For all the times Brett Brown has praised the Sixers’ effort after a defeat, a loss is still a loss, even when it comes down to the final seconds against the defending champions.
The Warriors have lost just four games all season. They beat their last five opponents by an average of 25.4 points, including commanding wins over the Cavaliers and Spurs.
The Sixers overcame a 24-point deficit to force the Warriors to hit a game-winner with less than one second to go. Yes, Brown was happy with the Sixers’ resiliency and determination, but he didn’t see it as a moral victory.
“We don’t feel that way and I don’t want our guys to feel that way,” he said after the 108-105 loss on Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center (see Instant Replay). “It’s sort of the beauty of the job that we have. You win and you lose. I kind of like that.”
The Sixers held the Warriors to just 35 points in the second half to forge a late comeback. Harrison Barnes drained a three with 0.2 seconds remaining and Hollis Thompson failed to connect on a game-tying shot at the buzzer (see highlights).
“I’m not into moral victories either,” Jahlil Okafor said. “The message is that’s the team we want to be one day, one of the best. We want to keep building and showing we can compete with anybody.”
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The Sixers don’t view the close game as an “almost win” or a “nearly good enough.” Instead, they see it as a learning experience and foundation for improvement.
“I think we did deserve to win tonight and it just slipped away,” Nerlens Noel said. “We’re growing and we’re building. We’re developing our guys and guys are getting better, playing more together, and you’re really starting to see a good team coming into play.”
The Warriors improved to 43-4, while the Sixers dropped to 7-41. Even though the Sixers have nearly as many losses as the Warriors have wins, they didn’t view this as a guaranteed victory for the visiting team.
“We’re competitive so we think we should have won the game,” Ish Smith said. “That’s just how everybody thinks. … There are no sympathetic pats on the back or anything like that.”
Over the past month they have competed against the top teams in the Eastern Conference and kept games close against players like LeBron James and Jimmy Butler. The Warriors are packed with All-Star talent and the reigning MVP, Stephen Curry (see Curry highlights). The Sixers weren’t intimidated by that.
“We learned a lot,” Robert Covington said. “They’re the No. 1 team in the league. They’re by far one of the greatest teams in history. But for us to come out and play the way we did, it shows none of that really really matters. They’ve got to strap up their shoes just like we do, so when we come out on the court, we can’t be starstruck or anything. … We came out and we had the resiliency and fight within us to come out and have the run we did to get back in the game.”
Uninterested in moral victories, the Sixers can take away signs of progress. The team that started the season 0-18 and fell to 1-30 came within seconds of upsetting the NBA’s most dominating force.
“For us to be down 24 and find a way at home to not roll over, not to be all caught up in the moment and find a way for to give something back to our fans — who were fantastic — is a great thing for our young team,” Brown said. “It validates the work they have put in. It showed we have no letdown, no backdown, and I give us a lot of credit. We’re obviously disappointed to not come away with a win.”
The Sixers will be off Sunday and have two days of practice before they take on the Hawks, who beat them by 28 points less than a month ago. They will go into that matchup with an increased sense of confidence they gained in the loss to the Warriors.
“I think that’s the value and the victory that we get out of it," Brown said. "Just the knowledge that we have something to offer, too."