Turnovers plague Thunder in loss to Sixers, Joel Embiid

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Ty Jerome pulled up for a jumper, hit it, and got fouled. He sank the free throw.

There was 1:16 remaining in the third quarter against the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Thunder had trimmed a 20-point lead down to 12. They were starting to pick up a little momentum. After wing Furkan Korkmaz missed a free throw on the next Sixers possession, OKC had a chance to grab the board and cut the deficit down even further.

But Korkmaz got his own offensive rebound off the missed free throw and big Mike Scott hit a 3 for the unconventional four-point possession. The Sixers extended their lead back up to 16, and the Thunder comeback attempt was over.

Oklahoma City lost its sixth game in a row. The team fell 117-93 to the Sixers, who are now tied with the Brooklyn Nets for the best record in the Eastern Conference.

The Thunder suffered another turnover-filled game, giving up the ball 23 times and allowing 32 total points off turnovers. In the third quarter, Oklahoma City committed seven — so even though Philadelphia only scored 24 points that frame, the Thunder posted just 23 because they couldn’t keep hold of the rock.

“I thought it was a good game for us just to go against a team with that kind of length and discipline,” said Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault.

“We were just a little sloppy with the ball and had too many turnovers, but I thought the movement and the screening and cutting, which they force you to do to generate advantages, was pretty good. … I thought the pace of offense and the way we were trying to play was well-intentioned.”

Those turnovers contributed to the Thunder scoring only 93 points despite having a very efficient night. The team shot exactly 50% from the field and 40% from 3, but only attempted 76 field goals. The Sixers, by comparison, put up 94 shots.

Over the 10 prior games entering the night, the Thunder allowed 24.4 points off turnovers, 4.1 worse than the next-worst team. That margin is worse than the difference between the No. 29 team and the No. 19 team.

In that time span, the Thunder averaged 17.9 turnovers per game, 29th in the league to the Los Angeles Lakers. The difference between the Thunder and the No. 28 team was wider than the difference between No. 28 and No. 20.

Jerome was asked specifically about the turnovers of the Saturday night game, to which he responded that the young team is still learning to play at a fast tempo.

“We’re going to have those stretches. We’re young, we’ve got some inexperience,” Jerome said. “We want to play fast. We’re going to make some mistakes. Just try to minimize the bad ones. But it’s going to happen, we’ve just got to work on it.”

Power forward Darius Bazley had nine turnovers himself in his first game since March 4.

Beyond those turnovers, Bazley’s return to the court was largely positive. He scored a team-high 17 points to go with nine boards and five assists, and Daigneault acknowledged that he was impressed the forward reached 36 minutes after not playing for more than a five weeks.

“I thought he was in really good shape tonight. I kind of let him run there at the end because he obviously was a little out of rhythm,” Daigneault said. “I give him a lot of credit for his return to play, that’s easier said than done.”

Wing Lu Dort also returned to action for the first time in two weeks. He scored 15 points on 6-for-12 shooting and had five rebounds.

“Similar (to Bazley), didn’t take a dip conditioning wise,” Daigneault said. “He was a bull downhill tonight. He was really, really fast downhill.”

Center Tony Bradley, facing off against his former team, had the best night of any Thunder player. He posted a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds to go with three blocks in 25 minutes of action.

“It was a good opportunity to first off see them again and secondly get a chance to play against them,” he said. “They’re a really good team. … When I was with them, observing and watching them, when I was sitting on the bench, it was something special to watch.”

The center he used to play behind, Joel Embiid, led the way for the Sixers. He scored 27 points in 27 minutes and recorded four blocks on the night.

Off the Sixers bench, backup power forward Mike Scott had 13 points while backup center Dwight Howard had 13 rebounds and two blocks.

Philadelphia was far too much for Oklahoma City to handle, and the Thunder have now lost nine of their 10 games. But they got two core pieces back into the lineup and, for those watching the reverse standings, are now in the seventh-best position for lottery odds.

This post originally appeared on OKCThunderWire. Follow us on Facebook, and keep up with 76ers news at Sixers Wire!