Brett Brown has been to the NBA mountain top before. Before becoming the Philadelphia 76ers head coach, he was on staff with the San Antonio Spurs for four of the team's five championships during the Tim Duncan era. As a result, he's better equipped than anyone with the Sixers to know what it takes to win a title, which is exactly why he's not celebrating Philadelphia's current state of play.

Asked what it means for the Sixers to be just 10 wins removed from hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy, Brown made it clear Philadelphia, while proud of what it's accomplished to this point, still has much work to do before reaching its utmost goal.

“Yet so far away. You could have said 100 games and it would have felt the same as 10,” he said, per Tom Moore of the Bucks County Courier Times. “Being the last man standing, and I've been able to be a part of that four times, is amazingly difficult. It is really, really hard, and that's why we do our job. To the point of where we were and where we are, it's stuff that you're proud of, it's stuff that we've all had to endure.”

When Joel Embiid plays how he did in Game 3 and receives strong support two-support for his teammates, the Sixers will be very, very hard to beat – not just for the Toronto Raptors, but any team they could potentially face on the path to a title.

It's prudent of Brown to preach patience. But with Philadelphia suddenly taking a commanding 2-1 lead over the Raptors in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, and Pascal Siakam doubtful for Sunday's Game 4, it seems more likely than ever his team may get the chance to play for a championship.