Thunder player grades from win over defending champs

ALEX ABRINES. A-. Abrines probably gets an extra letter grade for putting Tristan Thompson on a poster, his only basket of the game. But that basket will also be apart of my daily column (which you should check out) for the next three months. The beauty with the Spaniard Sharpshooter’s game tonight though was everything he did besides shooting (he missed his only attempt from deep). Abrines only played nine minutes but he recorded three assists including a well executed drive and dump to Steven Adams in the third quarter. The 23-year old couldn’t play extended minutes because Cleveland exploited his on-ball defense by forcing him to switch on players like Derrick Williams, but the defensive improvement is there. At the beginning of the season Abrines had no idea what do when playing off the ball; tonight his positioning forced an easy steal and transition bucket for Anthony Morrow. The simple fact that Billy Donovan was able to play Abrines in the first quarter and trust him enough to bring him back later in the game is honestly one of the biggest moments of Abrines’ short career.. Shooting Guard. OKC Thunder