By Michael Doutey
The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 122-112 Sunday evening inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena. This is an impressive win for OKC given that they were on the second night of a back-to-back and having lost Andre Roberson for the season the night before. With all that, OKC played a very physical game and took the fight to the 76ers. The Thunder used a little energy boost in the third quarter from Russell Westbrook and the Thunder fed off the energy of the crowd to bring in their eighth straight win. Here are tonight’s five observations from an impressive Thunder win.
1. Russ’ Huge Second Half
The Thunder limped into the second half. The team was engaged in the game, but the Thunder looked like they had heavy legs. Shots were falling short and the 76ers took control of the game. Russ in particular struggled with his shot in the opening half, scoring 14 points on an ugly 6-20 shooting. Then the third quarter began and Russell found his second wind. He was fantastic in the second half, scoring 23 points on 8-13 shooting and dished out nine assists. Russ was everywhere. Russ and Steven Adams really got the two-man game going in the fourth, Russ had 12 of his 37 points in the final frame and Adams scored 10 of his 20 points in the fourth. Russ’ energy really fueled the Thunder in the second half. To go along with the 37 points, he grabbed nine rebounds and had 14 assists.
2. Adams Wore Down Embiid
Steven Adams was a monster tonight. Adams typically has lower numbers on the second night of back-to-backs. But tonight, Adams scored 20 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, which 10 of those 13 were on the offensive glass. That is completely insane to have that many offensive rebounds. But even though Joel Embiid scored 27 points, I thought Adams did a great job on defense. Embiid only scored 10 points in the second half and it appeared Adams wore him down as the game went along. Adams never ran out of gas and that is why OKC was able to run the pick-and-roll between Adams and Russell so successfully. Embiid couldn’t keep up and Adams was open for easy alley-oop dunks.
3. Paul George Was Excellent
PG had another great game. He got off to a nice start, scoring 30 points through the first three quarters. In the first half he was the only reason OKC was in the game. He scored 17 first half points to keep OKC afloat. He also flashed great defense in the second half, as he had four total steals the lead to fast break points. Paul did a great job on offense and he did a really good job on defense when OKC needed it most.
4. Jerami Grant’s Strong Night
The bench unit as a whole was not very good. The Thunder gave up leads once the starters went to the bench. In the blink of an eye the Thunder’s nine point lead going into the fourth quarter was gone. But Grant did have a nice night and he was the one who closed the game with the the Big Four. Grant scored 11 points for OKC and he did well closing in the fourth quarter. Grant might be called upon more down the stretch as OKC figures out their lineups without Roberson.
5. Rotations Without Roberson
The Thunder find themselves in an interesting position now without Andre Roberson. You have Dre’s mini-me in Terrance Ferguson, but he isn’t ready to fill half of Dre’s shoes yet. So, OKC will have to turn somewhere else to close games out. Ferguson will get his chances, but it will be more situationally. So, OKC might be looking for something else. Tonight, it was Grant who got the nod and the that group did a really good job. But I think an option to consider would be Russ, PG as the two-guard, Melo at the three, Patrick Patterson at the four and round out that lineup with Adams. I think the defense would be decent and the offense will be good still. Grant did a nice job tonight, but I think that lineup with Patterson in with the starters will end up being the best option. We’ll see what Billy Donovan will do, but he does have a couple options to consider.
The Thunder now move to 30-20 on the season and will fly out tomorrow to Washington D.C. to take on the Wizards on Tuesday night. Tip time is set for 6 p.m. inside the Capital One Arena.
