The 76ers and more than 19,000 fans looked on anxiously Friday night while the 27-foot shot from Washington's Gilbert Arenas flew through the air just as the red light that rings the backboard went on to signify the end of the game.

The shot appeared at first to be long, but it banged off the backboard and swished cleanly through the hoop, sending the Sixers to the edge of the cliff in terms of their playoff hopes.

Arenas' three-pointer gave the Wizards an 83-80 victory and left the Sixers with their mouths open in disgust. The shot epitomized the entire season for the Sixers, who were fighting for their playoff lives against a team they should defeat, a team that hadn't beaten an Atlantic Division team on the road all season.

"And we lose on a shot like that off the glass," guard Aaron McKie said. "Yeah, it does [epitomize the season]. I guess when it goes bad, it goes bad. When things go good, it seems like everything else falls in place for you. That wasn't the case for us tonight."

Even though the Sixers remained two games behind the Boston Celtics, who lost, 89-80, at New Orleans, the loss left them in dire straits. They need to win their last three games - and the Celtics have to lose their final three - to gain the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

"This game hurt," point guard Eric Snow said. "We've got to win all our games, and [the Celtics] have got to lose all their games. We're not really out, but with each loss, our chances severely decrease."

Recent conversations with Wizards front-office people has revealed that the decision makers haven't lost patience with two-time All-Star Jerry Stackhouse, who missed 51 games this season because of injury and now comes off the bench when his knees aren't wracked with pain.

After a Wizards game, radio's would-be coaching intelligentsia offer plans for the future. Many are advising the Wizards to move Stackhouse, who has three years remaining on his contract.

Ultimately, president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld and coach Eddie Jordan will huddle, reach a conclusion and then act on any number of situations that lottery teams are saddled with. But right now, a look inside the spin doesn't indicate that trading Stackhouse is the order of the day, or, for that matter, the summer.

"I know what Jerry can do, and what I see is a player who is frustrated," said Grunfeld, who is at the Portsmouth (Va.) Invitational scouting potential second-round picks. "He's not able to do the things that he's done in the past. But our job is to make sure that everything is in place for him so that he can return to that level, which we haveno doubt he will."

Wizards forward Kwame Brown believes this is the season when the light has started to flicker. And when it becomes a megawatt lamp, Brown wants to be in Washington.

"I definitely want it to happen here," Brown said. "Nobody wants to be traded. I just want us to get it together, bring this city some energy. If I can make up for lost time when we weren't winning and start winning some games in Washington that would be great."

The Wizards exercised the option on Brown's contract last fall, which will keep him in Washington through the end of next season. The Wizards also could sign him to an extension this summer.

The NBA calendar says the playoffs begin April 17. For players like Lonny Baxter, though, they've already begun.

Baxter won't be seeing the postseason as a member of the 23-53 Washington Wizards ? there's no such event for teams 30 games below .500 ? but the second-year player from Maryland knows that if he is going to have a future in the NBA, this is the time to show his stuff with just six games remaining.

"I look at it like this is really big for me, almost like a playoff run or something," Baxter said.

"My mindset is that I'm just going to go out and work hard, work on my game every day and try to go out there with intensity every time I'm called on. You just can't look at it like the season is over, because it's not over until the last game. You have to keep working and fighting every day until the end."

With his frustration mounting, Washington Wizards swingman Jerry Stackhouse said yesterday that the surgery on his right knee that forced him to miss 51 games and the team's losing ways have caused "regression" to his career. He added that he'd rather not play the final seven games of the season so he could properly heal, but said he would play because the organization's management insist he compete.

"I think [there] is a consensus with the higher-ups, who feel if I can be out there at 50, 60 percent and do anything to help the team, do it," said Stackhouse, a day after he was ejected for protesting a foul call in the first quarter of Wednesday's 103-99 overtime loss to New Jersey. "I just roll with it but I'm definitely not happy with who I am as a basketball player and would rather be sitting out just getting ready for next season but I'll do what I need to do."

This season of misery comes after Stackhouse, 29, signed a two-year, $18 million extension that keeps him under contract through the 2006-07 season. He is averaging 14 points (a career low) and 4.1 assists this season and has played in a career-low 23 games after averaging at least 21 points the last four seasons.

"He's never told us he's unable to play and he has medical clearance," said President of Basketball Operations Ernie Grunfeld, who was traveling to San Antonio to scout prospective draft picks at the Final Four. "We realize Jerry's not playing at 100 percent and I respect the fact he's out there trying to help us and setting a positive example for our younger players."

"I haven't been in playoffs the two years I've been here so there's not a lot to be happy about," Stackhouse said. "Coming here, it's kind of been a regression, so to speak."