Must have reminded the Sixers of what they looked like up until three games ago.

Showing they do indeed care about salvaging their season and securing a postseason berth, the Sixers got 40 points and 10 assists from Allen Iverson and 18 points with 11 rebounds from Chris Webber in his first game back from a two-game injury absence to defeat the New Jersey Nets 116-96 Wednesday night at the Meadowlands.

The Nets, already all but locked into the No. 3 seed in the East, fell behind by 22 in the second quarter and barely put up a fight in the second half while falling behind by as many as 30. And you know what? New Jersey's didn't-care quotient was matched only by the Sixers' desperation measure.

"We've just been playing harder. I don't know why this has all of a sudden clicked like it has. We've said all along we have tools, we have talent," Kyle Korver said. "For a while, our effort just wasn't there, but I can't put a finger on why it was that way."

The bad news for the Sixers was that Chicago, Indiana and Milwaukee also won, leaving them on the outside looking up at eight teams slotted ahead of them in the Eastern Conference playoff race. With four games remaining, Philadelphia might need to win them all to make it to the playoffs. They would lose any tiebreakers involving themselves, the Bulls, Pacers and Bucks, and both Indiana and Milwaukee are already one game ahead of Philadelphia in the loss column.

"We have to go to Miami, and they already clinched their spot. So hopefully they'll feel the same way," Iverson said. "We have some confidence in ourselves right now, and we have to keep it for the rest of the season."

I spent some time before the game trying to pick general manager Billy King's brain for an explanation as to what has gone wrong, but he wasn't exactly bubbling forth with detailed answers. To decipher his best material, you almost had to read between his lines.

"If I knew what was wrong, we wouldn't be where we are right now. I know the areas we have to improve on, but I'll keep it to myself and my staff," King said.

One area in which he would go into some detail concerned the Sixers' level of experience, and King said he has learned the hard way that Philadelphia needed the type of character veterans, guys like Aaron McKie and Marc Jackson, who were on the roster last season and provided something that never shows up in a box score -- guidance.

Pointing to Philadelphia's 22 losses by single-digit margins and 11 losses in which the Sixers entered the fourth quarter with a lead, King argued that his team might have won a few of those close ones had there been more of a leadership presence to guide some of Philadelphia's younger players, guys like Samuel Dalembert, Korver and Andre Iguodala who have been asked to become key contributors at a time when their limited level of experience is holding them back.

"We can't play defense, and I'm not sure we have the right personnel," King said.

The Sixers played their best ball of the season way back in early November, when they reeled off six straight wins. But they haven't won more than four in a row since, and their swoon was huge in March, when they lost 10 of 12 in one stretch and finished the month 5-10 -- their worst March in a decade.

A home loss to Boston on Friday dropped Philadelphia seven games below .500, the Sixers' lowest point since ending the 2003-04 season 16 games below .500 in their first year of the post-Larry Brown era. They rebounded to finish four games above .500 last season before losing to Detroit in five games in the first round, and the thinking was that the Sixers would surely show some further improvement in their first season under Mo Cheeks.

Instead, they've been worse than mediocre -- at least until their last three games at Chicago, at home against Washington and now on the road vs. New Jersey.

But if the Sixers can't get some help elsewhere while finishing strong enough in their final four games against the Heat, Magic, Nets and Bobcats, changes -- it's safe to expect they'll be major, not minor -- will be forthcoming.

"This year is not about Allen or Chris or Kyle or Sam, it's about how collectively as a unit they haven't jelled like they should have," King said. "There's no reason to point blame on any player or coach. If you're going to look at anybody, it's me."

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LeBron James hits the deck after spraining his left ankle late in the third quarter in a loss to the Pistons. "It's sprained pretty good, but nothing serious," said James, who had 22 points on 8-of-18 shooting. "You never really know until the next day, but I've had them before, and this is nothing that bad."

Skiles' Secret Weapons

Randy Livingston. Eddie Basden. Luke Schenscher. Malik Allen. Jannero Pargo.

The starting lineup for Sioux Falls against the Gary Steelheads on Wednesday? Try again -- it was the lineup Chicago used to climb back into a must-win road game in Atlanta. With key players such as Luol Deng, Darius Songaila and Chris Duhon out of the lineup and all Scott Skiles' starters either struggling or in foul trouble, Skiles turned to that unit while trailing by seven in the final minutes of the first half.

And it worked like a charm. Chicago closed the period on a 10-3 run to tie the game, behind two buckets by Basden and two by Schenscher -- including an improbable sweeping hook in the paint by the big Aussie. From that point, the Bulls took over in the third quarter when the starters regained their shooting touch, then hung on for a 96-90 win.

And so it goes with Skiles, who seems able to coax maximum effort out of nearly everybody (well, except Tim Thomas). In this case, it was three players on 10-day contracts and two others barely making above the minimum. The combined salary for all five players is less than what Atlanta pays backup point guard Tyronn Lue ... yet they helped Chicago grab a key win that might end up putting it in the playoffs.

-- John Hollinger