Wally Szczerbiak punched in 31 points for the Timberwolves last night, but the 76ers were able to break that code, battling to a 96-91 victory and again climbing over .500 (23-22).

The Sixers, with four victories in their last five games and eight in their last 10, also seemed to take another step toward relocating the code that helped drive them to 56 victories and the NBA Finals last season.

"We've got to see that fight guys had in their eyes last year,'' Allen Iverson said after generating 38 points of his own, the eighth time in 10 games he has reached 33 or more. "Last year, we could be 10 points down with 2 or 3 minutes left and we always felt we were going to win the game.

"We've got to get that same mentality back. We've got [opponents] we went through wars with last year that some of the [new] guys on the team know nothing about, don't know the severity of it. Once they get to know how real it is when certain teams try to play us, we'll be able to win those games.