Thunder player grades from win over defending champs

The Oklahoma City Thunder used a total team effort to beat the defending champions 118-109 at Chesepeake Energy Arena.

There’s nothing like watching your basketball team play well. Especially when the expectations are low.

This morning/afternoon the belief was that Cleveland was going to rest their Big Three. I promptly roasted them for it. But once Tyronn Lue announced they would be playing, my confidence turned to dust. It’s just impossible to guess what version of the Thunder are going to come out.

Well tonight was a version of OKC basketball we haven’t seen much this year. The ball was moving beautifully, the communication on defense was delicious…they were actually playing like a team.

This isn’t to say that the Thunder aren’t a team. They interact off the court like a team, they talk about each other as if they have fun together like a team. But they don’t necessarily know how to play off each others strengths like a team.

Tonight they did.

Russell Westbrook passed up contested shots in crunch time for better looks for his teammates. Andre Roberson opened up the offense by cutting to the basket; I won’t even talk about his defense on Lebron James just yet.

Still, we can’t get overly excited about this game. The Cavs were playing their third game in four nights while OKC had two nights off. And it’s almost guaranteed the Thunder won’t magically start playing like this from here on out. But there were a lot of positives tonight. And those are reflected in the following grades.