Well, that wasn’t pretty. The first game of the season is in the books, and in an absolutely brutal game, the OKC Thunder defeated the Sixers 103-97.
The Wells Fargo Arena was raucous from the very start, and threatened to riot every time Joel Embiid touched the ball in the first. This one was not fun to watch for either side, but the OKC Thunder came out with the win. Without further adieu, the good the bad and the ugly from Game One.
The Good
It’s a really bad sign for everyone when the most compelling part of the game was the crowd. The Philly faithful were nothing short of fantastic this evening, showering Joel Embiid with chants of “MVP” and “Trust the Process”, a tongue in cheek reference to Sam Hinkie’s favorite catchphrase, and Embiid’s potential nickname. Nobody is ever going to forget the Internet’s newest meme either, as one belligerent Sixers fan hit Westbrook with a double bird early in the first quarter.
As for the Thunder, there really wasn’t much to love in this one. Westbrook filled the stat sheet, finishing one assist shy of a triple double, going 32-12-9 on 11-21 from the field. The Westbrook-Adams (16 points, 5 rebounds,) connection was solid throughout. The Thunder ran the same pin down play leading to a corner three for the four several times tonight to a fair degree of success.
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The offense flowed relatively well, and the Thunder had a lot of wide open looks. Westbrook, Oladipo, and Christon were able to get to the rim seemingly at will. Rookie Domantas Sabonis drew the start at power forward, and although he only played 16 minutes, he had a solid game, if unspectacular as whole. He went 2-5 from the field, hit a three, set some nice screens, grabbed four boards, and most importantly, stayed in front of his man on defense, something a few of his teammates had trouble doing tonight.
Finally, Enes Kanter had a really good game off the bench, putting up 17 points on 50% shooting with 12 rebounds, five of which came on the offensive end. Kanter is one of the 3-5 best players in the NBA at grabbing an offensive board and converting on second chance points, playing the hero on an offensive rebound and second chance bucket to ice the game with 10.1 left.
The Bad
The Thunder as a team were cold from the opening whistle. They continually got open looks, but failed to convert on a frighteningly high amount of them. The defense was lethargic, porous, and downright abysmal. Oladipo, one of the most athletic guards in the NBA, and known for his defensive presence got left behind by Nik Stauskas on a few drives. Joel Embiid finished with 20 points and 7 rebounds, and made Steven Adams look like a rookie defensively, not the other way around, at one point yelling “He can’t guard me.”
The Ugly
Victor Oladipo had a bad night. He looked continually lost and nervous. He was benched for almost a full quarter of playing time in the second half. I mentioned that he was able to get to the rim at will in the first half, however, he finished the half 2-10 from the field. He finished the night 4-16 from the floor for 10 points, with three turnovers.
Remember that time Kyle Singler shot 57 percent from behind the arc in the preseason? Me neither. Singler was back to regular season form tonight, going 1-6 from the field, and 1-5 from deep.
I couldn’t help but get the impression that the Sixers wanted this game more than the Thunder, and they led for the vast majority of the game. At one point, Oklahoma City was down by 11 points. Conversely, the largest lead of the night for the Thunder was 6, which came after intentional foul free throws at the end of the game.
All of the errors of this game are made even more glaring by the fact that they happened against Philadelphia, who finished with the worst record in the year last year, and are still firmly in the middle of a rebuild.
This game should’ve been an easy win, similar to when a college football powerhouse plays a division two team at the beginning of the season to feel better about themselves. Things should get better for the Thunder, and they have a better record than Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors. The Thunder have their home opener at Chesapeake on Friday against the Suns.