Last night, with the Sixers' backcourt depleted and a sellout crowd of 22,076 smelling blood, Carney proved to be ready in his best performance of the season.

With Carney scoring 16 points while hitting 7 of 10 shots from the field, the Sixers stunned the Detroit Pistons, 83-82, at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

The Sixers were without guard Willie Green, who missed the game with a lower back strain. Backcourt mate Andre Miller left the game for good with 6 minutes, 26 seconds left in the game with lower back and abdominal strains. Miller aggravated a back injury that he first suffered in Monday's 100-86 loss to the visiting Boston Celtics.

So Carney made the most of his 22 minutes, 1 second of playing time. He scored eight points in the fourth quarter while playing all 12 minutes.

"Like every game, I'm out there trying to do the best I can," Carney said. "I use the same routine, but I just made shots and got key rebounds and coach trusted me and kept me in the game."

Carney also had a hand in the final crucial play, when Detroit's Chauncey Billups missed an 18-foot jumper at the buzzer.

Lou Williams guarded Billups, and Carney came around to help, forcing Billups to take a turnaround shot that hit the front of the rim.

"I knew he was going to pump-fake so I wanted to stay on my feet," Williams said. "Rodney's help was huge because he made him fade away instead of shooting a straight jumper."

Carney also contributed five rebounds and a steal as the Sixers improved to 31-34. They remained in the seventh position in the Eastern Conference playoff race, four games ahead of New Jersey and 41/2 in front of Chicago. They will visit the Bulls tomorrow.

Carney also hit 2 of 3 three-pointers.

"It gets you going and your confidence up that you can take another three without being yelled at," Carney said. "The confidence is going and I really got in rhythm there."

Beating a 46-18 Pistons team has to rank as one of the top wins of the season for the Sixers.

"It's up there," Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks said. "We were talking about it and we thought about the Phoenix game," referring to a 119-114 win in Phoenix on March 1.

"This is big because we are coming to the end with only so many games left," Cheeks said. "We played Boston and Detroit, two of the top teams in the East, and we came out 1-1 and feel good about it."

The Sixers say that Miller is listed as day-to-day. Miller, who has played in 431 consecutive games and finished with 10 points and four assists, was more confident after the game.

"I'm fine," he said.

When asked if he would be ready for tomorrow's game in Chicago, Miller replied, "I'll be ready."

The Sixers attacked Detroit from the beginning. And even though the Pistons blocked 12 shots, Cheeks' team never backed down.

Andre Iguodala had 22 points and shot just 6 for 22, but he took 12 foul shots, making nine.

Detroit limited the Sixers to just eight fastbreak points, but they kept attacking the basket in the halfcourt set. Iguodala had a few hellacious dunks, including one over 6-foot-10 Theo Ratliff, the former Sixers center.

The Sixers also received 12 points and 11 rebounds from Reggie Evans and six points and 15 rebounds from Samuel Dalembert. In the fourth quarter, Dalembert grabbed seven rebounds.

"My offense wasn't there, so I had to help us with rebounding and defense," Dalembert said.

And Carney helped with a little bit of everything.

"A guy like him, his minutes are up and down and that can be tough," Iguodala said of Carney. "For him to be ready to play and give us this effort was huge."