Brandon Apter (@bapter23), Managing Editor
The Warriors led by 24 in the third. They led by 13 with just under three minutes to go in the fourth. Game, set, match, right? Wrong…well, kind of. After Stephen Curry hit a three to put the Warriors ahead 13 with 3:45 to go, it seemed like that had sealed the win for Golden State. Instead, the Sixers answered by going on a 15-2 run to tie the game with 22 seconds remaining, capped by an Isaiah Canaan four-point play to make it a two-point game and an Ish Smith dunk to tie things at 105.
The only problem for the Sixers is that 22 seconds was plenty of time for the defending champs to make a move and they did just that. Brett Brown opted to do what most teams would in a time like this, which was double team Stephen Curry. That left Harrison Barnes wide open for three in the corner. He sunk it and the Warriors emerged victorious, 108-105.
In terms of moral victories, this had to be one, right? Not so fast.
“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. “It’s sort of the beauty of the job that we have. You win and you lose. I kind of like that.”
“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.”
“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.” [CSNPhilly.com]
The fact that the Sixers even trailed by 13 in the fourth was a little confusing. The Warriors attempted just two free throws all game, turned it over 23 times to the Sixers 12 and scored a season-low 35 second half points.
“I guess you don’t need to take free throws when you shoot the ball as well as they do,” Smith said. “They shoot it really, really well. One time during the first half I didn’t think they were going to miss. It’s pretty special. They play with a rhythm and it’s not a surprise they are the champs.” [CSNPhilly.com]
While the Warriors didn't need free throws to beat the Sixers, the Sixers could have used their free throws to beat the Warriors. Philadelphia hit just 11 of their 21 shots from the line, including a combined 4-for-12 from Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor. Despite their issues from the line and the last-second loss, the young Sixers learned a lot from the game against a team that could go down as one of the best in NBA history.
“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.”
The Sixers return to action on the Wells Fargo Center floor against the Hawks on Wednesday night at 7PM. Earlier this season, the Hawks handed the Sixers a 28-point loss in Atlanta.
