish who is directing the team.

"I think his personality as a player was misperceived,'' said Blazers assistant Jim Lynam, a former head coach, assistant and general manager with the Sixers, tonight's opponents. "Yes, he was quiet, but he directed all those Sixers shows as the proverbial coach on the floor.

"The moment now that he steps in the gym, there's a 180-degree difference from that. To borrow an expression, it might still say 'Cheeks' on his jersey, but that's where the resemblance ends.''

Ashley McGeachy of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that
Allen Iverson has his critics, but one thing people cannot say about him is that he slacks off during games. Yes, he might gamble a little too much on defense. Yes, his shot selection is questionable at times.
But rarely does he take a possession off.

The same, unfortunately, was not said about his 76ers teammates after their 105-87 loss to Orlando on Saturday night. There was a chasm between those who played hard and those who did not.

Coach Larry Brown said afterward that he purposely singled out Eric Snow and Iverson, who shot 36.7 percent from the field and recorded 32 points, six steals and six assists in 42 minutes, to tell them he was proud of their efforts. Brown mentioned no one else, and Snow and Iverson both said there was a marked difference between those who gave and those who did not.

Effort cannot be an issue. This team needs a string of wins.

"The schedule doesn't get easier," said Matt Harpring, who was 4 for 9 with eight points and nine rebounds against Orlando. "It doesn't get easier for any team."

PHILADELPHIA ? By the time Allen Iverson's toe started hurting again, the Philadelphia 76ers didn't need him anymore.

Iverson had 27 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, and Dikembe Mutombo added 20 points on 9-for-9 shooting to lead the Sixers to a 110-83 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night.

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? Box score
? Around the NBA

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Iverson, who sat out Philadelphia's 86-76 loss at Indiana on Sunday because of a sprained right big toe, was listed as out following the morning shootaround.

But he played after forwards Derrick Coleman and Corie Blount were suspended for their roles in an altercation with Reggie Miller on Sunday.

Tuesday, February 19, 2002 - PHILADELPHIA - Considering their history of road woes, a split during a four-game trip seemed like a great thing for the Denver Nuggets. But the Nuggets didn't exactly go home sticking out their chests either.

NUGGETS WRAP
- Box Score
- Nuggets Stats
- Nuggets Roster
- W. Standings
- E. Standings
- NBA Watch

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Strong numbers: Nuggets guard Avery Johnson and forward-center Raef LaFrentz scored a team-high 17 points while guard Voshon Lenard added 15 points off the bench.

Wrong numbers: Denver shot just 36.8 percent, missed 12 of 15 3-pointers and was outscored on the fast break 37-8. Sixers all-star Allen Iverson, who wasn't expected to play because of a toe injury, had 27 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and four steals. Sixers rookies Jabari Smith and Speedy Claxton combined for 21 points off the bench.

Next: Utah, Wednesday at the Pepsi Center

Final thought: There is good news as Antonio McDyess is expected to make his season debut against Utah.

The Nuggets suffered a 110-83 beating at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night at the First Union Center. Denver won the first two games of this trip at Memphis and Minnesota, but lost the last two by a combined 48 points to New Jersey and Philadelphia.