Bephuddled in Philly
The Thunder were down two after one quarter, down four after two — and down nineteen after six minutes more. Sound familiar? But this time, there’d be no comeback to fall short at the end: it was a second-half blowout, and that was that. And Philadelphia’s Boo Birds, who had made a brief appearance in the first quarter, kept their cool as the 76ers methodically dispatched the visitors from Oklahoma City, 110-85.
The Sixers, now 5-5, dominated the boards: they had 58 rebounds, 19 offensive, and Samuel Dalembert had 16 all by himself, along with 13 points. Thaddeus Young, who had 25 points last night against Indiana, dropped in 23 more tonight. And Donyell Marshall, waived by the Thunder in the offseason, showed up for seven minutes, hitting two buckets, including a last-minute trey.
Robert Swift got into foul trouble early and was replaced by Johan Petro, who grabbed 12 boards and pulled off four steals. Jeff Green had another whiz-bang evening, with 21 points; unfortunately, the rest of the starters combined managed only 19, and Kevin Durant had 13 of those. The Thunder shot 39.5 percent from the floor, below their uninspiring average. It’s things like this which make you start to miss Chris Wilcox.
Three games at the Ford next week: the Rockets on Monday, the Clippers on Wednesday, and the Hornets on Friday, followed by a trip to New Orleans on Saturday. The high point of the week, I suspect, will be Loud City’s reception for the team that first made it famous.
