Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers did not hide his frustration with certain elements of his team's play despite beating the Portland Trail Blazers 105-95 on Thursday.
The Sixers made it four wins on the bounce, all of which have been on the road, with Joel Embiid and James Harden playing key roles.
Embiid's 32 points made it the seventh game in a row he has reached at least 30, while Harden posted a triple-double of 16 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds.
The Sixers looked to be coasting at one stage, finding themselves 26 points to the good, but the Trail Blazers made life a little trickier towards the end.
Rivers' team got the job done as they improved to 29-16 in the East, behind only the Boston Celtic and Milwaukee Bucks, though he was certainly not completely satisfied.
He was particularly irritated by the Sixers' poor handling of the Trail Blazers' trapping, and he was not impressed by how spread out his players were.
Asked how they coped with respect to trapping, Rivers said: "Poorly, but we also took advantage of some of it as well.
"I didn't think trapping was that hard, our spacing was horrendous, and we're great at spacing most nights, but tonight we kept leaving two guys on the other end.
"I'm hoarse from yelling, just getting one to cut through and we basically didn't do it. We got away with three or four more than I thought they could've had. But that's easy to fix."
In letting Portland back into the contest somewhat in the second half, Rivers felt there was a hint of complacency in the Sixers' performance.
As such, he surmised they are still not at a stage where they can consider themselves anything more than a "good" team.
He added: "There's no lesson, the lesson is execute. I just thought we didn't.
"You get leads sometimes and they're hard, NBA leads shrink quickly and then you get complacent, and I think we did a little bit of that.
"But in that, one thing I like is we kept playing defense, and that's a good sign.
"I think we're good, and I think we can be really, really good. But we have work to do.
"We can't expect to come in and just show up and win, we have to go out and do something about it."
Nevertheless, with the likes of Embiid and Harden in their arsenal, the Sixers have the kind of star quality that can drag them through the mud even when they are not at their optimal level as a unit.
That is not lost on Embiid.
"I think from the beginning it was easy," he said of linking up with Harden, who joined from the Brooklyn Nets last February.
"When you've got two guys with high basketball IQs, you can figure it out everything easy.
"So, it's all about just playing off of each other. We've been doing a wonderful job of doing that."
Westbrook joins Denver Nuggets on two-year contract
Russell Westbrook has joined the Denver Nuggets on a two-year contract containing a player option for 2025-26.
Earlier this month, Westbrook was traded from the Los Angeles Clippers to the Utah Jazz, who reached a contract buyout agreement with the point guard.
Westbrook had long been expected to move on to Denver, with Utah receiving a series of second-round draft picks from the Clippers to facilitate the move.
On Friday, Westbrook was in Denver to put pen to paper on his deal, with his agent Jeff Schwartz confirming the length and terms of his contract to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
The team subsequently announced the arrival of the 35-year-old on social media, with the Nuggets becoming his sixth team in the last seven years.
Westbrook will earn an estimated $6.8million with the Nuggets, who lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves in last season's Western Conference semifinals.
In 2023-24 for the Clippers, he averaged career lows of 11.1 points and 4.5 assists with 5 boards.
He came off the bench in 57 of the 68 games he played, shooting 27.3 per cent from 3-point range – the second-lowest mark among the 226 players with at least 150 attempts from beyond the arc.
However, Denver believe the 2016-17 NBA MVP can still provide depth and ease the load on reigning MVP Nikola Jokic, who was named the league's best player for a third time in 2023-24.
Kerr demands improvements from Team USA as Olympic opener looms
United States coach Steve Kerr wants to see higher levels of intensity from his team as their Olympics campaign approaches.
Kerr was unhappy with the lacklustre displays from his side in their warm-ups against Germany and South Sudan.
Germany led 71-68 at the end of the third quarter before LeBron James conjured up 11 points in the final four minutes to give the USA a 92-88 win, while South Sudan were 20 seconds away from pulling off one of the biggest shocks in basketball history, before eventually falling to a 101-100 loss.
The USA face a dangerous Serbia side featuring reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic on Sunday, and Kerr is adamant that improvements are required if they are to win a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal.
He said: "It's got to be 40 minutes of force and attention and focus, and we can't let teams outplay us effort and energy-wise like we did the other night against Germany, like we did against South Sudan.
“We have another level. I think we have another two levels that we can get to, but it's a collaboration, always.
"We can show them, 'Let's do this, let's do that. Let's learn personnel.'
"We got to know the shooters, know the non-shooters, all that stuff. So that's where we can help them. Where they can help themselves is just effort and energy play after play, after play. This is different."
Kerr is a four-time NBA champion as a coach, and was part of the triumphant Olympics team in Tokyo in 2021, but the Golden State Warriors boss knows the experience of the Games will only be enhanced if the USA were to come out on top again.
"This should be one of the great experiences of our lives. But the best way to make it an incredible experience is to win a gold medal," he said.
After facing Serbia, the USA will once again go up against South Sudan, this time in a competitive format, before ending the group stage with a match against Puerto Rico.
Durant warns Team USA 'everybody is a contender' in Olympic basketball tournament
Kevin Durant has warned Team USA they will not have an easy ride through the basketball tournament at the Paris Olympic Games, declaring: "Everybody is a contender".
The United States will go in search of a fifth straight men's basketball gold in the French capital, where they open their Group C campaign against Serbia on Sunday.
After that meeting with Nikola Jokic and company, the star-studded USA team featuring Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid and a host of other NBA stars take on South Sudan and Puerto Rico.
With Steve Kerr having so much talent at his disposal, the roster has been compared to that of the 1992 'Dream Team', who took gold in Barcelona behind the efforts of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen and other great names.
However, at a press conference ahead of Team USA's 2024 opener, Curry reminded reporters that the class of 1992 only faced nine other active NBA players.
Durant is expecting a much tougher assignment this year, responding to Curry by saying: "Everybody is a contender. Everyone is here for a reason.
"We're playing against 65 or 64 NBA players in Paris. So you know they're the best in the world."
Asked to identify the main players to watch from other nations, the Phoenix Suns forward said: "Giannis [Antetokounmpo] or Jokic."
While Durant adopted a cautious tone, Golden State Warriors star Curry was more bullish regarding the USA's gold medal hopes.
Quizzed on who he was most excited about facing, Curry simply said: "Whoever's in the gold medal game."
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