76ers 86ed
Thabo Sefolosha was back, and Andre Iguodala knew it: the Thabster, after missing the festivities in New Orleans, shadowed the Ig all night, holding him to a mere nine points. And that summed things up for Philadelphia well enough: Andre Miller and Thaddeus Young each snagged 20 points, but nobody else even hit double digits, and what’s more, the Sixers managed to miss ten of 25 free throws in the process of losing to the Thunder by an ignominious 89-74 count.
Weirdly, the Sixers went on a late-first quarter run to go up 24-18; but between the end of the first quarter and the start of the fourth, Philadelphia banked in a total of twenty-eight points, and never came close in the second half. Samuel Dalembert, by all accounts, has not been a happy man lately; he was not exactly jovial tonight, scoring exactly no points in 17 minutes. The Sixers shot 39.4 percent and rolled up only nine assists.
The Thunder, still missing Uncle Jeff and Kevin Delicious, are still acting like it doesn’t matter, with six players (out of eight) in double figures and Sefolosha right behind at nine; Nenad Krstić led the parade with 20. Another double-double for Nick Collison: 12 points and 11 boards. And once again, Malik Rose came up big, scoring 14 points and raking in 7 rebounds in 24 minutes. (Why was this man stuck on the Knicks’ bench? They gave him maybe 9 minutes a game; he’s getting twice that here in the Big Breezy.) The Thunder shot 47.9 percent, and 81 percent from the stripe. Treys were hard to come by on either side, though: OKC got two of eight, the Sixers three of 13.
So after beating no one in the East for the longest time, Oklahoma City is now doing slightly better against the Eastern Conference (7-17, .291) than against its brethren in the West (10-29, .256). Unfortunately, it’s time to head West again, and after those three games, there will be a visit from the Spurs. Let us pray (or something) for the speedy healing of Green and Durant.
