OAKLAND, Calif. -- Steve Kerr knows a thing or two about winning basketball.
Between his role as head coach of the Warriors and a player on the Bulls and Spurs, Kerr has won six NBA championships. Now he's not anointing the Sixers in line for the title, but he does like what he sees in the young team's potential.
"I love the way they play," Kerr said before the Sixers' 106-104 loss to the Warriors. "I think they play a lot like we do actually with the ball movement, cutting and spacing."
Considering the drastic differences between the teams, the Sixers have tested the Western Conference powerhouse in their recent meetings.
Last season, the Sixers threatened to upset the Warriors at the Wells Fargo Center. Harrison Barnes bailed out the Warriors with a game-winner with two seconds left.
This season, the Sixers faced the Warriors without Joel Embiid and only three days after a trade deadline in which they moved Ersan Ilyasova and Nerlens Noel. The Sixers kept it close in the first (within three points at halftime) before the Warriors took over in the second half.
"They are getting the most out of what they have for sure," Kerr said. "We just played them two weeks ago and they gave us a battle."
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The Sixers followed suit on Tuesday. They led by as many as 16 points inside the uber-challenging Oracle Arena. The Sixers took a 12-point lead into the fourth before the Warriors snapped into ... well ... Warriors mode.
"I kind of liked how the game played out because we had to fight as hard as we did to win," Kerr said. "Hopefully this gets us a little momentum."
The Warriors swept the season series with the Sixers and stretched their winning streak to eight in the matchup. With the continued development of players like Dario Saric, who Kerr considers "a hell of a player" and the returns of Embiid and Ben Simmons, Kerr doesn't expect the Sixers of now to be the same when he faces them next season.
"They've had all the injuries over the last couple of years, and Brett (Brown) has kept them together and kept them playing hard and competing every night," Kerr said. "It's really impressive. It feels like the ship has turned for that franchise, slowly but surely. It takes time.
"It feels like they are heading in the right direction and hopefully they can get healthy next year. Get Simmons and Joel healthy, and now they have something to build on with the momentum that they have put together this year."