PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia 76ers fell to 0-2 after losing to two of the title contenders they're chasing. Now, the alarm bells are really ringing after losing 114-105 to the San Antonio Spurs in the third game of their season. It was a massive upset that the Spurs haven't seen since Gregg Popovich's first season. For Doc Rivers and the Sixers, it's the most disappointing loss in a season that has already gotten off on a horrible foot.

Joel Embiid dropped 40 points and looked truly dominant for the first time this season but it wasn't enough for the Sixers to take the win. After the game, Rivers dropped a shocking revelation about his squad after they fell to 0-3.

“We’re not ready to yet, honestly. We’re just not,” Rivers said of the Sixers. “We’re not ready to win yet. You can feel that. So, we got a lot of work to do. It was almost like we played these first two games hard, competed and then felt like, ‘Okay, now we can win some games.’ You still gotta go out and earn the game. [P.J. Tucker] was yelling that after the game and he was right…You can’t pick and choose when we're gonna show up.”

Rivers' statement is not condemnatory just of the players but of himself, too. Against a rebuilding Spurs team, the Sixers struggled to get easy looks on offense, didn't lean into transition despite some promising results, struggled to stop the ball and subsequently gave up a ton of good looks from deep. No amount of stellar Popovich coaching should allow that with such a profound gap in both talent and experience.

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Philadelphia's losses to the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks were rough yet understandable but Saturday's loss to the Spurs just isn't in any way. The Sixers do have some key new faces but their core players had half a season to figure out how to play together on top of a full offseason. Tucker's stern message should serve as a wake-up call to the entire organization.

Rivers set out to instill some intensity and tenacity in the Sixers this season. So far, that mission has failed. There is a long season ahead but the early results have been shameful.