By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)
Chicago 115, Philadelphia 96 – Box Score
The Sixers played their best half of the season Monday night. You may have only seen the final score and think such a statement is crazy. But for the first 24 minutes in Chicago, Philadelphia played better basketball than one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference and went into the locker room up 5 on the Bulls.
Philadelphia scored 37 points in the second quarter, bolstered by a quick 11-0 run to erase a 9-point Chicago lead early in the second quarter. Tony Wroten scored 9 straight points himself, as all 12 of his points came before halftime. Jahlil Okafor also had a huge half, recording 16 of his 22 points by intermission. The main thing keeping the Bulls hanging around was the outstanding play of Jimmy Butler, who was 8-9 from the field in the first half for 19 of his game-high 23 points.
Oh, but the second half. It was like all of the Sixers worst qualities condensed into a 24-minute sequence of futility. After just 2 turnovers in the first half, Philadelphia committed 9 in the third quarter alone, as Chicago outscored them by 22 points in the frame. A 12-1 Chicago run to start the fourth quarter, bolstered by two Nikola Mirotic threes (5-8 from distance on the game), put the game firmly out of reach.
The loss puts the Sixers at 1-25 on the season, which is a record only dreamed about in the theoretical sense when Dr. James Naismith first hung up the peach baskets. They’ll be back in action Wednesday night in Atlanta for the Malik Rose reunion special.
Other Game Notes:
- Getting the start for the corneally abrased (not words) Nerlens Noel, Jerami Grant showed off why he makes a much better power than small forward with a season-high 5 blocks. Grant also forced a couple other Bulls turnovers with just great positioning defensively, more than holding his own against the bigger Chicago front line. I’d say he’d be an amazing player if he could do more than dunk offensively, but that’d be like asking a fish to fly (flying fish excepted).
- Nik Stauskas once again had the worst +/- on the team at -31, despite looking okay when he’s out there. I’m going to have to do a deep dive pretty soon to look into what the trouble is for the team when Sauce Castillo is out on the floor.
- Robert Covington went 3-11 from three, hoisting several ill-advised shots in the process, some of which Brett Brown was visibly frustrated with from the sidelines. It has to be tough for RoCo as one of the few scoring options on a historically bad offensive team. He’s bound to try and force things. Still, you’d like to see better shot selection from him. We’ll let this one slide since it was his birthday near his hometown.
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