New York ? As Dikembe Mutombo stormed off the court and into the locker room complaining about what he felt were a pair of chippy flagrant fouls, the rest of the 76ers asked themselves a question.

“It was like ‘Are we going to let down or and we going to make it happen?'” Eric Snow said.

The 76ers did the latter, erasing a 20-point deficit over a 912-minute span of the third quarter to win their fourth straight game Tuesday night, 104-96 over the New York Knicks.

Allen Iverson scored 35 points and Snow had 23 two shy of the career-high he tied two games ago as Philadelphia came up with one of its most inspired victories of the year to move five game above .500 for the first time this season.

Derrick Coleman added 20 points, sealing the victory on two free throws with 12.1 seconds left. The 76ers won for the seventh time in eight games and improved to 14-0 when scoring 100 points or more.

“Last year’s team is dead and stinking, but we did take something from last year. Last year, when we’d get down by 25 points we always thought we could win,” Iverson said.

Latrell Sprewell scored 27 for New York and Allan Houston added 20.

Houston, however, tallied 13 of his points in the first nine minutes of the game and didn’t get his first points of the second half until 46 seconds remained.

“We have a lack of poise offensively when teams start making runs at us,” said Knicks coach Don Chaney, whose team blew a double-digit lead for the 14th time this season.

Houston had a chance to cut into Philadelphia’s four-point lead after Snow missed a jumper with 25 seconds left. But he missed a running jumper in the lane before Coleman was fouled on the rebound.

Mutombo was ejected 38 seconds into the third quarter for flailing his arms at Kurt Thomas after the two became entangled. The same referee who made the call, Rodney Mott, also called a flagrant on Mutombo in the first half when he got tangled up with Othella Harrington.

Spurs 98, Grizzlies 84

San Antonio San Antonio won its 18th straight game over the Grizzlies as Tim Duncan scored 23 points. San Antonio, which won its seventh straight overall, placed five players in double figures.

Rockets 101, SuperSonics 98

Houston Cuttino Mobley scored 38 points, including two free throws with 17 seconds to play. Steve Francis just missed a triple-double with 16 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. Kenny Thomas scored 16, including six in the final 3:42 of the game.

Heat 90, Suns 78

Miami Reserve Jim Jackson scored 23 points to lead a balanced offense as Miami won again in its late-season pursuit of a playoff spot.

Pacers 115, Warriors 101

Indianapolis Austin Croshere scored 19 points and Jonathan Bender had 17 as Indiana put seven players in double figures.

Bucks 110, Bulls 81

Milwaukee Michael Redd finished with 21 points and Milwaukee did not allow a field goal in a 9-minute, 40-second stretch of the second half.

Nets 86, Raptors 84

East Rutherford, N.J. Kenyon Martin scored on a rebound with less than a second to play and the Nets snapped a season-high four-game losing streak. A spin move by Jason Kidd forced Antonio Davis to contest Kidd’s shot.

Lakers 107, Hornets 66

Los Angeles Kobe Bryant scored 23 points as Los Angeles took command late in the third quarter in beating Charlotte. Shaquille O’Neal had nine points and 10 rebounds in 26 minutes.