Sixers' Okafor Dominates In Matchup With Top-Pick Towns
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The athletes will tell you that at the end of the night, no matter how well they played, all that matters is whether the team won or loss. That's all fine and dandy for a throwaway soundbite, but when your team is 0-14, you take every victory you can get.
One player on the Sixers won on Monday night. That was Jahlil Okafor.
On Monday, Okafor had his first opportunity to go head to head with Karl-Anthony Towns, the top-pick in the 2015 NBA Draft and the only big man regarded as a better prospect than Okafor in that class.
Towns (1st overall to MIN) was going to be the primary match-up with Okafor all night and quite frankly, it wasn't even a challenge for Okafor to show up Towns in front of his home fans in Minnesota.
Okafor finished the night with 25 points, 12 rebounds and two blocked shots while shooting just over 66 percent from the floor. Towns finished with six points, two blocks and two rebounds.
On the surface, the number were quite impressive, but it was the layers to Okafor's dismantling of Towns that made it so fun to witness.
Okafor out-muscled, out-smarted and out-worked Towns in most of their one-on-one match ups to the point that the Timberwolves were forced to commit a double-team to the Sixers rookie.
He employed pump fakes and ball fakes to take advantage of Towns eagerness to get a step and try to block a shot. He hit mid-range jumpers and fade-aways only to exasperate a Timberwolves team that assumed they forced Okafor into a bad shot.
He rebounded and defended with passion and did everything necessary to prove he was the best rookie big man on the floor. "Experts" have often listed Towns ahead of Okafor in rookie rankings, but Okafor put on a display that should undoubtedly have some of them reconsidering their thoughts.
While the Sixers didn't win the game, they might have at least won the draft.
