76ers at Thunder
The Oklahoma City Thunder are trying to climb the standings in the Western Conference but once again got a good look at how far away they are from the top team in the league when they were beat 111-95 at home by the Golden State Warriors on Monday. The Thunder will try to bounce back and earn their sixth win in seven games when they host the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday.
Oklahoma City lost each of its four meetings with the Warriors by at least 16 points and star Russell Westbrook was held to 15 points on 4-of-16 shooting in Monday's setback, which dropped the team further behind the Los Angeles Clippers in the race for the No. 5 spot in the West. "It was a combination of a lot of things," Westbrook told reporters. "It was one of those nights. We had some open shots that didn’t fall. They made shots as well. We had a few mishaps defensively, but we’ll be alright." The 76ers are not in the playoff race but are still playing hard and fell in overtime at Orlando on Monday on the second night of a back-to-back to end a two-game winning streak. "I'm just so proud of the guys," Philadelphia coach Brett Brown told reporters after the loss. "We ended up with a beaten down group, we played yesterday, but I think it really does show the character of the team, and how we’ve been trying to play almost the entire year."
TV: 8 p.m. ET, CSN Philadelphia, FSN Oklahoma
ABOUT THE 76ERS (26-44): Young players are getting a chance to earn spots on next season's roster over the final month of the season for Philadelphia, and power forward Richaun Holmes is trying to join rookies Dario Saric and Joel Embiid as team building blocks. Holmes matched a career high with 24 points and hauled in a career-best 14 rebounds on Monday while scoring in double figures for the ninth time in 11 games this month. "Just have to play hard," Holmes told reporters. "Trying to chase down every rebound I could, just help the team win and go out with the same mindset of playing hard every second you’re on the floor."
ABOUT THE THUNDER (40-30): Oklahoma City was beating opponents by an average of 14.6 points during its five-game winning streak but struggled from beyond the arc (4-of-21) and from the free-throw line (17-of-31) in Monday's loss. "We just lost the game," Thunder shooting guard Victor Oladipo told reporters. "You win some and you lose some. We are looking forward to hopefully seeing those guys down the road. We're going to watch film and learn from it and hopefully figure it out." Oladipo scored a team-high 17 points in 33 minutes on Monday to bounce back from a nine-point effort in Saturday's win over Sacramento.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. 76ers C Jahlil Okafor (knee) sat out Monday and is day-to-day.
2. Westbrook failed to record a triple-double in either of the last two games and needs seven over the final 12 games to match Oscar Robertson's record of 41.
3. Oklahoma City is enjoying a 15-game winning streak in the series.