Iverson, Mutombo have a little chat

The seeds for the 76ers' 82-72 victory over the Miami Heat last night were planted during coach Larry Brown's pregame meeting with his players. And in a, shall we say, discussion between center Dikembe Mutombo and star guard Allen Iverson in the training room. "Just two brothers talking, nothing insulting,'' Mutombo insisted after the Sixers had climbed back to .500 at 28-28. "Just a talk between two guys.''

Still, it was more than safe to say that Mutombo had not been pleased after Monday night's loss to Portland, when Iverson said that some of his teammates didn't know the plays.

Was this Mutombo firing back? "I didn't fire back,'' Mutombo said.

What then? "We locked the door,'' Mutombo said, laughing. "We didn't want anybody to hear. But it was no problem.''

The far larger problem, Mutombo said, was the situation in which the Sixers had placed themselves. They left the First Union Center last night tied with the Indiana Pacers for the No. 6 playoff seed in the NBA East, with an abiding respect for the race for the final three or four berths in the eight-team postseason field.

"We're fighting as hard as we can to survive,'' Mutombo said. "We have to keep our heads above water; otherwise, we're going to sink. We got to the point as a group where we realized no one was ready to go home. We want to see ourselves make something happen.''

Despite leaving the game with 1 minute, 11 seconds remaining with what was being termed a bruise of the left quadriceps, Iverson met afterward with reporters.

"We have to try to get better, not listen to anything negative, just try to stay together and play basketball,'' he said. "Once we start going one way and other people go another way, then we end up like the Sixers were when I first got here.''

Iverson knew what he had said after the loss to the Trail Blazers. They all heard Brown's comments about their inability to properly execute against a zone.

"I think the guys who have been around understand that we can turn things around,'' Iverson said. "But I don't know about the guys that haven't been here, because I haven't been around them a long time and you really don't know their character until you play a lot of games with them.

"I know the guys that have been here understand that we can win. And Dikembe coming in at the second half of last year should know that we can make some things happen.''

Iverson was not asked about his pregame discussion with Mutombo. Mutombo, who came to the Sixers at last season's trade deadline in the deal that sent Toni Kukoc and Theo Ratliff to Atlanta, seemed to have a firm grasp on that. And listening to Brown's pregame comments about the necessity of unifying seemed to help.

"We were caught by surprise [by Brown's approach],'' Mutombo said. "Usually, he comes in, sits in a chair and talks about the game. Today, he wanted everybody on the same page, told us what kind of a fight we're in, that it's going to be a fight night after night, that every game is going to be more important than it's ever been.

"It's already like a playoff situation. [If we don't win], it's going to be April 18 [the last day of the regular season] and we're going to be packing our bags, deciding what we're going to be doing this summer.'' *

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Philadelphia 76ers

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Sixers get game together to beat Heat

THE 76ERS' destiny is in their own hands. If they handle it with greater care than they handled last night's free throws, they still have a chance. In the light of their 82-72 victory over visiting Miami, they can shrug merrily at their 27-for-46 performance at the foul line. But Larry Brown pulled up a chair before the game and drove home the importance of not wallowing in the disappointment of Monday night's loss to the Portland Trail Blazers or the negativity that flourished in the aftermath.

"I talked to them a long time before the game, not about basketball,'' the coach said. "Billy [general manager Billy King] and I assembled this team; I would like to have had it happen a lot sooner, [but] I haven't lost confidence in those guys and their character.

"But we've got to truly be a team. That's the thing that's really important. We tried to show that tonight.''

This was a night when the Sixers' grit and determination allowed them to win in spite of themselves. They won for just the fourth time in the last 10 games, tying the Indiana Pacers for No. 6 in the NBA East playoff seedings. They did it with just two players - Allen Iverson (31 points) and Matt Harpring (18) - scoring in double figures.

They did it despite seeing Iverson hobble off with 1minute, 11seconds remaining after bruising his left quadriceps in a collision with the Heat's Eddie Jones.

"Basically, the playoffs have started,'' guard Eric Snow said. "There are five or six teams competing for three or four spots [in the East's eight-team postseason field]. If that's the situation, it's already started.

"Everybody knew we were down, upset. But we fought, we regrouped, put ourselves back in the top eight. Win a game, you're in; lose a game, you're out. If we win our games, everybody else can knock each other off. We have to take it game by game, practice by practice, stay focused."

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Iverson's rip of 76ers contrary to Zo's style

Allen Iverson and Alonzo Mourning may be Georgetown products, but they are completely different.

For that matter, Iverson is unlike any Miami Heat player, based on his public criticism of teammates after Philadelphia's home loss to Portland on Monday.

"We've got guys out there -- some of them don't know the plays. And that's at crucial parts of the game," Iverson said. "How are you not going to know the plays at a crucial part of the game? There's no excuse for that.

"You're getting paid to play basketball. If a guy is getting a check, he needs to be giving effort every night and earning that money."

That 76ers have lost six of their past nine and are one game under. 500 at 27-28.

It's just the kind of outburst Heat players have avoided all season, even when the team was 18 games under.500 and once holding the league's worst record.

Iverson's statements could motivate his teammates and prompt them to make a late-season surge. But in Miami, that kind of motivation was deemed unnecessary and harmful.

"I think they understand that doesn't go anywhere," Heat coach Pat Riley said of his players. "I think the leaders handled the situation pretty well. We were taking everyone in and handling it here on the court.

"If there were some disagreements, and there were -- there were some guys that were disgruntled -- it was always handled here. If there was that kind of issue where somebody thought that someone else is not getting it done, then it's always best to handle it in-house."

Iverson didn't identify any specific teammates, but within the team players probably were aware of whom Iverson was speaking. What kept Heat players from pointing fingers was that it would have taken too many fingers.

"We just knew that it wasn't just one person," center and Heat tri-captain Alonzo Mourning said. "It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Everybody was messing up. It was just a matter of we knew collectively we had to get it done."

Said guard Eddie Jones: "We knew that things were bad, but the sign of a team that's not together is a team that starts pointing. If we started pointing fingers saying this guy or that guy, we might as well close the season down."

And despite a 5-23 record, Heat players were not willing to give up on the season, in part because of their trust in Riley.

"We got a lot of faith in him because he's been there and none of us has been there," Mourning said. "Nobody in here has won anything but some division championships. I explained that to all the guys and let them know that, 'Hey, man, we have no choice but to listen to what he has to say, because none of us has been anywhere. He's been there, he knows what it takes to get there. Doing it our way isn't going to get it done.' "

Mourning, who knows Iverson fairly well, said this might be Iverson's way of firing up his teammates. But Mourning prefers a different style of leadership.

"Yes, you can call your teammates out, but you have to lead by example, too," Mourning said. "There have been plenty of times where I have pulled my teammates up, like at halftime the other day (Sunday).

"I got them in the huddle at halftime and I said, 'Look man, we're playing like a bunch of wimps. They played last night and we played last night. There is no excuse for them to come here on our home court and outwork us. So we have to do something.'

"They responded. By me telling them that, I had to do the same thing. I couldn't just say it and go out there and lolly-gag."

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Unfair shake: Riley said the fans' treatment of point guard Anthony Carter on Sunday was uncalled for. Carter, playing in just his second game since abdominal surgery, was booed repeatedly at AmericanAirlines Arena against the Wizards while going 0-for-4 from the field.

"When the fans are booing him, what they can do is they can boo me because I believe in A.C. and I think when he gets his health back and gets his game back... he's going to be fine," Riley said. "But he's got to be a man and got to deal with it."

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Can you repeat that? Playoff talk has become so common around Heat camp lately that players are finding new ways to answer those questions.

Take Brian Grant's unusual metaphor: "If we don't win, it doesn't matter what the other teams do because we're still in the cellar. Once we're able to creep up those old steps and go through grandma's door and we're in the kitchen, then we can make dinner, we can make our own table. But right now we're still in the cellar gathering wood."

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