By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)
They say all good things must eventually come to an end. Never has that axiom been more true than when the Sixers’ epic one-game winning streak (that had the city of Philadelphia flying high for the better part of two days) was finally halted by the Thunder on Friday evening. Two big runs doomed the Sixers throughout the game. A 12-0 surge spanning the end of the first and beginning of the second quarters helped OKC build their initial lead. Then, another 13-3 run by the Thunder coming out of the halftime locker room grew the lead to 20, and it looked like things might get out of hand.
However, these aren’t the winless Sixers anymore, and Brett Brown’s bunch fought back admirably throughout the second half, trimming the deficit to as little as 7 points in the closing minutes before the Thunder closed things out. A big part of that comeback was play of Robert Covington, who continues to look like manna from heaven for the shooting-deprived Sixers. The sharp-shooting forward hit 3 of 6 bombs from downtown to lead all Sixers in scoring with a career-high 21 points. When he shares the floor with a couple other Sixers who pose somewhat of a threat to hit an outside shot (i.e. K.J. McDaniels and Hollis Thompson), the spacing drastically improves and the offense begins to flow exponentially better.
The biggest beneficiary of that extra spacing has been point guard Michael Carter-Williams, who continued his solid play of late with 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 14 assists. Recently, when MCW has driven the lead, there have been less occasions where he’s swarmed by 4 defenders, because they opposing defense actually has to honor some of the guys on the perimeter. The extra room to operate allows Carter-Williams to either get off the floater in the lane he’s developing nicely, or find easier passing lanes to get solid looks for his teammates. This circumstance was always a big reason the tanking detractors thought it was foolish to not bring in at least a few quality free agents; it’s hard to evaluate the young players you do have when they have zero help around them.
Still, despite his strong play offensively, Michael Carter-Williams was outplayed by the man he was jawing with most of the evening, Russell Westbrook. With Kevin Durant on somewhat of a minutes restriction in his second game back from injury (and also clearly not looking like he’s back in game shape), it was the Westbrook show for most of the evening. The dynamic point guard recorded a game-high 27 points and 7 assists, as it was clear MCW and the rest of the Sixers defense were not ready to handle him in the pick-and-roll right from the opening tip.
The very first two possessions of the game set the tone. On the first play, Westbrook beat MCW, causing Mbah a Moute to help off Kevin Durant who Westbrook found for a wide-open three. Next time down, Westbrook easily got by MCW again, and Sims overhelped off the roll man and Westbrook fed Steven Adams for the easy slam. With the Sixers offense starting to perk up a bit, the next step in the evolution to actually beating better teams involves figuring out how to defend the pick-and-roll; the team is just nowhere near ready for that yet.
Coincidentally, both of these teams are playing the Pistons this weekend (the Sixers on Saturday and the Thunder on Sunday). They took planes out of the same airfield following the game and are staying at the same hotel in the Motor City. Hopefully, the Sixers didn’t get sucked into any late-night games of Boo-Ray with OKC back at the hotel room, because a contest against a struggling Pistons team represents one of their better chances to come away with Win #2.
Obligatory K.J. McDaniels highlight:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xz6UoxWLKk]
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