I attended this game with my son last night. Originally, I was very excited about seeing Joel Embid and a respirited Philadelphia basketball team in person. All that was never present in this game as Joel Embiid has a torn meniscus and is done for the season. OKC easily dispatched of this Sixer team by a count of 122-97 in a game which did have a few silver lining emotional moments for Thunder fans though.
Silver lining No. 1 was Russell Westbrook getting his 35th triple double of the season in pursuit of Oscar Robertson. The opening minutes of this game were extremely painful to watch as Russell basically did not shoot the ball in an attempt to get his teammates scoring the ball. It was awful as we saw Adams, Roberson, and Gibson pretty much play some of the most ugly offensive basketball imaginable. Fortunately, for Russell, Enes Kanter had a big night scoring 24 points which made up for the three I just mentioned plus Alex Abrines and all four basically played very poor level games against a very bad Sixer team at home. It’s one thing to suck on the road against a good team, it’s another thing to suck at home against the dumpster fire Sixers. Pick it up, boys.
Back to silver lining No. 1. Russell was good enough in this one to overcome some of his teammates and notch a line of 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 14 assists. He got his triple dub in the third period and he didn’t play a minute in the fourth period. It was a nice, easy night for Westbrook and he now needs seven more triple dubs in the last eleven games to pass the Big O. Again, nice night for Kanter. He gave Russell some hope in the first half that he actually has a teammate who can make a basket at the NBA level of play. But that isn’t my Silver lining No. 2.
Silver lining No. 2 is Nick Collison. As a passionate Thunder fan, I unabashedly love Nick Collison. If I were ever good enough to be an NBA player, I’d want to be a player like Nick Collison. His game brings so much passion and honor to the way the game should be played. It put a lump in my throat as Nick got eight minutes of playing time in this game. Nick is near the end of his playing career, but there is something in the way Nick plays basketball which endears me to him as if he were my favorite lab of all-time. These eight minutes were my favorite eight on Wednesday night as Nick played crisply in garnering 7 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists with the first assist being a classic Collison backdoor cut pass. BTW, Nick got a louder ovation than Russell’s 35th triple double which made me feel good because it reaffirmed everything I feel about Nick Collison is shared by my fellow Thunder fans. Long paragraph, but from the heart.
Victor Oladipo scored 16 points and was so-so. If I’m Billy Donovan I know I need much, much more from Oladipo. Much more and with more consistency. Doug McDermott scored 13 points and was okay. Semaj Christon played some solid minutes and showed some toughness which I liked.
I don’t know if Steven Adams has broken up with his girlfriend or something, but he needs to start elevating game on a par level which equals his $25 million pay tag. Seriously.
OKC improves to 41-30 and stays in the No. 6 slot for the time being. The Thunder get a nice little break as they don’t play again until they visit Houston on Sunday. Maybe they can all go to the gym together and practice their shooting, especially guys not named Westbrook, Kanter, and Oladipo.
As an OU basketball fan, I saw a great deal of Nick during his Kansas days. I hated him. I hated him for being such a good player wearing that Kansas blue. But as the years have passed, Nick Collison has a place in my basketball heart right there with Westbrook, Harden, Wayman Tisdale, Mookie Blalock, Dave Sieger, Hollis Price, Blake Griffin, and Buddy Hield. If you didn’t see Nick play at Kansas, you missed something.