The Philadelphia 76ers went blow for blow against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but at the very end, they couldn’t come away with a win. This was a clash of defensive oriented teams with multiple All-Stars. It was like two heavy weight boxers trading blow for blow until the final buzzer sounded. Sadly at the end of the day, the Philadelphia 76ers star, Jimmy Butler, failed to hit a game winning 3-pointer in the final second and the Sixers lost 115-117. Prior to Butler missing the game winning shot, Philly went back and forth with the Thunder scoring more in the first and third quarters while the Sixers scored more in the second and fourth quarters. Both teams went on runs and the Sixers had a sequence of plays that actually had the team up by two points with less than 10 seconds to go in the fourth. However, Paul George hit a 3-pointer while getting fouled by Butler and converted the four-point-play, which sealed the deal. The Sixers didn’t help themselves through the game. The team shot 34.4 percent from downtown and turned the ball over 17 times. However, considering how good the Thunder are on defense, it’s no surprise that the Sixers struggled with turnovers. Their defensive rotations caused both Ben Simmons and Butler to struggle in different ways. Outside of rookies Landry Shamet and Jonah Bolden, the bench unit struggled to produce. T.J. McConnell and Mike Muscala shot a combined 3-10 from the floor. Despite all the struggles, the Sixers were still in the game at the very end, impart thanks to the efforts of Joel Embiid and J.J. Redick. JIMMY BUTLER SF, Philadelphia 76ers B- 38 mins | 18 pts | 3 reb | 4 ast | 2 stl | 2 blk | 1 TO | 5-18 FG | 1-6 3PT| 7-8 FT | 2 PF | -6 | Now the “B-” grade may seem generous to some, but Butler made several clutch plays that gave the Sixers the chance to win in the fourth. He got a layup against Grant and hit his only 3-pointer late in the fourth. He also stole the pass from Schroder and got the dunk for the Sixers to take a 115-113 lead under a minute. In the end, he fouled George on the 3-point that gave the Thunder the lead. Butler’s overall stats were poor,; he tried his best to win for the Sixers at the end of the game. BEN SIMMONS PG, Philadelphia 76ers B 36 mins | 20 pts | 15 reb | 9 ast | 0 stl | 1 blk | 6 TO | 8-12 FG | 0-0 3PT| 4-8 FT | 3 PF | -7 | There’s no doubt that the turnovers plagued Ben Simmons this game. Westbrook picked his pocket a few times and the Thunder, overall, did a good job forcing the ball lose from Simmons’ hands. On the positive side, Simmons attacked the offensive boards and ended with six offensive rebounds along with several put back slams. JOEL EMBIID C, Philadelphia 76ers B+ 34 mins | 31 pts | 8 reb | 6 ast | 0 stl | 1 blk | 3 TO | 11-19 FG | 1-5 3PT| 8-12 FT | 3 PF | +15 | The biggest thing that Embiid failed to do was keep Adams off the offensive glass. Adams ended the game with seven offensive rebounds. Granted the Sixers big man is still dealing with a bad back, it’s understandable if he didn’t want to bang with a hulk like Adams in the paint. Outside the rebounding, Embiid played extremely well and even shot three free throws after being fouled by Westbrook late in the fourth. It helped tie the game at 113 a piece. bad back, it’s understandable if he didn’t want to bang with a hulk like Adams in the paint. Outside the rebounding, Embiid played extremely well and even shot three free throws after being fouled by Westbrook late in the fourth. It helped tie the game at 113 a piece." > J.J. REDICK SG, Philadelphia 76ers A- 33 mins | 22 pts | 2 reb | 1 ast | 1 stl | 0 blk | 2 TO | 6-13 FG | 4-10 3PT| 6-7 FT | 0 PF | +0 | The Sixers couldn’t have had asked for Redick to do much more. He shot well from all over the floor and minimized his turnovers. The veteran was his team’s second leading scorer behind Embiid. Overall he did his job perfectly, it just didn’t result in a win. Wilson Chandler struggled on both ends of the floor. Don’t let the two blocks and one steal fool you, George took advantage of his matchup against Chandler. The offense wasn’t there either. Chandler ended with four points on 1-4 shooting from downtown. The Sixers played decent defense, but it only took one of the Thunders top four offensive weapons to get hot for a stretch. Sometimes, the Thunder relied on George, like at the end of the game. Other times they would rely on Russell Westbrook or Dennis Schroder. It was just enough to beat the Sixers. This game was also a reunion of sorts with the Thunder having three former Sixers player. Jerami Grant is now starting for the Thunder and is having a career year. Nerlens Noel is a solid backup for Steven Adams and while Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot isn’t getting regular playing time, he’s important for the Thunder’s depth. Hopefully, the Philadelphia 76ers can take this loss as a lesson and learn from it, like Simmons suggested after the game according to Serena Winters of NBCSPhilly. It’s doubtful that Butler’s gonna have a lot of bad shooting performances like the one he had against the Thunder. Close loses like these usually make or break a team and hopefully, it will help build the Sixers for the upcoming playoffs.<doc-sep>The OKC Thunder captured arguably their most important victory of the season besting the Portland Trail Blazers. Player grades offer the tale of the win. The past few seasons the Portland Trail Blazers have owned the OKC Thunder. This season clearly there was a mandate by the Thunder to reverse this dynamic. Earlier this season the Thunder marched into the Moda Center and captured their first win at the Moda Center since February of 2014. OKC continued this mindset back home at the Chesapeake, still cognizant the Blazers owned a 9-3 record against them the last three seasons. Despite C.J. McCollum going off in the third quarter this game never seemed to be in doubt. Every time the Blazers cut the lead the Thunder would increase their defensive intensity and pull away again. By night’s end, the Thunder captured an easy victory and with two games left to play against Portland this season OKC need to win just once to own the tiebreaker at season end. Entering the day the Blazers had won nine of their 12 games and were in a virtual tie for third with OKC. This win was as close to a statement win as the Thunder have served up this season and the confidence exuding from the squad was palpable. To wit, the Thunder seemingly is buying into believing they can kick their defense into gear at any given moment to stop their opponent which occurred on several key moments in this match. Furthermore, the team also seems to have bought into believing they can hit their shots as several players not named Russell Westbrook or Paul George are hitting shots with regularity and efficiency. With the schedule taking a turn to the most difficult segment, this new found mindset couldn’t come at a better time! With that let’s examine how each OKC Thunder player performed.<doc-sep>The OKC Thunder got caught in a trap game allowing the LA Lakers to defeat them without LeBron James playing. In truth, the headline is a little misleading because this game had ebbs and flows and was about the most uneven game of the season. OKC jumped out to an early 17 point lead and looked like they were headed for an easy victory. Lakers head coach Luke Walton responded by removing his starters who had a lackadaisical start and inserted his bench and they delivered – big time. By the half, the Lakers had captured the lead after a 40 point second quarter for a 67-64 edge. Moreover, the Lakers bench unit held a 30-7 scoring edge at this stage of the game. Los Angeles Lakers 138 Oklahoma City Thunder 128 Without LeBron, this Lakers squad is not a team who OKC should’ve had problems containing. Especially given the Lakers starters struggled mightily early in the match. But, they let their foot off the gas, gave LA hope and then it was a dog fight. More concerning is this is the fourth loss in five games for the OKC Thunder and three of those losses are against sub .500 teams. In those four losses, the Thunder defense has disappeared allowing an average of 128.7 points. YIKES! Despite entering the match with the 30th ranked perimeter efficiency the Thunder were hot all night from deep including the Brodie who as we know hasn’t been successful in his shooting efficiency on any area of the court this season but in particular from deep. Unfortunately, when those shots are falling the tendency is for players to keep jacking 3-balls and that’s what the Thunder did. In essence, OKC played right into Luke Walton’s game plan and stopped driving the paint – an area the Thunder tend to dominate. Incredibly OKC is still clinging to the third seed, but clearly, it’s time to go back to the drawing board defensively with a slew of good teams in the queue and the hardest schedule remaining of all NBA teams. Let’s take a look at the grades.<doc-sep>
The OKC Thunder won a wild afternoon game against a very formidable Philadelphia 76ers team, getting them back to their winning ways Having lost 5 of 6 games coming into today, the OKC Thunder simply needed to win this game. Thankfully for them, and despite an almost monumental collapse, Paul George converted a go-ahead 4-point play with 5 seconds left to lift his team to victory. What a game, and what a shot for a team that desperately needed to have this one. These two teams seem to play an instant classic any time they share the same court. Today was no exception as it was a back and forth battle all afternoon. The Thunder jumped out to a 16 point lead, only to see the Sixers close to within three at the halftime break. The second half was one for the books as it was fueled by runs and huge plays by both sides. Russell Westbrook fouled out on a late Joel Embiid 3-point attempt that tied the game with under 20 seconds to go. Then, horrifically, Dennis Schroder took the inbounds pass and turned it right over to Jimmy Butler that put Philly up 2 with 9 seconds left. Oklahoma City Thunder 117 Philadelphia 76ers 115 Staring another humiliating defeat square in the eyes, the OKC Thunder turned to the guy that has brought it all season long. Paul George took a Ferguson inbounds pass and splashed a beautiful 3-pointer as he was being fouled by Butler to silence the 76ers crowd for good. It was simply his biggest shot in a season full of them up to this point. The win does not come without concern, however. Too many times the OKC Thunder offense stalled for long stretches of minutes. Also, what in the world is up with Russell Westbrook? His game just seems off and he was nearly off the rails all game today. He needs to be better for his team going forward. With that said, that was an exciting but tense way to end the Thunder’s losing stretch. Let’s move on to our player grades.