The banged up version of the Philadelphia 76ers put up a great effort, but they fall short to the West-leading Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday.

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.

Alexander was awfully close to forgetting the feeling of fourth quarters altogether. Then the Thunder superstar was summoned late Tuesday in perhaps the unlikeliest of games throughout the East Coast trip.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 32 points and Jalen Williams had 24 to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 118-102 win over a Philadelphia 76ers team missing three All-Stars

On Tuesday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder played the 76ers in Philadelphia. The Thunder won by a score of 118-102. All-Star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 32 points, three rebounds, nine assists,