The Sixers trailed by 21 points after the first 9:30 of “action,” by 16 after one quarter and watched the Thunder hit 13 of their first 15 shots from the field. A very MVP-like 32 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and 24 from Jaylin Williams eventually asserted the Thunder’s obvious superiority.

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.