Is It the End of the Road for ‘Buffy’-’Angel’ Connection?

There was one moment, one shot to be taken, one shot to be stopped, and the participants were the two best players in the NBA Eastern Conference finals.

Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers had the ball in his hands and Ray Allen of the Milwaukee Bucks in his face.

Iverson had limped into First Union Center with a painful bruised tailbone and hip and had missed his first nine shots in this Game 1 of the best-of-seven series.

Allen had kept the Bucks in the game when the rest of his teammates found making jump shots more difficult than beginning arithmetic, and now 1 minute 10 seconds remained. The 76ers were ahead by four points and not so long ago had led by 16.

Iverson stared at Allen. Allen backed up a step, guarding against Iverson’s quick moves and also taking the chance that Iverson had no lift, no feeling in his legs for his jump shot.

Bad mistake.

Iverson’s 25-foot three-pointer was good. The 87-83 lead became 90-83, which became a 93-85 victory for the 76ers.

Game 2 is Thursday and a Milwaukee win changes everything, of course.

But the 76ers proved something Tuesday night. They proved that Iverson could go 0 for 9 in the first quarter and the score would still be tied. They proved that there is a team here and not just Iverson.

Dikembe Mutombo, the big center who is only expected to provide defense, provided 18 points to go with his 15 rebounds.

More than that, Mutombo tipped up several more missed shots by his teammates, keeping the ball alive for another Sixer to grab. Aaron McKie, voted the best sixth man in the NBA, has taken over from injured Eric Snow as a starter and continues to be spectacularly consistent. When Iverson couldn’t score, McKie could. He had 23 points, five assists and five rebounds.

This game, though, was about Iverson. Could he play, would he play? That has been the talk of the town for two days.

“Allen’s hurting bad,” 76er Coach Larry Brown said. “There’s no question. In the first quarter I was really worried. It looked like he had no lift. I kept asking him, was he OK.”

No, he wasn’t. Iverson said he hurts more now than when he injured the same body parts a couple of months ago and missed five games. He will not miss a game now.

Instead he will score 34 points. He will stare down Allen and then make him pay.

“I made a mistake,” said Allen, who had 31 points himself. “I gave him too much room.”

While Iverson’s final three-pointer cinched the victory, the 76ers won it in the second quarter when they outscored the Bucks by 16.

Iverson finally hit a shot, a little jumper in the lane, nothing spectacular, but he had missed three layups in the first quarter. Then he scored 14 more points in the period. Six other 76ers scored too. Tyrone Hill had five rebounds and Mutombo three and the Bucks had only four rebounds total compared to 16 by the 76ers.

“That really hurt us,” Allen said. “They got a lot of second chances.”

What also hurt was that the Bucks, who win by making jump shots, kept missing open ones. Glenn Robinson was scoreless in the second quarter and finished the game seven of 22. A big worry for the 76ers was how second-year backup forward Jumaine Jones would do against Robinson. Jones is replacing George Lynch, who has a broken foot. Lynch has played great defense on Robinson. So did Jones.

“Glenn didn’t have one of his better shooting games,” Allen said. “That is a big difference, having a guy like him who we expect to go out there and motivate us offensively and get us a lot of easy shots.”

The 51-35 Sixer halftime did stand up but not easily.

Milwaukee got within two points, 85-83, with 1:59 left and most of the fourth quarter the Bucks were within eight or nine points.

But then Iverson made two foul shots. And he made his decisive three-pointer while Allen backed away and watched helplessly. Every part of his body aches, but that doesn’t mean Iverson won’t keep running, bumping, hitting, getting hit and shooting, always shooting.