Scrimmage #2: Thunder vs 76ers Preview & Live Stream

Thunder vs 76ers | 11 Am CT

Stream the game live right here!

Stream: nba.com/thunder/live

TV: NBA TV

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What To Watch For

More Dre: Andre Roberson’s return has been a rare reprieve from 2020’s relentless death march — now we just have to see if he can repeat and build on Friday’s performance. He practiced in-full yesterday and Billy Donovan said he’ll be available against a Sixers team with a lot of length and versatility. He could be quite useful if his legs are under him.

Billy Donovan is optimistic Nerlens Noel will be available tomorrow. Donovan also said Roberson recovered well and is expected to play again tomorrow.

— Joe Mussatto (@joe_mussatto) July 25, 2020

Hey, guy: Nerlens Noel missed Friday’s scrimmage due to a lingering ankle issue but it sounds like we’ll see him today against his former squad. This is good news because Nerlens is a nice guy and the Sixers have a frontcourt of Joel Embiid/Al Horford.

Joel Embiid began experiencing discomfort in his right calf during Friday’s game vs. MEM and will not play in today’s scrimmage against OKC.

Embiid is considered day to day, continues to receive treatment for right calf tightness, and will be re-evaluated tomorrow.

— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) July 26, 2020

THE BIGS: Steven Adams will get a chance to prove Friday’s 17-point explosion was no fluke against one of the NBA’s premiere big men — just probably not for very long. Big Kiwi only saw 15 minutes against Boston and sat the entire second half. Embiid got just 13 minutes of run on Saturday against the Grizzlies. This is fine with me because everything is made up and the points don’t matter in scrimmages.

Terrance: One of the interesting rotational details from Friday was Terrance Ferguson’s late appearance — the former starter was behind Hamidou Diallo, Roberson, and Abdel Nader off the bench. However, Nader is in the league’s concussion protocol after taking a blow to the head against the Celtics. Ferg should pick up a few more minutes and probably needs to do something, right?

Other Things: This game features many other things I’d mention if it counted. Those things, in no particular order, are: Chris Paul being there, Ben Simmons starting at power forward, the Simmons/Danilo Gallinari matchup, open curiosity about who will guard Tobias Harris, a reference to Dennis Schroder as the Sixth Man of the Year, several run-on sentences about Darius Bazley’s upside, one joke about Embiid playing in a hazmat suit, and one apology because pandemics aren’t funny. Alas, the game doesn’t count so I won’t get into any of that.

Statistical Anomaly: Philly has two Oklahomans in their starting lineup — Shake Milton (Owasso) and Josh Richardson (Edmond). That’s 40% of their starting five which feels like a significant amount.

Prop Bet: Ben Simmons / Andre Roberson / Steven Adams — who makes the first three?