OKC Thunder mop up sloppy first half in Phoenix: Player Grades
A tale of two halves resulted in another tough victory over a team the OKC Thunder theoretically should’ve beat easily.
The OKC Thunder arrived in Phoenix to face a team with nothing to lose. These contests are typically called “trap games”. Phoenix are headed for the lottery yet again and entered the night with no pressure on their shoulders. Conversely, OKC are battling for seeding and their playoff lives given the tightly bunched group of teams in the West.
Ideally, the Thunder should have come out and enforced their will upon the young Suns. More specifically, OKC needed to deliver aggressive defense and extinguish any hopes of the Suns winning. This so OKC could get their stars ample rest, especially since they play a back to back against a team they are chasing.
The Blazers already have two victories over the Thunder and were resting awaiting the Thunder’s arrival. Although the Thunder couldn’t afford to look ahead to the match they failed to complete their mission and found themselves in a dog fight with the teams two stars putting on a dynamic mano a mano showcase.
First half lapse:
Ultimately, the OKC Thunder did everything they shouldn’t do in the first half. They allowed the Suns to get rolling offensively, to take a sizeable lead and gave the Suns hope they would defeat the Thunder for the fourth consecutive time.
The teams two franchise stars put on a showcase of ultimate proportions with both Russell Westbrook and Devin Booker contributing in all aspects of the offense. Booker joined an exclusive club scoring his 4,000th point as the third youngest ever to do so. Booker at 21 years and 123 days ranks behind only LeBron James (20 years/318 days) and Kevin Durant (21 years 66 days) to accomplish the feat. More on Booker below.
The OKC Thunder got the win, which is what matters, but just looking at the final score does not explain how close this game was. It took Westbrook’s three point shot with :56 second on the clock to ice the deal.
With that, let’s dive in to the player grades.