By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)
Philadelphia 114, Portland 89 – Box Score
Best game of the season? Best game of the season. Saturday night’s contest had it all for Sixers fans: dominating performances from the young guys, major celebrity sightings, and the team’s first double-digit victory in exactly a year (the last one coming January 16th, 2015). One game after its 24-point lead unravel against the Bulls, Philadelphia took no chances this time around in a true wire-to-wire dominanation of Portland.
Rookie Jahlil Okafor got the party started for the Sixers, hitting his first 7 shots of the game and scoring 17 points in the first quarter alone. Not only did he tie the Blazers by himself in points for the period, but it was the first time a rookie scored 17 points in any quarter this season. Big Jah would finish with 25 points on 12-16 shooting and 10 rebounds, as he’s now shooting 61.9% from the field in 8 January games.
Of course, as good as Okafor was, in a game the Sixers won by 25 and led by more than 30, it was more than a one-man show. I think we can officially put a tombstone up for Robert Covington’s slump, as RoCo went 4-10 from three to drop 16 points off the bench. Coming off his 25-point performance against Chicago, whatever demons were sapping Covington of his confidence for about a month starting in mid-December appear to have been exorcised.
The non-Okafor big men also had their way with the Portland front line, as Nerlens Noel dominated defensively with 4 blocks and 4 steals, and Richaun Holmes finally saw significant playing time again, scoring 17 points in 27 minutes. Holmes drew fouls around the basket (6-7 from the line), hit a three (!), and even had one of his better rebounding games of the season with 5 defensive boards. When the “Trust the Process” 30-for-30 comes out, why Brett Brown buried Holmes on the bench for three games will be an interesting sidebar.
With everything clicking for the Sixers, the Blazers had no chance on a night their two stars, Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, combined to shoot just 10-36 from the floor. All they could do was sit back and watch the show, just like celebrity couple Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill, who were courtside for the game and threw Sixers twitter and the announcing booth into a tizzy.
'@MeekMill & @NICKIMINAJ in the house for tonight's @Sixers game #LetsGoSixers pic.twitter.com/6oUOsPR4Lu
— Wells Fargo Center (@WellsFargoCtr) January 17, 2016
"I'll hold her popcorn." – Zumoff on Nicki Minaj #sixerstalk
— Michael K-B (@therealmikekb) January 17, 2016
There was a pink, sparkly hand mirror, Meek Mill buying Nicki cotton candy, all of which adds up to the fact that the Sixers are big time again, kids! Seriously though, the Sixers had been playing better ball of late, and it just hadn’t been enough against the string of the Eastern Conference’s best. It was good for them to have their efforts validated in a big way on the scoreboard Saturday night. Keep grabbing wins like this, and maybe celebrities sitting courtside won’t be such a rare occurrence.
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