Speaker 1: It was spirited, it was entertaining, It was a fun watch.
Speaker 1: But much like the first round between the seventy Sixers
Speaker 1: and the Oklahoma City Thunder back in December, this one
Speaker 1: Tonight's in Oklahoma City at Chesapeake Energy Arena, ending in
Speaker 1: defeat for the seventy Sixers, one twenty two to one twelve.
Speaker 1: Brian Seltzer with you from Sixers dot com here on
Speaker 1: the postgame show. Coming up, We're gonna hear from Tom
Speaker 1: McGinnis in just a moment and play some of us
Speaker 1: highlight calls as well. Now, normally in this spot we
Speaker 1: would give you excerpts of some of the postgame press
Speaker 1: conference featuring the Sixers head coach Brett Brown. But the
Speaker 1: deal is that for all nationally televised games, which was
Speaker 1: the case tonight, we do not have the trustee NBC
Speaker 1: Sports Philadelphia postgame locker room feed which gives us Brett
Speaker 1: Brown's pressers, So we will not have that for you
Speaker 1: tonight with tonight's game being played on ESPN, so we
Speaker 1: apologize for that. Hopefully you were able to follow this game.
Speaker 1: It had a lot of noteworthy moments. I mean, there
Speaker 1: was the spirit, the physicality, the high intensity and big
Speaker 1: energy plays that we saw at the center in the
Speaker 1: triple overtime game back in the middle of December. Sixers
Speaker 1: positioned themselves well for this one. They had a pretty
Speaker 1: good first half, led by one at the break fifty
Speaker 1: eight fifty seven, and midway through the third you were
Speaker 1: looking at this game and you're like, Wow, the Sixers,
Speaker 1: what a great spot they're in. They led by as
Speaker 1: many as seven points in the game, in particular, going
Speaker 1: up seventy five to sixty eight on a Ben Simmons dunk,
Speaker 1: But after that the Thunders started to get back into it.
Speaker 1: Paul George was big in the first quarter, he was
Speaker 1: big in the third, and was key in igniting a
Speaker 1: run to the tune of twenty four to eight that
Speaker 1: the Thunder used to close out the third quarter. They
Speaker 1: led by nine going into the fourth. Sixers then responded
Speaker 1: by scoring ten out of the next twelve. But after
Speaker 1: that it was old Russell Westbrook and his big man
Speaker 1: partner in crime, Steven Adams, that saw the Thunder through
Speaker 1: to the finish line. That duo combined for twenty two
Speaker 1: of Oklahoma Cities thirty points in the fourth quarter. If
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, a big reason why the Thunder ended
Speaker 1: up on top one twenty two to one twelve. Another reason,
Speaker 1: unfortunately for the Sixers, the turnover issue returned and reared
Speaker 1: its ugly head once again. Sixers did a great job
Speaker 1: in Friday's win at San Antonio, limiting the cough Ups
Speaker 1: just ten in that game. Well, they had nine in
Speaker 1: the first half, which all things considered not great but
Speaker 1: not terrible. But then there were seven of them in
Speaker 1: the third quarter, which the Thunder converted into eleven points.
Speaker 1: And by the end of the game, the Sixers had
Speaker 1: eighteen turnovers in all compared to just ten for Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: and the Thunder had the advantage in points scored off
Speaker 1: of turnovers twenty five to eighteen. Joel Embiade with twenty
Speaker 1: seven and ten his twenty second double double of the season.
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons with some fantastic dunks much like him Bead
Speaker 1: He finished with twenty two points, four rebounds, seven assists.
Speaker 1: But it was Russell Westbrook with thirty seven points, fourteen assists,
Speaker 1: nine rebounds, Steven Adams twenty points, thirteen boards, ten offensive rebounds,
Speaker 1: and Paul George with thirty one that helped key the
Speaker 1: victory for the Thunder sixteen for Carmelo Anthony. He came
Speaker 1: up with a clutch shot in the fourth quarter late
Speaker 1: after the Sixers tied up the game at one oh one.
Speaker 1: With that, we head back to Chesapeake Energy Arena. Tom McGinnis,
Speaker 1: hopefully he has had an opportunity to catch his breath.
Speaker 1: This Tom, was a fun one tonight. But in games
Speaker 1: like this, you just feel, especially on the road in
Speaker 1: a hostile place like that, margin for error very slim.
Speaker 1: And you can trace it back to the third quarter,
Speaker 1: even though the Sixers got back into it late in
Speaker 1: the fourth. Absolutely, and like I said, going back to
Speaker 1: an early theme that I mentioned during the chorus of
Speaker 1: the call of the game, this is a tough place
Speaker 1: to play. As you just mentioned, it's so allowed, there's
Speaker 1: so good here. The Sixers haven't won here, and this
Speaker 1: was a huge test. This was a very physical game.
Speaker 1: I mean it was. There were so many guys got
Speaker 1: elbowed or you know, headbutted in the face or just
Speaker 1: left and right. Steven Adams kind of makes it that
Speaker 1: way because he's so physical. And then, like I said,
Speaker 1: the intensity with Westbrook against embiid everybody against Simmons and
Speaker 1: Simmons he's got that gear. You can tell, oh, you
Speaker 1: want to play that way, he's got that as well.
Speaker 1: And he's as good of an athlete as anybody. It was.
Speaker 1: It was a really hard, fun game. And then Brian
Speaker 1: to bear out your point again the third quarter, and
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta be honest. The Sixers did not
Speaker 1: handle that well. There were those were careless turnovers. They
Speaker 1: had eight in the first half, ten and the second half.
Speaker 1: Seven of those turnovers came in a pivotal run in
Speaker 1: the third quarter, right in that stretch where they scored
Speaker 1: twelve and then I believe fifteen in a row. The
Speaker 1: Sixers were up like seventy nine seventy four, and then
Speaker 1: Oklahoma led eighty nine seventy nine. So the Sixers somewhere
Speaker 1: like that a pivotal stretch. And then I thought the
Speaker 1: other defining moment was Westbrook with five points in a row,
Speaker 1: big three, two free throws, and he is if you're
Speaker 1: not ready, here he comes the phrase one man fast break.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's like a bazooka just blowing into the lane.
Speaker 1: And early on I thought that ankle tweaked for him.
Speaker 1: On one of the first sequences of the game, slowed
Speaker 1: him a little bit. That's when he started six of
Speaker 1: twenty from the field, but he ended up fourteen of
Speaker 1: thirty three. And their stars shone brightly George Adams, Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook and Anthony who had sixteen, and they were the
Speaker 1: winner tonight. And that's why Russell Westbrook as the thunder
Speaker 1: defeat these seventy six ers by ten one twenty two
Speaker 1: to one twelve. For people that like certain types of
Speaker 1: stats in terms of the way they file the game,
Speaker 1: they might make the point that for as much as
Speaker 1: Westbrook is used, he's not the most efficient players. I mean,
Speaker 1: we saw what his efficiency was in the first half.
Speaker 1: He ended up going fourteen to thirty three for the game.
Speaker 1: But I mean, for me, he is truly one of
Speaker 1: them or entertaining and compelling guys to watch. Because numbers wise,
Speaker 1: maybe it doesn't all even out in the most efficient ways,
Speaker 1: but as we saw tonight, he'll make winning plays. He
Speaker 1: can certainly take over a game, and it's just tough.
Speaker 1: The Sixers showed him crowds at times, but he still
Speaker 1: gets there and gets it done. Well, you're right, and
Speaker 1: he is. He has a combustible, combustible energy. Yes, it's
Speaker 1: percolating right at the cusp of possibly you know, boiling
Speaker 1: over the pot. If he will, and he uses that
Speaker 1: to his advantage. That's who he is. And you're right,
Speaker 1: he can kind of do some crazy basketball things out
Speaker 1: there that sort of take you out of things. But
Speaker 1: he's a he's a winning player, and he is just
Speaker 1: it's incredible. You watch him, and it is a fervent,
Speaker 1: ferocious approach. You watch him, he's yelling, he's just it's
Speaker 1: amazing that to bring that passion and energy to the
Speaker 1: table second night of a back to back every single
Speaker 1: game every year. That I mean, if you could bottle
Speaker 1: that and put it to within the psyche and the
Speaker 1: playing ability in the mindset of every player, then look out,
Speaker 1: you have some unbelievable matchups. He's a special talent, There's
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. It took them a while as
Speaker 1: a group, as I mentioned fourteen and fourteen in Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: they picked up October, November, and then December they won
Speaker 1: twelve games and here they go now with eight straight
Speaker 1: victories and they're awful good. And again with that type
Speaker 1: of player and those big players and Adams, obviously the
Speaker 1: rovers and injury is going to hurt them, but I
Speaker 1: guarantee you they're they're a matchup in the playoffs that
Speaker 1: some of these good teams, the Rockets, the Warrior, they
Speaker 1: don't want to have to play the Thunder. Even if
Speaker 1: you advance, you know you're going to be in for
Speaker 1: a battle. Royale, and they've played really well against the Sixers.
Speaker 1: They've owned the series, and that was proven to be
Speaker 1: true here again tonight seventy six Ers drop round two
Speaker 1: to the Thunder, one twenty two to one twelve, which
Speaker 1: is interesting. Toma thought a great capturing of a theme
Speaker 1: in this game. You might have been a midway point
Speaker 1: of the third quarter when you're like, you know, this
Speaker 1: is a moment where you're seeing the Sixers, a young
Speaker 1: group competing with some of the most elite athletes and
Speaker 1: performers in recent history in the NBA. And I think
Speaker 1: that as much of as sting as there is with
Speaker 1: this one for the Sixers big picture, you step back
Speaker 1: and it's like, all right, here they are on the road,
Speaker 1: coming off a tough game Friday, and they were right
Speaker 1: in there in the mix. And you clean up a
Speaker 1: few areas as we've seen them do in recent weeks,
Speaker 1: and you hope that you can just move that forward
Speaker 1: with a tough assignment coming up tomorrow night. No all
Speaker 1: good points. And if you're the Sixers, you know, like
Speaker 1: they compete so hard and then and you know, like
Speaker 1: tomorrow they obviously are not going to shoot around travel
Speaker 1: day back to back. But Brett Brown, you know one
Speaker 1: thing about these coaches, their job is to bring the truth.
Speaker 1: These players demand that they're so talented, so you gotta
Speaker 1: show them. You gotta be careful because you don't know
Speaker 1: what brow beat them and you know, get them done.
Speaker 1: You want up confident going into that game tomorrow against Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: I'm just talking in general. So if you're this group
Speaker 1: and you know you were that close and you were
Speaker 1: in it, and you matched them intensity wise, you let
Speaker 1: at the half you had a great you know, stretch
Speaker 1: here or there, but then that same old thing came up.
Speaker 1: You got to look inward as players and say, guys,
Speaker 1: we've got to resolve this. This is costiness to play,
Speaker 1: this hard, to be in this game, and you know,
Speaker 1: as you say, to grow from it. At some point.
Speaker 1: Got to get over that and get better and learn
Speaker 1: from your mistakes. And so here we go again where
Speaker 1: the Sixers they've had what of like their losses now,
Speaker 1: which number what twenty two, twenty three losses. Well, they've
Speaker 1: had eleven point leads. I don't know if they ever
Speaker 1: built up a lead of that margin here tonight, but
Speaker 1: there were nine lead changes and the Sixers certainly had
Speaker 1: a nine point lead, I believe, at one point. And
Speaker 1: you've got to be able to get that thing under
Speaker 1: control so that you can manage these games and quite
Speaker 1: frankly win these games. Grow from your mistakes during the
Speaker 1: course of the season, and I would think that's something
Speaker 1: that these guys want to get better at so that
Speaker 1: they can reward themselves with victories. Seventy Sixers come up
Speaker 1: short in Oklahoma City one twenty two to one twelve.
Speaker 1: Tom McGinnis, great call tonight. Talk to you on well
Speaker 1: tomorrow Monday, twenty one losses. Just to be official. You
Speaker 1: got it, Bryant, Thank you. Sixers battled hard against Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: were up by seven points midway through the third quarter,
Speaker 1: then Westbrook and Adams, and particularly during that stretch of
Speaker 1: the game, Paul George flicked the switch, turned it on
Speaker 1: one on a twenty four to eight run to close
Speaker 1: out the third quarter. Sixers tied it up late at
Speaker 1: one to one in the fourth, but then a clutch
Speaker 1: shot from Anthony got the Thunder going again and Steven
Speaker 1: Adams and Russell Westbrook saw the Thunder to the finish
Speaker 1: line one two, one, twelve, the final big nights for
Speaker 1: Embiid and Simmons. Dario Schartz came alive in the third
Speaker 1: quarter despite battling some foul trouble, but some of the
Speaker 1: top performers for OKC played like it. And we'll get
Speaker 1: into that a little bit more on the other side
Speaker 1: and hear some of Tom's highlight calls as well. This
Speaker 1: is the postgame showing the Sixers Radio Network seventy Sixers
Speaker 1: and the Oklahoma City Thunder for the second and final
Speaker 1: time this season. Could it be as entertaining and spirited
Speaker 1: and as intense as Round one? Yes, was the answer.
Speaker 1: Brian Seltzer with you from Sixers dot Com. It did
Speaker 1: not go three overtime periods, thus the reason we're speaking
Speaker 1: to at this point of the evening. But we will
Speaker 1: give you some highlights. Dunks a major theme in this one,
Speaker 1: and as much as we advocate for your support of
Speaker 1: good old radio listening, we advise you to hit the
Speaker 1: old Worldwide Web somehow someway later on tonight and get
Speaker 1: a look at this play. But here's how it sounded
Speaker 1: on FM radio seven thirty five. We go out top
Speaker 1: Joel fakes on Adams drives by him oh Man be
Speaker 1: just poster ride Russell Westbrook. Joel would be fly through
Speaker 1: the earth with the greatest of bees and crashes in
Speaker 1: with a right hand jam. And now Luile attempts it
Speaker 1: to Justin Anderson. Anderson of the on Ferguson back to
Speaker 1: bed Simmons with a jab. Simmons had beat taken Duncan
Speaker 1: and dug it well. Indeed, Nett thrust the sixers in
Speaker 1: front fourteen to thirteen. Sixers close at the end of
Speaker 1: one trailing thirty one to twenty nine. But they really
Speaker 1: began to rev things up midway through the second quarter
Speaker 1: after they fell behind by five. They started chip away
Speaker 1: and Justin Anderson off the bench with some energy. Six
Speaker 1: is going four on four. Simmons to Anderson. Anderson on
Speaker 1: a drive, cups and drives it, scoops and stores it
Speaker 1: had a foul on Russell Westbrook. Anderson from the left perimeter,
Speaker 1: driving into the lane. He takes it on an angle
Speaker 1: to the right of the room. Now remember he's a
Speaker 1: left hand player, so he spins it off the board
Speaker 1: with the left hand and it's good and a foul
Speaker 1: free throw would make it forty four forty two, Sixers
Speaker 1: back in front. They were up by four going into
Speaker 1: the final minutes of the first half. Some late threes
Speaker 1: made it a close one at the break, fifty eight
Speaker 1: fifty seven in favor of the Sixers. Dario Schartz with
Speaker 1: saddled with foul trouble early on in the first half,
Speaker 1: didn't play much between the first and second periods. He
Speaker 1: made up for lost time rather quickly. At the outside
Speaker 1: of the third, Dario with it breaks it up in
Speaker 1: the late right hand lamp good taking it right at
Speaker 1: Carmelo aftery and charge with the opening eight points in
Speaker 1: the third for the Sixers, you better get somebody else
Speaker 1: on the Milliganovan and yes, Armelo Anthony did have some trouble.
Speaker 1: Charie kept the scoring going after that, So two did
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons one on one with Anthony and Scharige fade
Speaker 1: away by Carmelo rimming out no Adams over the back
Speaker 1: of Simmons, and that should have been a foul. It
Speaker 1: wasn't rebounding. Beat. Here comes Ben la Bam with the
Speaker 1: right hand. Jaff flies by Paul George sailing with the dunk,
Speaker 1: and Simmons finishes with a fluret. So at that stage
Speaker 1: the Sixers were up seventy five to sixty eight, matching
Speaker 1: their game high lead of seven. But from there the
Speaker 1: Thunder would get it going. They outscored the Sixers twenty
Speaker 1: four to eight. Going into the fourth, they were up
Speaker 1: by ninety two eighty three. After three for the Sixers,
Speaker 1: they went on a little tear, modest tear at that
Speaker 1: being in the fourth, back out to the near side
Speaker 1: and Simmons eight to shoot. Simmons gonna drive three guys
Speaker 1: around him over to him. Beat for three, shut up,
Speaker 1: and then Raymond Felton came out and Joe sticks at three.
Speaker 1: They're going to review it, but that, if it's good,
Speaker 1: makes it a one point game. Four ninety three was
Speaker 1: indeed the score Thunder a very tenuous margin in their
Speaker 1: favor the Sixers. They kept clawing and they were even
Speaker 1: able to level the score in the fourth. It beats
Speaker 1: out holds his in and so is Amir Johnson. Here's
Speaker 1: Ben from the Filne knocks into the defender, no whistle
Speaker 1: and he makes the shot. Jeremy Grant knocked down and
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons scores it. He's got twenty. That made it
Speaker 1: one oh one apiece, But the Sixers just couldn't get
Speaker 1: over the hump. After that, the Thunder would score eight
Speaker 1: out of the next nine points in the game. That
Speaker 1: gave them the boost they needed. Sixers got the deficit
Speaker 1: down to four one eleven, one oh seven on an
Speaker 1: inbad basket, but after that, Russell Westbrook with back to
Speaker 1: back deposits on a three and a pull up, and
Speaker 1: that would be enough to clear the way for OKC tonight.
Speaker 1: Final notes in the final stat sheet, these Sixers did
Speaker 1: shoot fifty percent from the field and eleven of twenty
Speaker 1: nine from outside the arc. The Thunder were just under
Speaker 1: forty nine percent for the game, ten of thirty three
Speaker 1: from the perimeter. But the Thunder did make on a
Speaker 1: total of sixteen more shots, seven more baskets than the Sixers,
Speaker 1: and you know, ten point game that pretty much will
Speaker 1: do it. Six or twenty five to thirty one from
Speaker 1: the line. That was good. The Thunder twenty two of
Speaker 1: thirty from the stripe. Sixers. This year have arguably been
Speaker 1: the best rebounding team in the NBA. Certainly statistics would
Speaker 1: back that up. But tonight, led by Steven Adams, Okay
Speaker 1: see a slight edge overall in the glass plus one,
Speaker 1: but plus five in terms of offensive board sixers eighteen
Speaker 1: turnovers it led to twenty five thunder points. OKC committed
Speaker 1: just eleven cough ups in the game. We'll get to
Speaker 1: some from the Oklahoma City Ledger first Russell west Brook,
Speaker 1: just shy of his sixteenth triple double. He had thirty
Speaker 1: seven points in the game, fourteen of thirty three, eight
Speaker 1: of eleven from the line, one of six outside the arc,
Speaker 1: nine rebounds, and fourteen assists, just one turnover for Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: who is a plus twenty two in the game twenty
Speaker 1: four Steven Adams to go along with thirteen rebounds. Ten
Speaker 1: of those thirteen rebounds run the offensive glass. Pretty darn good.
Speaker 1: Paul George with thirty one he was big during that
Speaker 1: late third quarter surge that OKC strung together to get
Speaker 1: back into the game. For the Sixers, Joel and Bad
Speaker 1: a team best twenty seven. He also had ten rebounds.
Speaker 1: Double double number twenty two on the year for him
Speaker 1: twenty two points for Ben Simmons to go with four
Speaker 1: rebounds and seven assists, just one turnover four Simmons sixteen
Speaker 1: for Dario Scharch. He made a big difference at the
Speaker 1: outset of the third quarter, helping push these Sixers into
Speaker 1: a two possession lead. Nine lead changes, five ties, very competitive,
Speaker 1: physical and spirited game at Chesapeake Energy Arena where eighteen thousand,
Speaker 1: two hundred and three saw the sold out outing Sixers
Speaker 1: of the Lost are now twenty four and twenty two.
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City has won eight in a row and is
Speaker 1: now sixteen and five since starting the season one game
Speaker 1: under five hundred there thirty and twenty. With tonight's lost,
Speaker 1: the seventy Sixers are now one game behind the Milwaukee
Speaker 1: Bucks in the standings. Those two teams meet tomorrow at
Speaker 1: eight o'clock Eastern at BM O'haris Bradley Center. Sixers just
Speaker 1: last Saturday knocked off the Bucks one, sixteen to ninety one.
Speaker 1: Since then, there has been a coaching change, Joe Prunty
Speaker 1: the interim replacing Jason Kidd, and what do you know,
Speaker 1: the Bucks have won their last three since that change
Speaker 1: was made. So seven to fifty for pregame coverage on
Speaker 1: some of our sixers Raider Network affiliates tomorrow. We hope
Speaker 1: you join us