Willie Green, confident shooting guard that he is, is staying with his "package."

That's not only the 76ers' strategy for the final eight games of the NBA season, it's one of the more reasonable, realistic reasons for the surprising - stunning? - success they have had.

The Sixers go into tonight's game against the New Jersey Nets in East Rutherford with a 37-37 record, with two losses in succession for the first time since early February, with 19 victories in their last 26, with six victories in their last eight on the road.

Thirty-seven is already two more victories than all of last season, and, depending on whom you ask, maybe as many as 15 more than expected. They haven't clinched a playoff berth, but they're on the brink, holding the No. 7 seed.

Amid all this is Green, who doesn't know the meaning of a half-empty glass. He has, in a span of six games, hit only 13 of his last 64 shots from the floor, including one of 19 three-pointers. He arrived at yesterday's practice at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine about an hour early and, by his estimation, "got up 300 to 400 shots."

"The thing to me is, I'm missing bunnies," Green said. "I know the things I have to concentrate on, making layups when I get to the basket, [making] my little floaters. The funny part about it is, I haven't been in this kind of stretch the whole year."

As a frame of reference, in 12 games preceding the current stretch, he shot at least 50 percent in eight of them. That's partly why Cheeks resists any thought of a lineup change.

"We're going to try and get him some easier baskets," he said. "When you get easy baskets, it allows the basket to get a little bigger."

Cheeks told Green about a TV interview in which veteran San Antonio Spurs shooter Michael Finley talked about fighting through a drought by concentrating on the things he normally did. And it's not as if Green has struggled in other areas.

"Everyone goes through a slump at some point," Cheeks said. "You've just got to try to work your way out of it. I think he's been OK [in other aspects]. A lot of times, your offense dictates the way you play, [but] I think we've put him on a lot of good offensive players; he's fared pretty well guarding those guys. But if you're in the game, your '2' guard is supposed to make shots."

Cheeks' stance: Keep working. Make them next time.

"It's helpful to know the coach is behind me, and anybody else who goes through a shooting slump," Green said. "More than anything, to me, it's just about my faith. Basketball is a small piece to a bigger puzzle. I'll be OK.

"It reminds me of Tony Dungy's book ['Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices and Priorities of a Winning Life']. He stayed with his package throughout and he won a Super Bowl [coaching the Colts]. The way I feel about myself, I've got a winning package. I go at it hard. It's only a matter of time."

The tightening, treacherous road to the postseason is virgin territory for several of the younger Sixers. Andre Iguodala, who has appeared in one playoff series in his career, suggested that "sometimes our mental focus, we have lapses . . . forget personnel, sometimes maybe forget who to help off [defensively]."

But that's not necessarily getting too comfortable or complacent.

"I don't think we got comfortable, I think we were just excited," Green said. "Our confidence was a little higher than it was the previous couple months."

After Sunday's 91-88 loss in Cleveland, in a daunting playoff-like atmosphere against the remarkably talented LeBron James, the coaches told the players they "loved" their level of performance. Yesterday's prepractice meeting and film session focused, Green said, on how, "we're not in the playoffs yet."

"[Sunday] was a game we could've won, should've won, didn't win," Cheeks said. "We don't want to have to rely on someone else."

Whatever the magic number to qualify is, the players haven't discussed it. "I just want to get in," Iguodala said. "I really don't care who we play. We can play a team from Mars. I just want to get in." *