Butler’s 53 Brings Bulls Back Against Sixers

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Chicago 115, Philadelphia 111 (OT) – Box Score

At first, it looked like Philadelphia fans would all but assured to be treated to a rare shooting star that is a Sixers victory. Ish Smith (8 assists) was setting everyone up with easy looks, Jahlil Okafor (12 points on 5-11 shooting) was hitting mid-range jumpers, Nik Stauskas (12 points, 3-5 from three) had the range from the outside, and the Sixers led by as many as 24 points in the first half. That advantage represented their largest lead of the season (previous largest was 17), and they would still hold a 16-point edge at halftime behind a season-high 62 first-half points.

The only reason Chicago was even still hanging around at that point was 25 first-half points from star shooting guard Jimmy Butler. Unfortunately for the Sixers, that was arguably not his best half. Butler kept the pressure on in the third quarter, and on the rare occasions he wasn’t scoring, Chicago would punish the Sixers on the offensive glass.

For the game, the Bulls out-rebounded the Sixers 53-34, and there was a point late in the third quarter where Chicago had more offensive rebounds than Philadelphia had defensive rebounds. Taj Gibson recorded 7 offensive boards on the night, while 5 of Joakim Noah’s game-high 16 rebounds came on the offensive end. The Sixers lead was cut to just 2 points heading into the final (or so we thought) quarter.

Then, the best sign for the Sixers all night was Robert Covington catching fire. RoCo finished with a team-high 25 points despite fouling out late in regulation, scoring 13 of 16 Sixers points early in the fourth to help them build back a bit of a lead. However, that’s when Butler went Super Saiyan, scoring or assisting on 13 Chicago points in a 4-minute period to bring the Bulls back into it.

Another late flurry from Jimmy Buckets pushed Chicago out in front, and it took some tremendous clutch outside shots from Ish Smith (24 points) to force overtime. Butler would end the night with a career-high 53 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals, making and attempting career-highs of 21 of 25 shots from the charity stripe.

In bonus basketball, the Sixers simply ran out of horses. The team was already without Jerami Grant on the night, Covington had fouled out, and then Stauskas bruised his shoulder early in overtime and couldn’t return. Brett Brown was forced to resort to JaKarr Sampson and Isaiah Canaan as part of a crunch-time line-up. With the Sixers double-teaming Butler at nearly every opportunity, E’Twuan Moore (14 points) would step up and hit some big shots to help put the game away.

All in all, it’s an extremely disappointing loss given the great start to the game. But there’s worse things than pushing a playoff-caliber team (albeit missing a couple starters) to the brink, and forcing Jimmy Butler to be up the type of numbers the Bulls franchise hasn’t seen since the days of Michael Jordan. Despite the loss, this was another step in the right direction for the Sixers.

Other Game Notes:

• Nerlens Noel was dealing with mild nausea, and literally ran off the court and into the locker room seconds before tip-off, something I had never seen before. He would shake whatever bug was bothering him to play 24 minutes, scoring 8 points, collecting 6 rebounds, and blocking 3 shots.
• Richaun Holmes finally got back on the court after being nailed to the pine for two contests. Still, he only saw less than three minutes, as the broadcast mentioned Brett Brown speaking to him about the ebbs and flows of the rotation throughout the season. Hopefully, the next flow giving Holmes more playing time comes pretty soon.