Iverson, who has been out more than a month with a back injury, had eight points in his first game back in his new role as a reserve.

"I know his body is going to be sore, but he came in and gave us a huge lift off the bench," Pistons coach Michael Curry said.

Added Hamilton: "Allen was great tonight, for as much of a layoff that he had, he came back right in and we got the win."

Although he did not score a lot of points, his ability to draw fouls early in the fourth quarter helped Detroit get into the bonus sooner than usual.

And those free-throw attempts down the stretch proved invaluable as the Pistons won their second game in a row.

Iverson's return came less than 24 hours after Hamilton returned from a left groin injury that sidelined him for six games.

With the win, Detroit (36-37) moves ahead of Chicago (36-39) for the seventh seed and trails Philadelphia by 1 1/2 games in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, Sunday's loss was a tough blow to a Philadelphia team (37-35) trying to move up to the fifth spot in the East past Miami.

The Sixers were led by Andre Iguodala with 27 points and Thaddeus Young, who chipped in 22. Tayshaun Prince led all Detroit scorers with 21 points.

But the story of the night was Iverson, who readily admits he is nowhere close to being in the kind of physical condition he wants.

On a scale of 1 to 10, Iverson said his conditioning right now is at a 1.

"The first five, 10 seconds, my tongue was on the floor," said Iverson, who added that the adrenaline from returning to the court probably had something to do with his fatigue.

But it was clear Iverson's teammates were pleased to have the 10-time all-star back.

"It's definitely fun," said Will Bynum, when asked about playing with Iverson. "It's like teams have to pick their poison; it opens things up out there."