DiLeo works under the hood of the offense

For two months, Tony DiLeo could be found in a spiffy suit, legs crossed, attentively watching his team from afar.

Now he is the man on the 76ers' bench, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the players he scouted, making changes to the X's and O's and tweaking a team that started the season 9-14.

On Saturday, DiLeo coached his first game - a win over the Washington Wizards - since replacing the fired Maurice Cheeks. The interim coach then had two practices with his guys before last night's victory over the Milwaukee Bucks at the Wachovia Center.

DiLeo spent those two practices moving screeners three feet to the left or turning shoulders from facing the baseline to facing the sideline.

"It's about the right spot, the right angles," DiLeo said. "There were things I knew we could improve upon, and offensive execution was one of them."

"He's changed attention to detail when it comes to running plays," said reserve guard Lou Williams. "Telling the big guys to move over three, four feet in plays we've already been running in order to change the angles."

Effective angles are to basketball what gas is to most automobiles: necessary for movement.

"He saw things that would open up the floor," said point guard Andre Miller.

For DiLeo, the problem has not been a roster incapable of executing the desired style - run-and-gun - but rather missing the attention to the details that create openings.

"We feel these pieces fit into what we want to do," DiLeo said of the roster. "The biggest problem here is practice time because we're trying to put in things on the run."

DiLeo smiled, then added, "Is that a pun?"