Towards a totally stacked Philadelphia lineup, the Thunder labored to assault the rim and hunt paint touches on every possession. The 76ers’ dimension on the defensive finish proved to be disruptive for the Thunder who fell behind huge within the third quarter after a Philly run fueled by turnovers.
Coming into Monday’s sport, the vast majority of the 76ers’ lineup was questionable for play. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault acknowledged pregame that if Philadelphia’s MVP contender Joel Embiid was part of the lineup, the sport would require sharp execution from OKC. Embiid began on Monday after lacking the earlier sport with shoulder soreness and the Thunder would have the chance to place its sharpness and execution to the take a look at on each ends of the ground.
It was a powerful offensive begin for each groups within the first 12 minutes of play. The Thunder attacked the paint on every possession, decided to not let the large, bodily Philadelphia protection dictate what it might do on the offensive finish. The aggressive assault led to a few early dunks from Moses Brown and 20 paint factors for the Thunder within the first quarter in contrast Philly’s 14. By finish of the body, OKC trailed 34-26.
“That’s just about the emphasis each sport. We need to contact the paint and be aggressive,” stated Thunder wing Kenrich Williams who scored six of his eight factors contained in the paint. “Philly has an amazing protection. They play nice protection. They’ve acquired a bunch of lengthy, prolonged defenders. They’ve acquired two strong huge males, so it sort of made it powerful for us tonight.”
Regardless of the looming 7-foot presence of Joel Embiid on the rim and the towering Dwight Howard off the bench, the Thunder remained aggressive in its assault, but it surely wasn’t simply the Thunder’s huge males contributing to the paint manufacturing. OKC’s level guards and slashers all confirmed fearlessness of their drives to the basket. Thunder guard Ty Jerome went an ideal 4-for-4 contained in the lane for eight factors whereas Darius Bazley logged 12 of his personal.
Nevertheless, the aggressive downhill assault wouldn’t be sufficient to overpower the multidimensional scoring efforts of Philly. Whereas the thunder held the slight 28-26 edge in paint factors within the first half, the 76ers shot 53 p.c from deep on 7-of-13 capturing as OKC made simply three triples over the primary two frames. Philadelphia, who ranks first within the league in share of factors from the free throw line, additionally benefitted from the free factors from Embiid who went 4-for-5 from the charity stripe within the first half.
Down 13 with simply 4.6 seconds left to go within the first half, the Thunder had the ball on the sidelines with a chance spark some momentum in its favor and to enter halftime with the wind at its again. On the inbounds cross, nevertheless, the lanky 76ers protection stymied the Thunder’s try at a play and as an alternative stole the cross, erupted down the ground as Ben Simmons slammed it residence to ship the margin to fifteen factors heading into halftime.
Philly carried over its momentum to the tune of an 11-2 run fueled primarily by run-outs off of Thunder turnovers. The third quarter noticed 10 turnovers by the Thunder that led to 17 factors on the opposite finish for Philly who ranks second in steals per sport and second in defensive ranking. By the tip of the evening, the 76ers compelled 30 turnovers by the Thunder which translated to 35 further factors on the opposite finish.
“On the finish of the day it is a good defensive staff. They’re sharp, they’re lengthy they usually’re athletic and also you’ve acquired to actually combat for each single little execution second that you may,” stated Daigneault. “We misplaced the combat on that exact play and it resulted in a run-out dunk. So it’s a superb alternative for us to study once we’re again in that scenario once more.”
“It’s a problem,” stated Thunder rookie Aleksej Pokuševski. “It’s simply going into the paint the place there are huge guys like Embiid and Ben Simmons, however it’s important to go aggressively with out making turnovers. So we simply gotta go in there and attempt to discover a higher answer.”
Whereas Philly’s protection brought about vital disruption to the Thunder’s offense, there was a play within the third quarter that demonstrated the outcomes of sharp execution and making the straightforward play. Within the backend of the third quarter, the ball zipped across the perimeter and touched the palms of each single participant in a Thunder uniform. The fast motion of the ball put the 76ers in a blender defensively. Because of this, Théo Maledon was left with a easy shot-fake learn within the nook that led to a 3-pointer on the finish of the shot clock.
“We simply want extra of these. We clearly turned it over a ton tonight. On that play specifically, it was six or seven actually, actually easy passes, and I simply thought we acquired a bit over-aggressive tonight towards their staff,” stated Daigneault. “Their size and their athleticism definitely bothers you once you try this and we paid the value tonight and it’s clearly a superb studying alternative for us.”
22
Factors for Ty Jerome. After logging two factors within the first quarter, the second-year guard operated at a excessive gear by the remaining three quarters beginning with a 10-point efficiency within the second body on the best way to 22 factors for the evening – one level shy of tying his profession excessive.
With 4 made 3-pointers, Ty logged his tenth sport for the Thunder this season with three or extra made 3-pointers and his fifth sport with 4 or extra. Even nonetheless, Jerome’s scoring stemmed from multiple supply as he went an ideal 4-for-4 within the paint and 2-for-2 from the free throw line.
“I believed he was good. He simply performed,” stated Daigneault. “The scoreboard didn’t influence his sport, he made the best performs, he took the best photographs, he competed defensively, I throw [Bazley] in that class as effectively. These are the 2 guys that basically stood out in that approach tonight. I used to be fairly impressed with simply the best way that they sort of stored their head by the ups and downs of the sport.”
“It doesn’t matter what the rating is, we as a bunch need to be certain we play the best approach end video games the best approach,” stated Jerome. “We all know the place we’re proper now it’s about getting higher on daily basis. In order a bunch, we simply need we simply need to preserve doing that.”
A few 3’s already tonight for @tyjerome_ , who has additionally scored on some fearless drives to the rim even within the face of Philly’s shot-blockers. Mark Daigneault says at apply Jerome is a “workhorse within the gymnasium, and guys like that, that’s the place they get their confidence.”
— Nick Gallo (@nickgallo22) April 27, 2023
“Proper now, that’s what we’re specializing in is how can we leverage the scenario, as uncomfortable because it is perhaps, into constructing a basis for this explicit cycle of the staff. We’re making an attempt to stay optimistic. We’re clearly shedding the video games, however there’s a whole lot of wins occurring behind the scenes. There’s a whole lot of developmental wins which can be occurring and that’s we’re going to deal with. We’re going to make use of these conditions to construct character and we’re going to make use of these conditions to see who’s with us in our locker room. We’ve been fairly impressed with how a younger group has been capable of deal with the adversities of the season, together with this explicit stretch.”
–Coach Daigneault
The Thunder should shortly put this one behind it and put together for a fast turnaround on the second evening of a back-to-back. The group will journey to Boston the place it should face yet one more high-caliber Japanese Convention foe headlined by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
“Get some relaxation tonight. It’s a brief flight and do the identical factor once more,” stated Jerome. “Come out, attempt to enhance on issues we are able to from tonight’s sport by watching the movie of final time we performed Boston. One other actually good high-level staff on the highway so must be one other good one.”
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