Just when the 76ers thought it was all coming together, a key piece of the puzzle has fallen out of place. Samuel Dalembert, the team?s starting center, will be sidelined 10 to 14 days after aggravating his strained right quadriceps Thursday night in San Antonio.

"It?s not a good thing," Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks said. "We thought we had been pretty safe in trying to keep him out and off the court ?til he got ready to play. Then he played on Tuesday and practiced on Wednesday and we thought everything was OK. He re-injured it in the warmups, but we?ll have to make do."

Dalembert originally strained the muscle before training camp started, then tweaked it during his first scrimmage at Duke University.

He returned to practice last Sunday and played in Tuesday night?s game against the Knicks without incident.

"It was healing, actually," Dalembert said. "The MRI (Friday) showed it was healing. What happened, some fibers split, set me back a couple of weeks."

While Dalembert said he can tolerate the pain, he doesn?t want the injury to turn into a season-long problem.

This time, he?s reconsidering his approach to rehab.

"Now I think I just need to stay off of it," he said. "What I was trying to do, I was trying to come back sooner, do a little bit and as I?m feeling good, it?s healing. I should?ve just stayed off of it, not doing anything at all and let it heal completely and then come back. I think that?s the approach we?re going to take now."

Philadelphia 76ers President Billy King announced today that the team has waived center Steve Castleberry and guard Olu Famutimi. With the roster moves, the Sixers roster now stands at 15 players.

Castleberry, a 7-foot, 225-pound center out of Rider University, appeared in six games this preseason and averaged 1.0 rebound in 6.7 minutes per game.

Famutimi, a 6-5, 220-pound guard from the University of Arkansas, averaged 4.5 points and 2.0 rebounds in 15.0 minutes per game over four contests.

Both Castleberry and Famutimi were signed by the Sixers as free agents on Oct. 3, prior to the beginning of training camp.

Allen Iverson will not play in the 76ers' preseason finale in San Antonio on Thursday night because of soreness in his right knee.

Iverson has missed three preseason games, including a loss to New York on Tuesday night. The 76ers will open the regular season Tuesday night against Milwaukee.

Iverson did practice Wednesday, and said he had no intention of playing in the last two games exhibition.

"It probably was a fall and it swelled up on me," Iverson said. "I kept playing on it. ... My doctors just said rest it as much as possible."

Chris Webber has said all the right things about fitting in better this year with Philadelphia and feeling like he can coexist with Allen Iverson.

Now the five-time All-Star power forward seems set to prove it on the court.

After missing the first six preseason games with a strained right quadriceps, Webber says he's healthy enough to make his debut when the 76ers play the New York Knicks on Tuesday.

"I'm definitely looking forward to getting back out on that floor and shooting and running back in the arena, getting used to (the Wachovia Center) again," Webber said after Monday's practice.

Allen Iverson and Chris Webber each had an MRI on his leg, and neither has a serious injury.

Iverson is listed as day-to-day with a sore right knee, the 76er said Monday. His status for Philadelphia's preseason game against the Knicks on Tuesday will be determined after shootaround.

Webber is nursing a right quad strain. His MRI indicated the injury is healing. He has been limited in practice and is not expected to play against New York.

Philadelphia 76ers President Billy King announced today that the team has waived forward Herve Lamizana. The Sixers current roster now stands at 17 players.

Lamizana only appeared in one game this preseason, grabbing three rebounds in 13 minutes versus the San Antonio Spurs on Oct. 12. The 6-10 forward from Rutgers University was signed by the 76ers as a free agent on Oct. 3, 2005, prior to the beginning of training camp.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and the Philadelphia 76ers find themselves with not many big men due to all the post players who have fallen to the injury list.

With four post players out for Friday's 100-98 preseason win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Sixers went with Steven Hunter as the starting center and James Thomas at power forward.

Not exactly the lineup coach Maurice Cheeks is planning on using all season, but it was what he had to work with under the circumstances.

Neither center Samuel Dalembert nor forward Chris Webber, the projected starters, have played in any of the Sixers three preseason games, as both have a strain of the right quad muscle.

In addition, 6-foot-10 rookie forward Shavlik Randolph, who has a partially guaranteed contract, has been out with a broken left foot since the first day of training camp and is expected to miss a couple more weeks.

The one bright spot in the blizzard of big-men injuries was the opportunity it gave to 6-10 forward Michael Bradley. A journeyman since leaving Villanova four years ago, Bradley had been playing well and scored seven points in the Sixers' first preseason game against San Antonio.

However on Friday, Bradley had surgery for a torn right meniscus in his knee and is projected to be out for 4-6 weeks.

Sixers general manager Billy King said that since none of the injuries are long-term, he is not actively seeking to add more post players to the roster.

The opportunity Michael Bradley had waited more than 4 years to experience was temporarily placed on hold. For 4 to 6 weeks, to be specific. That's because the 6-10 forward had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee.

Bradley, who started the first two preseason games against Houston and San Antonio, was aggressive in his approach to the situation. Rather than attempt to play through the pain, or to wait until the team returned to Philadelphia today, he decided to have the procedure done immediately.

Dr. Richard Parker, the Cavaliers' head team physician, handled the 35-minute operation after speaking with Dr. Jack McPhilemy, the Sixers' orthopedic specialist.

That left fringe free agent James Thomas as last night's starter, with the veteran Lee Nailon as the backup. Thomas had mixed results, with eight points, four rebounds and four turnovers starting opposite the Cavs' Drew Gooden, who swept seven offensive rebounds. The Sixers won with Allen Iverson scoring 30 points in 28 minutes, and Steven Hunter blocking Obinna Ekezie's last-second 5-foot jumper.

"Opportunity knocked," Thomas said. "I didn't rebound the ball the way I know I can. I let them get some easy offensive rebounds, but we have another game to play [Tuesday night in New York] and I guarantee I'll bounce back. I know I could have given it 110 more percent. I know I'm a better player than that."

Coach Maurice Cheeks termed Bradley's injury "unfortunate" and said Bradley had not been able to pinpoint a specific moment when it occurred.

"He's worked and worked and been great during training camp, but we kind of knew something had happened to him, because the level of the things he had been doing declined... his movement and everything," Cheeks said. "He never complained, but in the San Antonio game [Wednesday night] I could tell he wasn't moving really [well]. He only played 9 minutes. I took him out and didn't put him back in because he wasn't playing well."

Chris Webber sat out the 76ers' preseason opener against the Rockets as a precaution after he was hit in the thigh at practice a day earlier.

Webber left practice Monday after he was kneed in the thigh, and coach Maurice Cheeks said he wanted to keep his All-Star forward healthy during the preseason.

"We have some guys trying to make the team, anyway, so it gives them other opportunities I'm sure they're looking forward to," Cheeks said.

"I can't remember the last time I actually wanted to come in real early," the former MVP said Friday. "It's been great, man. Everybody's responding well. Everybody's trying to learn and get better."

Allen Iverson is so excited about playing under his new coach Maurice Cheeks he is arriving to practice early.

"This was a dream for me, ever since coach [Larry] Brown left," Iverson said. "I wanted Maurice Cheeks to be the coach and now it's finally here. It's just different for me. I feel like in the 10 years that I've been playing, the atmosphere should have always been like it is. I should have always wanted to come to work every day and not play hard or go after people because I was upset about something."