Headaches before and after

Meantime, Bulls coach Scott Skiles had to do some lineup juggling of his own.

He professes as much astonishment as anyone at what occurred between Deng and Piatkowski at the morning shootaround, which Skiles referred to as "a freak accident I've never seen before."

Allen got the call to start and began the game with a dunk after a steal and perfect feed from Chris Duhon.

A familiar face in Philadelphia still from his college days at Villanova, the 6-foot-10-inch Allen spent only eight minutes on the court in the Bulls' 99-92 victory Wednesday night at the Wachovia Center, taking only one shot.

The resurgent Bulls prolonged their late run at the playoffs that night and kept the 76ers in a spin. There are six games left on the Bulls' schedule, beginning with Tuesday night's at the United Center against the New Jersey Nets, whose 14-game winning streak came to an end Saturday.

Primarily responsible for the Bulls' revival has been Andres Nocioni, who put together five consecutive double-doubles. Nocioni picked up Saturday where he left off, scoring 12 points in the first quarter alone as he finished with a team-high 19.

By a weird coincidence, Nocioni also took a blow to the head from a teammate. Tyson Chandler caught him with a flying elbow while coming down with a rebound, leaving Nocioni doubled over in pain.

Philadelphia's makeshift lineup scrapped its way to a halftime 47-37 lead, despite Webber's absence, thanks to Iverson's 20 points. He finished with 39.

Iverson demonstrated why he is the NBA's leading scorer at nearly 33 a game. He did one particularly Michael Jordanesque move for the crowd at the House of Jordan, twisting in midair and virtually backhanding a layup over the reach of 7-1 Luke Schensher.

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Both teams actually limped into a game with significant playoff implications. Sixers forward Chris Webber didn't dress because of a lower back strain suffered Friday night in a home loss to Boston. The Bulls fared one injury worse, with forwards Luol Deng and Eric Piatkowski out thanks to a startling shootaround collision Saturday morning—Piatkowski needing stitches, Deng suffering a mild concussion.

No word, however, on what was with the rest of the Bulls' heads. Playing only middling basketball, perhaps save Iverson, the 76ers hung a 10-point deficit on their hosts with little resistance.

As for reasons, the Bulls needed look no further than their offense—if they actually could manage to locate it. Aside from Nocioni (5 of 9, 12 first-half points), the roster shot 10 of 34 from the floor in the first 24 minutes. There was a 7:26 field-goal drought in the second quarter that turned a three-point lead into the double-digit deficit.

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The Bulls were missing one starter on Saturday against Philadelphia, while the 76ers were down two.

But it was a horrible trade as far as the Bulls were concerned.

Small forward Luol Deng suffered a mild concussion in what was termed a “freak collision” with Eric Piatkowski during the morning shootaround at the Berto Center.

Philadelphia played without Chris Webber (low back strain) and point guard Kevin Ollie (strained right quad) but rose from the playoff grave with an unlikely 89-75 victory at the United Center.

The Bulls shot a season-low 32.6 percent from the field and scored 75 points against a team that hadn’t allowed less than 90 since Feb. 6.

As a result, the Bulls (35-41) and Sixers are tied for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with six games remaining. The Bulls own the tiebreaker if the teams finish even in the standings.

“I’m just embarrassed and disappointed by the way we played,” said Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich, who hit just 2 of 13 shots. “We couldn’t stop them, we couldn’t keep them off the boards and had a horrific shooting night.”

The result may have represented an embarrassment for the Bulls. But this wasn’t the same Sixers team that lost 13 of its previous 17 games.

Webber averages 20.3 points, but it was obvious Wednesday in Philadelphia that he’s a defensive liability, particularly against the Bulls’ small lineup.

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The good news is that the Bulls hold the playoff tiebreaker over the Philadephia 76ers.

The bad news is it might not matter if Bulls have any more efforts like Saturday night's.

The Bulls and Sixers are now tied for the eighth spot at 35-41, after Philadelphia snapped its three-game losing streak with an 89-75 victory over Scott Skiles' squad in front of a United Center capacity crowd (22,479).


"We pretty much got dominated from beginning to end,'' Skiles said. "Even when it was close, it wasn't close.''

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Andres Nocioni extended his streak of double-doubles to six with 19 points and 10 rebounds and "was as close as it got'' to a Bulls player who had a good game, Skiles said.

"We looked rushed all the way around [on offense] in the post, on the perimeter, everywhere,'' Skiles said. "They got after us early. You have to be ready for that. They're a desperate team right now. We went to their place and beat them ... tiebreaker implications, all those kinds of things were in play tonight. They brought a lot of energy and deserved to win. They dominated us at every position.''

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There's no truth to the rumor that NBA commissioner David Stern plans to invoke his good-of-the-game powers and downsize the Eastern Conference playoffs from eight to six teams, but maybe he should consider it.
Because based on the indifference that the contenders for the final two spots have displayed lately, only a handful of teams seem to want an invitation, anyway.

The Bulls became the latest contender to play we-don't-want-it-you-can-have-it at the United Center on Saturday night, when they wasted a gift-wrapped opportunity to put the Philadelphia 76ers out of their misery.

Instead, star guard Allen Iverson and the 76ers got off the deck and landed an 89-75 haymaker that left the two teams with identical if not unimpressive 35-41 records.

The Bulls also fell 1½ games behind the Indiana Pacers for the No. 7 seed.

"It was a big game for both teams. Everybody knew it," said Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich, who totaled only five points and three assists at a time when much more was required of him. "It was just embarrassing to the point the way we played."

The clunker took place only hours after the team announced the sale of playoff tickets.

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