FORGET ABOUT what the numbers say, even the ones in the win-loss column. The Sixers might not be a better team than they were last season - and plenty will make the case that they are considerably worse - but they are a better team to watch. There is talent here, and while there is not nearly enough of it to put together four quarters of basketball against a team led by the best player in the world (even when said player appears to be operating at three-quarters' speed), there is more than enough to hold your interest.
The Sixers did not win Monday night, and for extended stretches of the second half, they played quite poorly, thereby living down to the expectations set for them at the start of the season.