PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers were in the driver’s seat in their contest with the Golden State Warriors on Thursday. They jumped out to a 30-10 lead after the first quarter and the lead ballooned to as large as 24. The Sixers were moving the ball and the defense was stifling when considering they didn’t have to defend Stephen Curry for 48 minutes.

It looked like the Sixers were going to cruise to a win. However, as it happens so often in today’s NBA, no lead is ever safe. The Warriors found a rhythm and got to work as they began whittling the deficit down and eventually took the lead themselves and were in position to steal a win before the Sixers rallied and pulled out a 99-98 win thanks to the heroics of VJ Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey.

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With that being said, the blown lead is a problem. Coach Nick Nurse explained why Philadelphia wasn’t able to just cruise after his team pulled out a tougher than it should have been win.

“It was a few things,” Nurse said after the win. “I think that we had a little bit of funky rhythm just with the rotations and stuff tonight. I think a couple guys were just a little bit out of whack with that. I thought we committed a ton of turnovers. We had about three or four in a row that were just, they were really easy passes that didn’t even come close. Then we got tied up a couple times and lost both those jumps. So, there’s another couple turnovers. I don’t know how many turnovers we had in the first half, but it seemed like that 19 number there (Philadelphia’s total turnovers), it seemed like a lot of it was in the second half. So, that’s the biggest thing. That just got them going.”

The Warriors are a team that is looking to run and get out in transition as quickly as possible. When considering the fact that they didn’t have Curry or Jimmy Butler III, that was their best offense. Golden State had to create turnovers and push the ball in order to get any rhythm. Philadelphia had 13 in the second half which allowed the Warriors to creep back.

“They got in the bonus super early in the third,” Nurse added. “That helped them. Then, I didn’t think they were going to miss shots all night long, right? I think they got some rhythm. They really started—forced us to get into a switching game, which, looking back on it, I’m not sure we were doing the right thing there, but they were switching and sprinting (Quinten) Post into the block, and they really had a rhythm of what they were doing versus the switching. I thought we gave up the rim quite a bit in that bad stretch, too. That’s a lot of stuff.”

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As mentioned above, these games happen often in today’s NBA as there really isn’t a safe lead. Teams play too fast, they hoist up a bunch of 3s, and it allows them to get back into games that were originally thought to be over. Nurse isn’t going to apologize at all for his team picking up a win.

“I know you guys, like, you watch a lot of games, and there’s a lot of games going on like this in the league,” Nurse stated. “Like, a lot. Like, they were just in another one the other night where they were down 24 came back against OKC, took the lead. Just flip the channels, and you’re gonna see this is. The pace is so high, the 3-balls are going up, the offensive rebounding so high, defensive pressure is gone all the way up. Like, it’s happening. So, you know what? Absolutely congratulate them. A win is a win. You move on and try to get the next one.”

The Sixers will take on the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday on the second night of a back-to-back.

This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Nick Nurse addresses blown lead, defends 76ers after win over Warriors