putting my foot down的八卦，Yahoo名人娛樂都在討論

Bertunang dan berkahwin ni nampak indah tapi realitinya hanya yang melalui je tahu. Siapa yang rancang nak bertunang tu, korang tengok ujian dan cabaran yang selalu orang bertunang hadap. Ikut dan hayati baik baik , yang mana buruk jadikan tauladan dan yang mana baik ambil sebagai pedoman 🌸

Situasi 1: DIUJI DENGAN MASALAH KEWANGAN
godaan: gunalah duit sikit untuk melabur. lepas dua tiga bulan dapat duit lebih, boleh guna tampung majlis. kahwin banyak pakai duit. kurang sike...
Continue ReadingGetting engaged and married looks beautiful but the reality is only those who know. Whoever plans to get engaged, look at the tests and challenges that people always get engaged in. Follow and appreciate good good, which is bad make an example and which is better take as a guideline 🌸

Situation 1: TESTED WITH FINAL PROBLEMS
Temptation: use some money to invest. After two three months of earning extra money, you can use the event. Married a lot with money. Just a little less now. later can replace more

IMPORTANT NOTE: make sure the ready-kept marriage money is not teased by side. If you have extra money, you can use it. But if that money is enough for marriage needs. It's good to prioritize the important thing, discuss with your partner to decide. There's one case, regretting myself because of using dowry money to join the business, at last, I didn't get money Wedding has to be tough

Situation 2. PRESENTATION OF UNLIMITED GUEST (ex)
temptation: i love you again. If I propose to you? I'm waiting for you. I'm willing to wait for you until you divorce and etc

IMPORTANT REMINDER: why did she become an ex? because she is EXperienced! let go and start! Appreciate those who appreciate more. if it wasn't a good love before. it's time to prove we can be the best love! Let go.. start a new story that can be the most beautiful story for children and grandchildren. God willing.

Situation 3: TESTED WITH ATTITUDE
temptation: suddenly engagement becomes too sensitive, angry, less patient

IMPORTANT NOTE, when you want to marry. Definitely putting us in a stressful level. Because there's a lot of things to think about, settled. Added to the feeling of commitment (feeling like a husband, wife), so he becomes more care. Simple things become complicated. The devil has added a dose to cancel the good things. It's getting more exploding! Patience.. this time everyone has to play a role. You won't settle things in anger. Invite to pray, to study. take ablution. When two two are calm. Discuss without emotion. the important thing is. Remember the original intention! Married because of Allah. Look at the problem. Discuss the discharge. Don't focus on the cause. lower your ego and learn to accept and listen. insyaAllah will be better than before fighting.

Situation 4: TESTED WITH HOUBT
temptation: do you want to marry him? but why?. don't you feel young anymore? Many more ambitions to achieve? Are you ready to be a wife? and etc

This one is all natural. Married because I want to accept Allah. If you want to chase the world, until when will we stop chasing? maybe we die running after him. Stop thinking negatively! No one is ready. The most important thing is try to be ready. Seek knowledge (read books, talk and others). Is it a question that I can't be a wife or a daughter that's the experience. Repair from mistakes. example, cooking is not delicious, after this fix the cooking. We won't be perfect. But we can work hard, right? Change the mindset!

Temptation II: is it true that I want to marry him. If you want to say (rich or handsome or good or good or....) that A person looks better than my fiance
* istigfar. back with the original intention. Married because of what? This is a partner even though we clearly see the shortcomings, his weaknesses, we can't hate. even though her face may be full of acne and others. We feel calm looking at it. When you fight, you still feel like being together. Praying to Allah so that the love of him will be stronger, the love of Allah is stronger

Situation 5. PRESSURE OF FAMILY & FAMILY OF FUTURE HUSBAND

Temptation: When you know the family of future couples, setting up dowry, etc, there may be a terrible sense of their decision.

No matter what, we don't judge someone too quickly while we don't know them completely.
Family, feeling hearted in the family, starting to feel right to my mother-in-law will like me, is it true that my brother-in-law will be willing to me, this is all from the devil who always haunts us to cancel our good intentions

Situation 6. STARTING TO BE CAREFUL

After all sorts of tests came over, some of them started to give up and weren't interested in continuing the engagement period.

Survey first the cause of giving heart and try to solve it as long as you can.

Situation 7. EMOTIONS ARE NOT STABILOUS

Some are not happy to sit down when tying the engagement rope. Sometimes sad, angry, too happy, and some keep thinking of his fiance while some have long known his own heart.

When you're friends, you might not feel how serious this relationship is, and how committed you are to a marriage that's about to happen. So, maybe this reason makes you restless and anxious.

Situaso 8. AFRAID OF WRONG DECISION

Temptation: Between phobia and challenges during engagement, some start to show up the real 'attitude'. So, you start to feel doubtful about your choice.

According to Suzana Ghazali, a Syarie Family Psychology Consultant, the Islamic Family Law decides that an individual can obtain a replacement if an engagement is decided by the other side without a strong reason.

Thus, you deserve to receive any form of your gift to her, especially if you spent a lot of money on a wedding to be held.

Situation 9. JEALOUS BLIND

Oh yes, sometimes there are people who suddenly get too jealous and always want to control their fiance's movement. This is a challenge when engagement is common.

While this man is not yet entitled to be obeyed by the woman before pronouncing the marriage ceremony. So is a woman who doesn't have the right to ask for any form of burden from the man.

However, as a Muslim, we must keep our friendship even where we are, whether we are engaged or not

Situation 10. BUSY OF WEDDING MARRIAGE

Busy ahead of wedding ceremony! In the last moment, it's not impossible that it doesn't go as planned. However, this is beyond our control.

Challenges during engagement among them can happen technical mistakes in quotations, change in ceremony, wedding dresses don't fit or wrong sewing, and more

p / s: just share good intentions, want to be halal. It's not easy, there are many challenges that have to be taken before the legal bond.
Want to get married right. whatever it is, every test. Seek Allah! The test is a sign that we need to be stronger with God. May this sharing be blessed. May Allah accept it. Actually, as Muslims, we have to believe that all the challenges during engagement that come are from Allah, as a test to His servants.

Therefore, no matter what the challenges when engaged happen, we should always accept and ask for help from the Almighty. Truly, Allah knows more about something we don't know.

In addition, try to get closer to Allah before we set foot in the household, in preparation of being the leader and mentor of the family institutions that will be established.

As in surah Al-Imran verse 54:

′′ And They Plan, Allah also plans, And ALLAH is the best Planner ′′

📸: Elshaa NatashaaTranslated

【水世界】的前製設定與現場劇照

WATERWORLD (1995)
In celebration of today’s anniversary of this wet mess/epic. Let’s celebrate the hard work this crew put into bringing this world to life. Water movies are never easy but when it comes to this movie anytime you bring it up and a crew member from it is in earshot, the stories pour out. Not always bad, I know a AC that said he had a blast, he loved the boat rides out and all the camaraderie the crew had to have to get thru it. To all the crew that helped bring WATERWORLD to life, We salute you and thanks for the memories. I personally enjoy this hot mess of a movie, it’s one of the last ones of its kind...done practically...in a way.
let’s take a deepest of dives into WATERWORLD

The director, Kevin Reynolds, knew there would be problems before production had even started, “During pre-production. Because having never shot on water to that extent before, I didn’t really realise what I was in for. I talked to Spielberg about it because he’d gone to do Jaws, and I remember, he said to me, “Oh, I would never shoot another picture on water”.
“When we were doing the budget for the picture, and the head of the studio, Sid Sheinberg, we were talking about it and I said, “Steven told me that on Jaws the schedule for the picture was 55 days, and they ended up shooting a 155 days”. Because of the water. And he sat there for a moment and he said, “You know, I’m not sure about the days, but I do know they went a hundred percent over budget”. And so, Universal knew the potential problems of shooting on water. It’s monstrous.”
The film began with a projected budget of $100 million which had reportedly increased to $175 million by the end of production. The principle photography had overrun for at least thirty days more than originally planned due to one major decision.

Whereas today they would film in water tanks with partially built sets, employing green screens to fake the locations, back in 1995 they decided to build everything full size and shoot out on the ocean.

This causes extra logistical problems on top of those that already come with making a major action blockbuster. Cast and crew have to be transported to sets. The camera boats and sets float out of position and will have to be reset between takes taking up valuable production time.

The first draft of Waterworld was written by Peter Radar, a Harvard graduate who wanted to break into the film business. His contact in the film industry was Brad Kevoy, an assistant to the legendary director Roger Corman.

Roger Corman is best known for making films very quickly on a small budget. He also liked to give young talent a chance to direct and write their own films. Brad informed Peter that if he could write a Mad Max rip off, he would arrange to finance and let him direct the picture.

Radar came back and pitched the idea for what would become Waterworld. Kevoy took one look at him and said,

“Are you out of your mind? This would cost us three million dollars to make this movie!”
So Radar kept hold of the idea and decided to re-write the script but, this time, going wild. He wrote what he wanted to see on-screen, limited only by his imagination, not a real world production budget.

He managed to get the newly written script shown to a pair of producers with whom he had made contact with. They loved it and ironically they passed it onto Larry Gordon. He shared the enthusiasm saying it had the kind of cinematic possibilities he was looking for. A deal was signed on Christmas Eve of 1989.

As further script rewrites progressed, it became clear that Waterworld was too big for the Larry Gordon’s production company to undertake by themselves. In February 1992, a deal was signed with Universal Pictures to co-produce and co-finance the film. This was now six years after the first draft had been written.

Universal had signed director Kevin Reynolds to Waterworld. Whilst he was finishing his latest film, Rapa Nui, pre-production for Waterworld was already underway.

The decision was taken that the largest set for the film, known as the atoll, would be built full size. The atoll was the primary location for film and in the story served as the location for a small population of survivors.

The logic behind this decision was due to the high percentage of live action filming required in this location, as well as a huge action set piece. No sound stage would be big enough to incorporate this number of scenes and it was crucial that we see the mariner sail his boat into the atoll, turn around and set out again. A full-size construction was the only way to go as the use of miniature and special effects would be impractical.

The next problem was deciding where to build this huge set. After much research, Kawaihae Harbour in Hawaii was chosen as the location. The atoll could be constructed in the harbour and rotated when needed thus allowing for open sea in the background. Later towards the end of principle photography, the atoll could be towed out into the open sea for the filming of the big action sequences which would be impractical to shoot in an enclosed harbour.

Director Kevin Reynolds also discussed the possibility of using the same water tank as James Cameron’s The Abyss, which had filmed there around five years ago,

“We had even entertained the notion of shooting at that big nuclear reactor facility where they had shot The Abyss, to use it for our underwater tank. But we found it in such a state of disrepair that economically it just wasn’t feasible. We didn’t have as much underwater work as they did. Most of The Abyss is interiors and underwater and model work, ours is mostly surface exterior.”

The production company had originally envisioned building the atoll by linking approximately one hundred boats together and building upon this foundation, just like the characters in the film. The production crew set out to search Hawaii and get hold of as many boats as possible.

During this search, a unique boat in Honolulu caught their attention. Upon further investigation, they discovered it was built by Navitech, a subsidiary of the famous aircraft production company, Lockheed.

They approached Lockheed with the strange request of figuring out how they could build the foundations of the atoll. Lockheed found the request unusual but didn’t shy away from the challenging. They agreed to design the atoll foundation and Navitech would construct it.

Meanwhile, an 11ft miniature model of the atoll was sent out to a model ship testing facility in San Diego. Scaled wave tanks are used to determine the effects of the open sea on large scale miniature models of new untested ship designs. This would help determine what would happen with the unusual design of the atoll when it was out of the harbour.

The atoll, when finished, was approximately ¼ mile in circumference. It took three months to construct and is rumoured to cost around $22 million. As the atoll would be used out on the open sea, it required a seafaring license. Nothing like this had been done before and after much deliberation, it was eventually classed as an unmanned vessel. This meant that all cast and crew would have to vacate the set whilst it was towed into position. By the end of production, the atoll was towed out to sea a total of five times.

Shooting out on the open sea presented a series of logistical problem as Reynolds describes,

“We had an entire navy, basically – I mean, this atoll was positioned about a mile off-shore in Hawaii, it was anchored to the bottom of the ocean so it could rotate. What you don’t think about are things like, you’re shooting on this atoll to maintain this notion that there’s no dry land, you always have to shoot out to sea. Away from the land. So we chose a location where we had about a 180 degree view of open water. Nevertheless, any time when you’re shooting, there could be a ship appear in the background, or something like that, and you had to make a choice. Do I hold up the shot, wait for the ship to move out, or do we shoot and say we’re going to incur this additional cost in post-production of trying to remove the ship from the background.

And at that time, CGI was not at the point it is now, it was a bigger deal. And so, even though if you’re shooting across the atoll and you’re shooting out onto open water, when you turn around and do the reverses, for the action, you had to rotate the entire atoll, so that you’re still shooting out to open water. Those are the kinds of things that people don’t realise.

Or something as simple as – if you’re shooting a scene between two boats, and you’re trying to shoot The Mariner on his craft, another boat or whatever, you’ve got a camera boat shooting his boat, and then the other boat in the background. Well, when you’re on open water things tend to drift apart. So you have to send lines down from each of those boats to the bottom, to anchor them so that they somewhat stay in frame. When you’ve got a simple shot on land, you set up the camera position, you put people in front of the camera and then you put background in there. But when you’re on water, everything’s constantly moving apart, drifting apart, so you have to try to hold things down somewhat.

And these are simple things that you don’t really realise when you’re looking at it on film. But logistically, it’s crazy. And each day you shoot on the atoll with all those extras, we had to transport those people from dry land out to the location and so you’re getting hundreds of people through wardrobe and everything, and you’re putting them on boats, transporting them out to the atoll, and trying to get everybody in position to do a shot. And then when you break for lunch, you have to put everybody on boats and take them back in to feed them.”

The final size of the atoll was determined by the size of the Mariners boat, the trimaran. The dimensions for the trimaran were finalised very early on in pre-production, allowing all other vehicles and sets to be sized accordingly.

Production required two trimarans boats which are so called because they have three hulls. The first was based on the standard trimaran blueprint and built for speed but also had to accommodate a secret crew below decks.

During wide and aerial shots it would have to look like Costner himself was piloting the boat. In reality, a trained crew could monitor and perform the real sailing of the boat utilising specially built controls and television monitors below deck.

The second trimaran was the trawler boat which could transform into the racer through the use of special practical effects rigs. Both of these boats were constructed in France by Jeanneau. Normally this type of vessel requires a year to construct but production needed two boats in five months!

Normally once the boat had been constructed, Jeammeau would deliver it on the deck of a freighter, requiring a delivery time of around a month. This delay was unacceptable and so the trimarans were dismantled into sections and taken by a 747 air freighter to the dock Hawaii. Upon arrival, a further month was required to reassemble the boat and get them prepared for filming.

sets recreating the inside of the tanker were built using forced perspective in a huge 1000ft long warehouse which had an adjoining 2000ft field. In this field, they built the set of the oil tankers deck, again constructed using forced perspective. Using the forced perspective trick, the 500ft long set could be constructed to give the impression that it was really twice as long.

There’s more to a film than just it’s sets and filming locations. Over two thousand costumes had to be created with many of the lead actors costumes being replicated many times over due to wear and tear.

This is not an uncommon practice for film production, but due to the unique look of the people and the world they inhabit, it did create some headaches. One costume was created with so many fish scales the wardrobe department had to search the entire island of Hawaii looking for anyone who could supply in the huge quantity required.

Makeup had to use waterproof cosmetics, especially on the stunt players. As everyone had a sun burnt look, a three-sided tanning booth was setup. The extras numbering in their hundreds, with ages ranging from six to sixty-five, passed through the booth like a production line to receive their spray tan. The extras then moved onto costume before finally having their hair fixed and becoming ready for the day.

In some scenes, extras were actually painted plywood cutouts to help enhance the number of extras on the set. This can easily be seen in one particular shot on board the Deez super tanker.

Filming on the water is not only a difficult and time-consuming process but also very dangerous. It’s been reported that Jeanne Tripplehorn and Tina Majorino nearly drowned on their first day of filming.

Waterworld’s star Kevin Costner reported having a near-death experience when filming a scene in which the mariner ties himself to his catamaran to survive a storm. The pounding water caused him to black out and nearly drown.

Unbeknownst to most of the crew, Kevin Costner’s stunt double was riding his jet ski across 40 miles of open ocean between his home on Maui and the film’s set on the Big Island. When he didn’t show up for work one day, the production team phoned his wife, who informed them he had already left for work. The stunt double’s jet ski had run out of gas halfway through his “commute” and a storm had swept him farther out to sea. It took a helicopter most of the day to find him. The stunt doubles name was Laird Hamilton.

As well as the logistical problems of creating a film of this scale and on water, they also had to deal with the press who seemed intent on wanting the film to fail. Director Kevin Reynolds discusses the situation,

“It was huge, we were constantly fighting – people wanted to have bad press. That was more exciting to them than the good news. I guess the most egregious example of that that I recall was that the publicist told me that one day…we’d been out the day before and we were doing a shot where we sent two cameras up on a mast of the trimaran and we wanted to do a shot where they tilled down from the horizon down to the deck below. We’re out there, we’re anchored, we’re setting the shot up and a swell comes in, and I look over and the mast is sort of bending.

And I turned to the boatmaster and I said, “Bruno, is this safe?”. And he looks up the mast and he goes, “No”. So I said, “Okay, well, we have to get out as I can’t have two guys fall off from 40 feet up”. So, we had to break out of the set-up, and go back in a shoot something else and we lost another half-day.

Anyway, the next day the publicist is sitting in his office and he gets this call from some journalist in the States and he goes, “Okay. Don’t lie to me – I’ve had this confirmed from two different people. I want the facts, and I want to hear about the accident yesterday, we had two cameramen fall off the mast and were killed”.

And, he goes, “What are you talking about?”. And he goes, “Don’t lie to me, don’t cover this up, we know this has happened”. It didn’t happen! People were so hungry for bad news because it was much more exciting than…they just said it, and you know, it hurt us.”
Upon release, the press seemed to be disappointed that the film wasn’t the massive failure they were hoping it to be. Universal Studios told Kevin Reynolds that one critic came out of an early screening in New York and in a disappointed tone said,

“Well, it didn’t suck.”

It is true that during principle photography the slave colony set sank and had to be retrieved. However due to bad press, the rumour became much bigger and to this day when you mention the sinking set, most people assume it was the huge atoll.

During production, press nicknamed the film “Kevin’s Gate” and “Fishtar”, referring to 1980’s box office failures Heaven’s Gate and Ishtar. Heaven’s Gate failed so badly it led to the sale of United Artists Studio and has become synonymous with failure in Hollywood.

As well as the exaggerated set problems and other various production rumours, there were also difficulties with the script. In a risky move, the film was green lit and moved into production without a finalised script.

The final total is a reportedly thirty-six rewrites. One of the writers involved was Joss Whedon. Joss had worked on many scripts before becoming a director having being at the helm of both The Avengers and the sequel Avengers: Age Of Ultron. He described his experience on Waterworld as,

“Seven weeks of hell”
Everything came to a head just three weeks before the end of principle photography. Kevin Reynolds who was an old friend of Kevin Costner allegedly walked off set or was fired. There was no official statement on what happened.

When Reynolds left the production this event caused many changes to be made. Composer Mark Isham had already composed approximately two-thirds of the film’s score by the time Reynolds left and that event ultimately caused him to leave production. As Mark describes in this interview excerpt,

“Kevin Reynolds quit the film, which left me working for Kevin Costner, who listened to what I had written and wanted a completely different point of view. He basically made a completely different film — he re-cut the entire film, and in his meeting with me he expressed that he wanted a completely different approach to the score. And I said, “oh let me demonstrate that I can give that to you”, so I presented him with a demo of my approach to his approach, and he rejected that and fired me. What I find a lot in these big films, because the production schedules are so insane, that the directors have very little time to actually concentrate on the music.”
Rumours report that Costner took control of production. He directed the last few weeks of principle photography and edited the final cut of the film that was released in cinemas.

Reynolds discusses his surprise at discovering that one of the most famous scenes from what is known as the extended version, was left on the cutting room floor,

“…it would have differed from what you saw on the screen to some extent, and one of the things I’ve always been perplexed by in the version that was released, theatrically, although subsequently the longer version included it, and the reason that I did the film, was that at the very end of the picture, at the very end of the script, there’s a scene when they finally reach dry land and The Mariner’s sailing off and he leaves the two women behind, and in the script they’re standing up on this high point and they’re watching him sail away, and the little girl stumbles on something.
And they look down and clear the grass away and that’s this plaque. And it says, “Here, near this spot, 1953, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary first set foot on the summit of Everest”. And that was in script and I was like, “Oh, of course! Wow, the highest point on the planet! That would have been dry land!”. And we got it! We shot that. And they left it out of the picture. And I’m like, “Whaaat?!”. It’s like the Statue of Liberty moment in Planet of the Apes. And I was like, “Why would you leave that out?”

Written by John Abbitt | Follow John on twitter @UKFilmNerd

If any the crew cares to share any of their experiences on it please comment.
Thanks for reading
If you want more deep dives visit
https://www.facebook.com/groups/crewstories/?ref=share

Dr. Stone(新石紀) 實在太好睇，第一季完左啦好期待睇第二季！
最後一集完得太正，滿滿洋蔥！
其中一首歌好想點比香港人聽。

No where to turn
No where to hide
Between a rock and a hard place
Someone to find
I know that times are tough, just down and out
putting my faith in tomorrow

I’m ready to go, but I don’t know where to start
Each and every road seems to be calling to me
Pulled in every which way, so I made my own path
A deep breath and my best foot forward

One small step from zero, I’m not afraid
‘Cuz the world that we want is right here for us to make
Just taking one small step to hero, I’ll take the chance
And when I do, I’ll be thinking of the same thing I always do
It’s always you

We try to find the passion inside
Faith that will never burn out
Something that’s mine
I did it on my own, no looking back
Wishing for my time to shine

No way to know, so I’ll just follow my heart
Each and every road seems to be calling to me
I’ll keep moving on so there’s no looking back
A deep breath and my best foot forward

One small step from zero to start again
If we want to be strong have to believe that we can
Just taking one small step to hero to make a change
And start brand new, I’ll be wishing for the same thing I always do
It’s always you

All the hope we have is right here in our hands
The future’s left unseen, just an open page
All the strength we need is right here in each of us
With one small step

One small step from zero, I’m not afraid
‘Cuz the world that we want is right here for us
Just taking one small step to hero, I’ll take the chance
And when I do, I’ll be thinking of the same thing I always do
It’s always you

Not having a starting frontcourt was not a problem for the Philadelphia 76ers. All they needed was Allen Iverson.

Iverson scored 15 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter and had 12 assists, leading the undermanned Sixers to a 100-96 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night.

"Just put me on the floor with four warriors," Iverson said.
"My whole thing is to get down and dirty, scar my knees, get
banged-up and get right back up. When guys see that, they feed off
it."

Mark Jackson scored 16 and Aaron McKie added 14 for
Philadelphia, which won its second straight despite missing
starters Kenny Thomas (back), Glenn Robinson (ankle) and Derrick
Coleman (knee).

Tim Duncan had 35 points and 15 rebounds, Manu Ginobili scored
21 and Tony Parker had 19 for San Antonio. The NBA champions had
won two straight since Duncan and Parker returned from ankle
injuries.

"Two of our perimeter guys were 2-for-15 and Manu was 7-for-18,
it's a bad combination to be making mistakes and not putting the
ball in the hole," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

After Duncan missed a 16-footer, Iverson gave the Sixers a 94-88
lead on a superb driving, one-handed runner in traffic with 1:16
remaining.

San Antonio didn't get closer than three the rest of the way.

"I'm really proud of our guys for hanging in there with a
limited squad," Sixers coach Randy Ayers said. "It starts with
the veterans. They kept us together. They supply the leadership."

Iverson scored nine in a row for Philadelphia at one point in
the fourth and 13 of 15. His short jumper gave the Sixers an 86-81
lead, and a basket by Samuel Dalembert off a pass by Iverson made
it 88-81 with 3:57 left. The Spurs scored seven of the next nine to
get within 90-88 on a fast-break layup by Parker with 2:13
remaining.

Iverson missed seven of his first eight shots and finished
12-for-27.

Duncan, the two-time MVP, started slow but came on strong late
in the second quarter and into the second half. He scored 14
straight points for the Spurs at one point, including their first
nine points in the third.

Duncan briefly left the game after hurting his left foot while
going for a rebound late in the third. The Sixers cut an
eight-point deficit to three with Duncan sitting out the final 2:35
of the third.

"They made a lot less mistakes," Duncan said. "We turned the
ball over, missed wide open shots. We let them break us down."

The Sixers, who trailed the entire second and third quarters,
took a 73-72 lead early in the fourth on consecutive driving layups
by McKie. Five straight points by Iverson extended the lead to
78-73.

The Spurs missed 15 straight shots over a stretch of 7:44 from
late in the third until Ginobili made a driving layup with 7:54
left to cut Philadelphia's lead to 78-75.

Game notes
Eagles All-Pro safety Brian Dawkins was in the crowd.
Dawkins, returning this week from an ankle injury that has
sidelined him since the season opener, received a standing ovation
in the second quarter. ... Dalembert made a nice move to spin
around Duncan then missed a dunk in the second quarter. ... Ayers
got a technical for arguing a traveling violation on Eric Snow in
the second quarter. Snow was pushed to the floor by Bruce Bowen.
... Sixers rookie Kyle Korver made two 3s for his first career
field goals. He got a standing ovation after fouling out midway
through the fourth. ... The Spurs had 20 offensive rebounds and 51
overall.

Allen Iverson had the ball in his hands and the game on the line, yet couldn't produce the ending he'd hoped for.


Iverson, playing in Philadelphia for the first time since being traded to Denver in December 2006, led all scorers with 32 points Wednesday night. But it was the 76ers who made the big plays down the stretch and spoiled their former MVP's return with a 115-113 victory over the Nuggets.

"I dreamed it up a certain way, and it was better than that," Iverson said. "Everything was perfect but one thing, and that was not winning the game."

Iverson misfired on a 20-foot jumper and Marcus Camby missed a put-back in the final seconds as the Nuggets lost their second straight and failed to pick up any ground in their bid for a playoff spot in the tough Western Conference.

"I almost had a perfect trip at my home away from home," Iverson said.

Samuel Dalembert scored the decisive basket with 32.9 seconds remaining. When Andre Iguodala lost possession of the ball as he fell, Dalembert was there to grab it and turned for a lay-in.

Andre Miller, acquired by the Sixers in the Iverson trade, scored 28 points on his 32nd birthday and the 76ers reached the .500 mark (34-34) for the first time since opening the season at 2-2.

Even in defeat, the night belonged to Iverson, who received a hero's welcome from the sellout crowd of 20,674 at the Wachovia Center.

All eyes were on the former 76ers star when he trotted out for pregame warm-ups. The ovation grew louder, and then Iverson made his way to center court, where he dropped down and kissed the 76ers logo.

The affection between the 2001 NBA MVP and the fans intensified throughout the pregame.

When Iverson was introduced, the fans showered him with raucous applause and a lengthy standing ovation. He worked the crowd by putting his hand to his ear and turning to each corner of the arena as the roar grew louder. The applause was only cut short by the introduction of the rest of the Denver lineup.

"It almost got to me," Iverson acknowledged. "It made me feel good. It made me feel appreciated."

Just before the game started, Iverson trotted down the sideline to the Sixers' bench and embraced former coach Maurice Cheeks, the first time the two got together since he was traded 15 months before.

"It felt great for him to do that," said Cheeks, the Sixers coach. "We didn't want to make a scene. I thought everyone was excited about it when it happened."

Cheeks couldn't help but notice the reception for his former star.

"I got to watching him and got a little touched by it," Cheeks said.

While Iverson got the reception he had hoped for, the Sixers got the win.

"We knew it would be emotional," Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin said. "They didn't want to have a player come in and get the love, but lose the game."

Iguodala scored 21 points, Dalembert added 17 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots, including four in the last quarter. Willie Green added 16 points and Rodney Carney 11.

"That was like a playoff game out there," Cheeks said. "The game was just drama and I thought our guys handled it well.

"We're not in the playoffs yet, but we're trying to get there."

Carmelo Anthony scored 26 points, Martin added 22 and Anthony Carter 12 for the Nuggets.

After opening the second half with a 10-point run, the Nuggets struggled with their shots at the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth, going 0-for-15 in one stretch. Iverson ended the drought with 14-foot jumper with 7:10 remaining.

Nuggets coach George Karl was satisfied with his team's performance.

"Other than our defensive intensity in the first half, trying to outshoot a team playing with a lot of confidence hurt us," he said.

Iverson's impact was immediate as he fed Anthony for a game-opening 3-pointer and scored his first points on a 14-foot jumper at the 6:32 mark of the first quarter.

Iverson, who had 12 points and five assists in the first half, added nine points in Denver's third-quarter run.

Game notes
The Sixers are 16-4 in their last 20 games and 10-1 in their last 11. ... The Nuggets move on to play the Nets in New Jersey on Friday. ... The 76ers travel to Orlando to take on the Magic on Friday night.