And that, by all accounts, is a good thing.

Even in the tensest, most nerve-wracking of moments during this improbable season, Maurice Cheeks has remained poised, patient and remarkably positive. Even as he settled into his seat at the podium after Wednesday night's crushing 105-88 loss to the Detroit Pistons, who outplayed his team in virtually every category, Cheeks smiled and said, "It wasn't as much fun tonight, was it?"

And then he told reporters at least some of what he had told his players - the better teams can ascend to new levels in the playoffs. For the most part, he has delivered his messages in measured tones, never saying a negative word about any of them for public consumption.

There were all sorts of negatives surrounding the Game 2 loss. The Sixers had been unable to handle the Pistons' traps of point guard Andre Miller. Andre Iguodala hadn't come remotely close to locating a comfort zone in the offense. The paint was packed with large Pistons bodies. The driving lanes were all but shut down.

Somehow, Cheeks hopes to convince his guys that things don't have to be the same way in Game 3 tonight at the Wachovia Center.

That's what he has been able to do all season. Even when the preseason predictions had the Sixers finishing dead last in the NBA East, when some people had them winning as few as 20 games, when they seemed hopelessly mired in the midst of an early seven-game losing streak, the coach offered seemingly endless rays of hope.

The result: a 40-victory season and a playoff berth for the first time in three seasons. By almost any reasonable measure, that has placed them well ahead of schedule.

But Cheeks is telling anyone who will listen that the Sixers' real challenge is to get to the competitive level of the Pistons. He told the players it was important to lose a playoff game, to withstand the blow and find a way to respond. His public message before Game 2: "We can't come in and stumble. We have to play equally as hard and do all the things we need to do to try and win this game, because [the Pistons] have the experience of going on the road and winning games. Any team that wins 59 games obviously just didn't win home games."

The message to the players was likely more detailed and personally framed. Late last season, assistant Jim Lynam, a former head coach and general manager in the league and an assistant to Cheeks for three-plus seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers, described him as "having a little preacher in him."

"All I can tell you is, from the very beginning, all the way out in Portland, it was very evident to me," Lynam said. "It's a gift. He's a very positive person.

"It's easy to get down, particularly in his chair; the weight of the situation is usually on the head coach's shoulders. When things are going well, [that's] fine. When it's a struggle, not that the rest of the people involved don't feel a little down, but not to the degree of the head coach, who takes it personally.

"Somehow, he's always able to put aside the gloom. He says they're going to turn it around; he believes it, and he makes them believe it."

Cheeks can trade barbs and relieve tension with the best of them in the heat of a game. On the off days, he can be deadly serious and motivational, and at the same time he can create a relaxed atmosphere. In an informal conversation before practice the other day, the subject of difficult defensive assignments came up.

Cheeks mentioned having guarded the legendary George Gervin. Iguodala, just 23, innocently asked how good Gervin was. Senior adviser Sonny Hill immediately offered chapter and verse. Cheeks, known as an excellent defender in his prime, explained that he had guarded Gervin in an entire season.

"How'd you do?" Iguodala asked.

"I held him to about 35," Cheeks said.

Everybody laughed.

And then they went right back to work.

"It carries over," director of player personnel Courtney Witte said. "With other coaches who are more demonstrative, you might see those same outbursts from the players on the floor. At critical times, players look to their coach, and when our players look to Mo, they see a strong, confident person."

Cheeks interacts frequently with the fans closest to him, whether at home or on the road. But in the confines of the team's inner sanctum, he says what needs to be said.

"He got into us at halftime [of Game 1] Sunday," Iguodala said. "But that's just him. I try to tell some of the younger guys, 'You don't know how good you have it with somebody who doesn't really scream and yell.' He lets you get away with mistakes other coaches wouldn't live with.

"He doesn't put any pressure on us. Some coaches who scream and yell too much, they want you to be so perfect that you're playing not to mess up. We're playing loose; we know the one thing we have to do is play hard. If you screw up, if something goes wrong, just keep playing. After a while, he'll tell you about the mistake you made and how to clean it up."

And that, again by all accounts, is a good thing. *