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."