Derrick Coleman, who sees basketball with a remarkable clarity, could see something was wrong beyond what he was being told. He was having trouble believing a burst baker's cyst behind his knee early in the season had stolen his mobility for so long.
There had to be something more. And now it appears there might be. Coleman was told yesterday by Dr. Harlan Selesnick, the Miami Heat's orthopedic specialist, he could have a partially torn meniscus, the cartilage between the tibia and the femur that serves as the knee's shock absorber.

The decision for the 76ers' power forward was this: have surgery now and miss at least four weeks, ostensibly the remainder of the NBA's regular season, or try to play his way through it. The Sixers could not be sure whether he would play against the Heat last night until they saw him getting his ankles taped.

"I know this guy has a reputation for sometimes not playing; I've heard all the stories, but he's been a joy for me,'' Sixers coach Larry Brown said in the celebratory atmosphere of the visitor's locker room in American Airlines Arena after a 91-79 victory. "I honestly did not know whether he was going to play until right before the game."

Coleman, forced to sit out the last 18 minutes, 7 seconds of Sunday's 105-103 loss to the Orlando Magic because of his painful knee, gave the Sixers a remarkable 20 points and nine rebounds in 34 minutes; he drained eight of 13 shots from the floor, including two of six three-point attempts.

"It's no secret that people around the league always question him playing hurt and stuff like that,'' the Sixers' Eric Snow said. "But he's put in so many minutes over his whole [12-season] career; he's getting up there in age and years, and it's tough on him. The fact that he was able to come in, grind it out [was important]. He basically won the game for us, making big plays, big shots in the second half.''

With Allen Iverson scoring 33 points and Iverson, Coleman and Dikembe Mutombo combining for 26 of the team's 39 rebounds, the Sixers grittily headed off one of the league's hottest teams, improving their record to 35-31 and maintaining the No. 6 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.