76ers Fueled by Willpower

By DIANE PUCIN

May 31, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

PHILADELPHIA —

Eric Snow has a broken foot, Tyrone Hill has a broken heart and the two of them helped break Milwaukee’s back.

Snow, Philadelphia’s point guard who found out Wednesday morning that he has a broken bone in his foot, scored the 76ers’ winning basket with 31.7 seconds left. Hill, whose father is seriously ill in Cincinnati after having two strokes in 10 days, scored eight points and had nine critical rebounds.

And when Milwaukee’s Glenn Robinson missed a short baseline shot with about four seconds left and Ray Allen had the tip pushed away by Dikembe Mutombo, the 76ers found themselves with an 89-88 victory and a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Eastern Conference finals.

Game 6 is Friday at Milwaukee’s Bradley Center. If necessary, Game 7 will be back here Sunday. The winner will have to play the Lakers. If that’s Philadelphia, the biggest question will be whether the 76ers will have enough players to dress.

This game was both exhilarating and exquisitely ugly. The NBA’s most valuable player, Allen Iverson, made five of 27 shots. Allen, Milwaukee’s leading scorer, was eight for 20. Robinson threw the ball away on consecutive fourth-quarter possessions when the 76ers took their first lead of the game. Aaron McKie, a 77%-free throw shooter, missed two, badly, with 13.9 seconds left, two shots that would have given Philadelphia a three-point lead.

So Robinson and Allen had their last chances at redemption. And missed.

The frustrated Bucks added to the ugly part with a technical foul and two flagrant fouls. Sam Cassell had the technical, Robinson and Tim Thomas getting the flagrant calls.

Thomas’ flagrant came with 4:09 left. Hill was heading for a layup and Thomas grabbed Hill’s shoulder. What Thomas didn’t do was let go. He pulled Hill to the ground. The score was 82-80 in favor of Milwaukee before the flagrant. When Hill made the two free throws and McKie put back a rebound, was fouled and made a free throw, the 76ers were ahead, 85-82.

When Milwaukee Coach George Karl was asked about his team’s lack of composure, he snapped. “I love my team. My team played its [butt] off,” he said. “My team competed so well and fought so hard. I’m proud of them and you should be proud of them too. To say that . . . , it [ticks] me off.” And then Karl threw up his arms and refused to answer any more questions.

But besides the ugliness there was also the grit.

There was Mutombo, who is playing with a broken finger. With Iverson’s shot very far gone, Mutombo performed a lumbering ballet in the lane, shooting his slow-motion hook shot and fighting hard for every rebound until he had 21 points and 13 rebounds.

And there was Snow.

Snow was once Philadelphia’s starting point guard. But he hurt his right ankle early in the season. There was surgery for a broken bone and a screw was put in the ankle. Snow has limped since his return and offered his starting job to McKie.

The ankle was re-injured in Game 4 Monday in Milwaukee when Snow landed on Cassell’s foot. A few hours before Wednesday’s game, Snow was shown the results of his new X-rays. Iverson looked at the film with Snow.

“I was looking at those X-rays, shaking my head,” Iverson said. “He already has a screw in his foot and then you see how big that fracture is. I’m just glad to be part of something like this.”

Snow said his wife was near tears when Snow told her he wanted to try to play. Team doctors told Snow it was up to him, but that he might do the ankle further damage. Snow played.

And with 1:46 left in the game, with the 76ers having come back from a 16-point deficit to have taken that 85-82 lead and then to have gotten behind again when Robinson scored on the baseline and Thomas tipped in a Cassell miss, Snow took a pass from Hill as the 24-second shot clock ticked down. “I had to shoot,” Snow said. “There were no other options.” The 18-footer was good and Philadelphia went ahead 87-86.

Just over a minute later, after Milwaukee’s Jason Caffey was called for an illegal screen, after Robinson missed badly and Thomas threw away a ball, Snow found himself with the ball again, with the shot clock running down again and with a 20-foot shot facing him. “I had to shoot again,” Snow said.

He made it again.

Caffey scored from the lane with 18.6 seconds left to make the score 89-88. With 13.9 seconds left, McKie was fouled by Cassell and missed both shots terribly.

“For us to lose this game because a guy like Aaron missed those free throws, it wouldn’t have been justice,” Philadelphia Coach Larry Brown said.

As they had in their two losses in this series, the 76ers started off slowly. The Bucks went ahead 7-0 and Iverson missed his first seven shots.

With 5:28 left in the first half, Milwaukee took a 43-27 lead on a Robinson shot. Iverson wasn’t coming close to making outside shots and neither was McKie. So the 76ers listened. They went to Mutombo, who would end up leading Philadelphia in scoring for the first time in the postseason.

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THE SERIES

Best of seven; 76ers lead, 3-2

Game 1

Philadelphia 93, Milwaukee 85

Game 2

Milwaukee 92, Philadelphia 78

Game 3

Milwaukee 80, Philadelphia 74

Game 4

Philadelphia 89, Milwaukee 83

Game 5