This, for the vast majority of a frantic evening, was the land of the lost.

These were the 76ers in the Palace of Auburn Hills, more than 50 miles from the Detroit airport, but really nowhere.

Their star, their linchpin, couldn't have located his jump shot if he had been handed a map. For all Allen Iverson knew, the jumper on which he relied so much might as well have been at the concession stand. Or in South America.

And then a miraculous thing happened: On a night when Iverson went an infuriating 5-for-25, when Iverson, Keith Van Horn and Kenny Thomas combined to shoot 11-for-47, the Sixers - somehow, some way - had a chance to win.