Despite most — this beat writer included — assuming that the Sixers would have their doors blown off by the NBA's best team defense and individual scorer, the nine players donning red, white and blue played with absolutely no expectation that they were going to be on the wrong end of a blowout.

The Oklahoma City Thunder avoided a letdown with a 118-102 win over the short-handed Philadelphia 76ers. It was a crawl to the finish line for OKC in an otherwise strong four-game East Coast road trip.