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