OKC Thunder grades vs. 76ers: 14th loss ties franchise worst

Best OKC Thunder reserve performance:

Another hidden gem who has stepped into their role is Ty Jerome who ended up leading the Thunder in scoring with 22 points. Granted a good portion of this came with the game out of reach but he’s being considered as a player who can help the bench which he does admirably.

Considering the 76ers bench outscored the Thunder 58 to 39, Jerome’s effort was a drop in the bucket.

Jerome was efficient shooting 8 of 12 from the field and 4 of 8 from deep adding two rebounds, two assists, and a steal.

Best opponent performance:

There are a few players who top the list for Most Valuable Player candidates and Joel Embiid sits at the top with Nikola Jokic as the most likely to win the award.

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As the NBA veers away from typical bigs these two are reinforcing why big men are still a vital part of the NBA game.

As much as teams may want to simply trot out a bunch of 3-point snipers the one-shot that remains the most difficult to stop is one in close especially delivered by a big man who out muscles everyone on the court. Factoring in talent and that points to why teams simply can’t stop him.

Most impressively, Embiid is growing as a leader and is taking his craft seriously. He could easily have sat tonight with Simmons and Harris playing but wanted to play to ensure the victory and to keep his team close to collecting that top seed.

In 23 minutes he collected 21 points on 6 of 10 shooting, with five rebounds, an assist, and a steal.

In closing:

Facing top talents is always going to put the OKC Thunder at a disadvantage particularly without SGA and Dort. However, even with a cast of players not up to par with the likes of Embiid, Simmons, and Harris the team has to do the little things that matter.

They didn’t. Turning the ball over 30 times is unforgivable — that alone led to 35 points for the 76ers and every starter had at least three (22 of the 35).

If shots aren’t falling — and they weren’t particularly from deep (7 of 30 for 23 percent) then the team has to drive the ball and make their free throws. The Thunder got to the charity stripe more (23 to 18) but shot an abysmal 56.5 percent.

Those factors more than the stars are the reason why the Thunder lost the game.

The full ESPN box score can be viewed by clicking here.

The OKC Thunder are right back in action on Tuesday facing the Celtics in Boston. Tip-off is at 6:00 p.m. CT (7:00 p.m. EST).