Grades: Shorthanded Thunder fail to beat the lowly Brooklyn Nets

OKC Thunder Player Grades

Starting Lineup

Thunderous Intentions writer Lawrence George made an interesting point last night: Russ may be hurt. He doesn’t look anywhere close to the player that we experienced last year, nor the one Brandon Jennings said got better over the offseason. We are now 24 games into the season and the reigning League MVP is in the worst shooting slump since his rookie season.

His play tonight was no different. 10-27 from the field including 4-14 in the second half. Only 2 assists in the last 24 minutes with 0 coming in the fourth quarter. At this point I can’t explain what happened to Russ if there isn’t some sort of nagging injury he’s playing through.

Last night was Abrines’ chance to stake his claim as the bona fide seventh/eighth man of the OKC Thunder. Instead he left the door open for Terrance Ferguson and Josh Huestis. If the Spaniard Sniper’s shots aren’t falling it (which they haven’t all season) then it’s difficult to play him because his defensive awareness is still lacking. On the bright side, Abrines’ did flash his underrated passing/playmaking ability with two beautiful assists to Steven Adams off pick & rolls. Besides playing with effort unlike some of his teammates, that’s really the only positive we can take away from Abrines’ performance.

Roberson played well tonight, but the collective effort of the Thunder still drops his grade down. The Lowkey MVP was one of two players to shoot over 50% from the field because he actively searched for shots at the rim. Only one of his five attempts came outside the paint, a trend his entire team needs to follow. As always his defense was stellar against a group of non All-Stars – it’s a shame the rest of his team couldn’t show up.

Let’s get controversial. Yes, Melo played a very poor basketball game last night, but he wasn’t the Thunder’s biggest negative of the night. Carmelo’s shot wasn’t falling all game – unlike Westbrook he didn’t try to shoot himself out of a slump. The 33-year old only took six shots in the second half as he tied for the team lead in assists. It’s the defensive effort that truly knocked him down. Melo fell into the Westbrook trap of not getting back on defense/falling asleep when guarding somebody off-the-ball. It’s all about focus on that end and Melo didn’t have that tonight.

Steven Adams started the game off strong, hitting his first four shots of the game. In the second half, when the offense completely broke down, so did Adams’ play. Instead of feeding him off the pick & roll the Thunder opted to give him the ball in post-up isolation plays – that’s not the Big Kiwi’s game. In a normal close game Adams’ nine offensive rebounds would be the difference between an OKC win or loss, but as we’ve said, this was not a regular game.