Edgecombe-less Sixers drop an ugly one to Thunder

VJ Edgecombe was a late scratch and the rest of the Summer Sixers didn’t take care of the basketball in a loss to the Thunder Monday.

Yeah, this is what Summer League is actually supposed to look like.

The Sixers fell 89-78 to the Oklahoma City Thunder in an ugly game — even for these standards — Monday night. Judah Mintz led all scorers with 21 while Ajay Mitchell led OKC with 16.

Per Tony Jones of the Athletic, VJ Edgecombe was ruled out right before the game due to a thumb contusion. He reported that the injury is not considered to be serious and he will be listed as day-to-day.

Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.

Jalen Hood-Schifino seemed to be the only one to miss the memo that this game would be an offensive struggle. He was able to get to his spots for a quick nine points while everyone else shot 6-of-20 from the field in the first quarter.

Despite the Thunder defense being noticeably less physical than Utah’s on Saturday, the game quickly turned into a foul-fest. There were 32 combined free throw attempts in the first half.

It seemed that Johni Broom was making a point to hoist up as many threes as possible. Five of his seven field goal attempts came from behind the arc in this one. Again, he had some success from outside making 2-of-5 of them on the night.

He had a couple more layups he smoked that didn’t look pretty, but more importantly he continues to just always be in the right spot. His rotations on the defensive end have stood out in this environment.

Undrafted free agent Hunter Sallis made his debut after missing Saturday’s game against the Jazz due to injury. He still very much looked like he was figuring out where to be, and didn’t make much of an impact as a result. He finished with three points that all came from the free throw line.

The two sophomores who suited up for the Sixers struggled in this one as well. Justin Edwards was given a ton more on-ball opportunities and struggled to take care of the ball with them. He finished with five turnovers while also finding it difficult to put the ball in the hoop. He shot 3-of-11 from the floor for his 11 points. It may be worth noting that after smacking a deflection, he was favoring his hand for much of the night.

Adem Bona did not have the set 1-on-1 matchup he had against the Jazz that he was able to dominate. He finally did get thrown an open lob late in the fourth but wasn’t able to corral it. None of the ballhandlers on the floor seemed able to run pick-and-rolls to get him more involved offensively either.

Mintz, who was with the Sixers last year in Summer League before spending the season with the Delaware Blue Coats, had one of the better offensive performances picking up where Hood-Schifino left off. He was able to get downhill a couple of times and use his shiftiness to create a layup or lob. He also began the scoring for Philadelphia with a really nice stepback three that broke down his defender. Mintz finished shooting 7-of-12 from the field.

The Salt Lake City Summer League will wrap up Tuesday for the Sixers as they take on the Memphis Grizzlies at 7:00 p.m. ET on NBATV.