<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I GUESS IT DEPENDS on what your level of expectation for the Sixers was. If you thought that as the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference the Sixers had a legitimate chance of beating the reigning NBA champion Detroit Pistons, then yesterday's 97-92 overtime loss was simply a missed opportunity to even this series at 2-2 and roll into Michigan for tomorrow night's Game 5 full of confidence and momentum. And in the bottom-line analysis, that's exactly what happened. But if your expectations were a bit more realistic, and you understood the Pistons are the significantly better team and the most you could hope for was a respectable showing with an eye toward growing something for the future, you can't be crushed by what went down in the last two games at the Wachovia Center. Coming out of blowout losses in Games 1 and 2, the Sixers limped back to South Philadelphia inspiring little hope of anything but an ugly four-game sweep. Perhaps that's why only 15,894 fans showed up on a Sunday afternoon for a playoff game against the world champions with a coach who's become everything that Philadelphia loves to hate. You'd think the opportunity to boo Larry Brown in itself would've been good enough for 17,000 bodies. Look, I'm not big on moral victories, especially at the professional level when guys are being paid millions of dollars to perform. Still, there are times when fighting valiantly in the face of adversity means something; when refusing to roll over and die is important and when pushing the reigning champs to the edge is almost as good as a win.</div> Source
