PHILADELPHIA – In a sea of chaos, the Thunder settled the stormy waters of the final two minutes with three of its most trusty assets: a favorite sideline out of bounds play, an MVP candidate with the ball in his hands and some disciplined, swarming defense.
With 6.9 seconds remaining in regulation and down by two points, Head Coach Billy Donovan called timeout then dialed up a reliable sideline out of bounds play, one so familiar to this Thunder group that its name matches the letters emblazoned across the Thunder’s sunset jerseys on Saturday night: OKC.
As he has a dozen times before this season, Paul George started down near the baseline. He set up his Philadelphia 76ers defender, Jimmy Butler, then scurried shoulder-to-shoulder with a Steven Adams screen in the middle of the lane to quickly arrive at the top of the key.
“I’ve got the best screener cleaning my guy for me to get a free catch up top,” said George, who finished with 31 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. “We ran it so many times this year. We’ve ran it to a T. I’ve made it. I’ve missed it, but that’s a big-time play for us.”
“Kind of a bit of misdirection first, set a screen, try to get (George) open and give him the ball,” Adams said of his role. “Then he did the rest.”
Terrance Ferguson, who had previously buried a three-pointer himself just 30 seconds earlier, delivered the inbounds pass to a curling George, who immediately went up with the ball and drained his second game-winning three of the season.
“It’s a big rush,” said George, whose three capped his 14-point fourth quarter. “Free myself, get open opportunities, easy opportunities and assert myself.”
To cap it off, the trailing Butler fouled George on the play. When the dynamic Thunder forward knocked down the free throw to complete the four-point play, it gave the Thunder a still-precarious two-point edge with 5.1 seconds remaining.
76ers guard Ben Simmons pushed the ball up the floor off of the inbounds and found himself with the ball in an uncomfortable spot behind the three-point line. Simmons dished the ball to Butler, but as the clock dwindled, both George and Ferguson pounced. Neither defender’s feet left the floor.
The veteran George called out the order, and the second-year guard alongside him obeyed, keeping hands up high but toes glued to the hardwood. Both players avoided a foul, Butler’s shot went awry and the Thunder escaped Philadelphia victorious, and the first Western Conference team to win in the City of Brotherly Love this season.
The win moved the Thunder back up to third in the West at 27-18 (.600) this year, but in the closing minute that result looked very far from guaranteed. The Thunder’s 108-104 lead was snapped back to one with 1:08 to go as the 76ers cashed in on a Butler made three-pointer immediately after a Russell Westbrook miss from behind the arc. Westbrook again missed from three in response, but Adams came up with a massive offensive rebound and this time the Thunder point guard drove and dished to Ferguson, who dropped in his third three-pointer of the night with 42 seconds to go.
Butler scored again on a three-point play on a sideline out of bounds play, but George responded by driving right and drawing a foul, making both shots. On the ensuing possession, with just 20 seconds remaining, Westbrook hustled to rotate over to contest a three-pointer by Joel Embiid, who ripped his arms up into Westbrook’s stick hand. Embiid was awarded three foul shots and hit them all to tie the game, but the price was even higher – it was Westbrook’s sixth foul.
The situation went from bad to worse when on the Thunder’s inbounds pass the 76ers pressured and Dennis Schröder’s pass was intercepted by Butler, who streaked in for a euro-step layup to give Philadelphia the lead with just 6.9 seconds to go. It was completely wild inside of the Wells Fargo Center, and for good reason, but the Thunder’s nerves stayed calm. George silenced the crowd, he and Ferguson bottled up Butler and the Thunder dashed to New York City with a win to snap a skid of losses in 5-of-6 games.
“This group did a good job staying collected, staying in the moment, not dwelling on that play and hanging our heads,” George recalled. “Everybody had full confidence going into our final offensive possession.”
The clutch plays in crunch time wouldn’t have been possible without some of the heroics that occurred during the previous 47 miuntes. Jerami Grant didn’t put up a wow-worthy stat line, but his presence defensively and as a constant rim attacker was incredibly valuable. Schröder, who scored 14 of his 21 points in the second quarter, kept the Thunder afloat during a 29-13 extended Philadelphia run. The defense as a whole did better in one crucial second half category, as it held the 76ers to just 3 made three-pointers over the final 24 minutes compared to 8 in the opening half.
The two most vital performances, however, came from Adams and Ferguson, who respectively had the unenviable task of battling with Embiid and chasing around JJ Redick all night. Instead of going with its traditional rotational minutes, Donovan opted to mirror Adams’ minutes with Embiid’s and in the second half do the same with Ferguson and Redick. It’s impossible to know what the result might have been without that heads-up coaching by Donovan, but it seemed that matching those minutes ensured that the damage Philadelphia inflicted would be mitigated.
“Just follow (Redick’s) body, don’t get hit,” Ferguson said of his role tonight. “I know he’s going to move at all times. When he’s on the floor he’s always moving, never stopping, so just keep on him on him while also keeping an eye on the ball and help side.”
“I just tried to create some matchups for us,” said Donovan.
Highlights: OKC at PHI - 1/19/19