Loss to Warriors Leaves Brown Thinking, ‘What's It Take to Win a Championship?'

The Golden State Warriors are the definition of the new NBA.

They have multiple superstars, play a fast-paced and free-flowing style, defend well and shoot a lot of three-pointers. They make a lot of those threes too.

Every team outside of Cleveland would love to have the components of their roster (the Cavaliers probably wish they had some of those pieces as well).

Count Sixers head coach Brett Brown among the admirers.

"For them to rank No. 1 in so many offensive and defensive areas -- and you should probably hear that louder than the offense because that's what we all think when we think of the Golden State Warriors' roster -- is just daunting," Brown said. "You pick your poison and you try to find ways that you think can put you in the best position to go steal a win and it's hard to find an area of weakness. They really hit both sides of the box offense and defense."

That was before the Warriors flexed their defensive muscle. After Golden State limited the Sixers to 45.7 percent shooting from the field, 29.4 percent shooting from three-point range and forced them into 23 turnovers on Monday night, Brown had even more appreciation for the NBA's best team.

Philadelphia 76ers

Complete coverage of the Philadelphia 76ers and their rivals in the NBA from NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Joel Embiid to join Sixers on road for their two-game trip

Harden effusive in praising Maxey, very brief on Morey and Embiid 

"I felt the most obvious thing, to me sitting there coaching against it in relation to how good they are, was the defense and that they can switch everything," Brown said after the Sixers' 119-108 loss (see Instant Replay). "They're all so long and they can just switch stuff so that the game is always in front of them. They don't scramble much. They're not in rotation much. You coach against that during the game in real time, I felt that more than I did their offensive brilliance."

Still, even Brown admitted the new-age NBA is all about offense and the Warriors have it in bunches. Despite struggling with their shooting all game (44.9 percent from the field, 20.7 percent from three), the Dubs got enough scoring when they needed it against the Sixers. That was mainly provided in the form of former league MVP Kevin Durant, who had a game-high 27 points.

"They get another really amazing ingredient. They just go up another level," Brown said of the Warriors' addition of Durant. "It's just adding to something that they were great at to begin with."

"It's scary to think they can shoot much better," T.J. McConnell said.

The Sixers don't have anywhere close to that level of firepower offensively. For them to compete against the NBA's juggernauts, they need to play fast and share the ball -- a couple of the things they can realistically borrow from the Warriors.

"We kind of try to model our team after how they move the ball, how they play together and not have too much isolation ball," Jahlil Okafor said of the Sixers, who had 24 assists on 37 made field goals. "They're one of the best teams in the league at sharing the ball and they showed that tonight."

They sure did. Golden State assisted on 31 of its 40 made field goals. 

Combine that with a breakneck pace, and it's just two of the ingredients that make the Warriors so special. 

Brown feels like he is starting to get that mentality with his Sixers. The team has progressed in both areas as the season has progressed and its now fifth in the league in pace with 100.8 possessions per game and ninth in assists a night with 23.6.

"The two things that stand out most to me that we have spent time on is we're No. 1 in the NBA when we turn people over and we run out of it," the coach said. "Our pace has been excellent. I'm proud of the improved pace. I hope that when you have a coach and a sports science program that comes in from Day 1, and we've talked about this, where we said, 'You're going to be in the best shape of your life, you're going to be in career-best fitness.' The quick sentence after that is the reward is we're going to run. You can't say then that we're going to walk it up the floor. That's not who we are. Our pace has been relentless lately. We're proud of our pace. 

"We are No. 2 in the NBA on assist percentage, where we really pass the ball. If you look and judge how we score, it's not like we give it to T.J. and watch him break everybody down and go to work. We need collectively to move the ball. If we don't have that team stuff, we don't have what lots of NBA teams have -- the iso guys, the NBA All-Stars, somebody that can create their own shot -- it's just not who we are. Not one of them, especially when you start taking out Joel (Embiid). The pace of which we do things on offense and the fact that we share the ball, we move each other, we move the gym, those things are all we have to get those 100-plus points."

The Sixers reached the 100-point mark but still suffered a loss because they don't have the requisite stars to take over when things bog down. With Embiid and No. 1 overall pick Ben Simmons both on the shelf (see story), Brown can only dream about when he'll have topflight talent to take the Sixers' scheme to the next level.

"In different weak moments, you get a little bit frustrated," Brown said. "But when you really sort of look at your purpose of trying to take some punches and hits in order to move the program forward -- I'm not 30 years old -- I'm fine. I really believe in what we're doing and that the more this thing shakes out and plays out, I believe it more and more. I think we're starting to build a culture and we're starting to build an attitude and a system behind the scenes that can absorb talent, that can absorb high draft picks and healthy Ben Simmons and healthy Joel Embiids."

For now, Brown will have to settle for seeing that top tier of basketball from afar. And as far as he's concerned, he just witnessed the best in the business (see story).

"What's it take to win a championship? That's all I think about," Brown said of what he learns from watching elite teams like the Warriors. "What's it really take? How do you beat that team four times? What's it really take? What's the future of our game? What's it look like in 2020, 2025? We've talked about this. Personally, I see it. I think, clearly, I could be wrong. You're seeing a bunch of do-all players that are long and can switch out on everything and shoot a lot of threes, play with speed, tenacity. They don't miss a beat. There's not really a weakness here.

"As you're looking at it, you're looking at what's it take to beat them? We've had heavyweights come into this building from San Antonio to Cleveland to teams in the East with the Celtics and Toronto. That's a different beast."

"You project it out. You wonder, 'How do you get to that level? Who do we have we think that can play in that game? What do you feel like you need to draft and grow? What do you need to go purchase -- free agent.' All that. That's all you think about. That's the holy grail, what they have. That is the king, in my opinion, in our league as we speak, so you're always wondering how does that work for us?"

Copyright CSNPhily
Contact Us