Ben Simmons tastes defeat and doesn’t like it

The Philadelphia 76ers suffered their first loss in more than a month and Ben Simmons was not happy about it.

Philadelphia 76ers' Ben Simmons battles for the ball against Miami in game two of their playoff series

The Philadelphia 76ers suffered their first loss in more than a month and Ben Simmons was not happy about it.

“I hate this feeling,” the 21-year-old Australian said in the 76ers’ locker room after the 17-game winning streak was snapped.

The Miami Heat aggressively went after Simmons and his 76ers teammates yesterday in Philadelphia to take game two of the NBA playoff series 113-103.

It was a turnaround from the 27-point shellacking the 76ers gave the Heat in game one on Sunday when Simmons was given space to run the floor and deliver precision passes to long-range shooters JJ Redick, Dario Saric, Ersan ­Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli.

The Heat halted that in game two by sending a rotation of ­defenders to get in Simmons’ face and harass his shooters.

The strategy rattled the 76ers, particularly in the second quarter when they scored just 13 points to the Heat’s 34.

“I thought the physicality of the game, I give them credit,” 76ers coach Brett Brown said. “They were bending us backwards.”

The 76ers were down 16 points late in the fourth quarter, but with Simmons, Saric, Ilyasova and ­Belinelli finding the basket they cut the Heat’s lead to two with four minutes to go.

Heat veteran Dwyane Wade came off the bench, steadied his squad and hit clutch baskets.

Simmons flirted with another triple-double with 24 points, eight assists and eight rebounds.

The 36-year-old Wade top-scored with 28 points and was ­impressed with the 21-year-old from Melbourne.

“That kid is not even a kid,” Wade said. “He’s a basketball player, man. He’s great. He does so many different things for his team.” Game three is on Friday at 9am (AEST) in Miami.

In Oakland, Australia’s Patty Mills scored 21 points but it was not enough as the San Antonio Spurs fell again to the reigning champion Golden State Warriors. The Warriors won 116-101 at ­Oracle Arena to take a 2-0 lead in the series with Kevin Durant leading the way with 32 points.

The Spurs took it to the Warriors early and led 53-47 at half-time.

“I think in the second-half we matched their defensive intensity,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.

Mills’ 21 points was a personal playoff record and a return to form. He was again given the difficult defensive task of guarding the taller Klay Thompson, who had 31 points, connecting on five of his eight three-point attempts.

AAP