Player Grades: OKC Thunder Catch Heat, clinch playoffs
OKC Thunder Best Reserve:
Oklahoma City Thunder. JERAMI GRANT. A+. . C
This is real. Jerami Grant (17 points on 6 (!) shots, five rebounds, two blocks) has been a solid, reliable, ridiculously efficient contributor off the bench for two solid months now. It’s here to stay. He’s blocking shots and keeping them in-bounds, he’s knocking down free-throws (9-11 in this game), and he’s even stealing crunch-time minutes – first from Melo, now from Adams.
Oh, and he’s become an expert at drawing charges as the primary defender. This one was sandwiched between Russ’s jumper and PG’s three (shown earlier), and made James Johnson use language of which Thumper’s dad would not have approved. This stretch really put the Thunder out of reach. Nick Collison would be proud.
Full highlights:
Best Opponent:
B. . SF. Miami Heat. JOSH RICHARDSON
More from Thunderous Intentions
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- 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
- Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
- Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder
Josh Richardson started out hot, hitting his first four shots during the opening segment, and threatening to bury the Thunder. He cooled off a little after that, but led Miami in scoring (18 points) and generally made me wish he was on our team.
Final Thoughts
If the Thunder show up hungry for their last game on Wednesday, and things break right, they could still wind up with home-court advantage in the first round. If they don’t, and things break wrong, they could still get the Houston Rockets in the first (and probably last) round. Clinching the playoffs feels good, but real success has not been clinched yet. Go out there and catch that wascally wabbit, Thunder. It’s worth it.
For the full box score, visit ESPN link here and for game highlights, click the video above. Thanks for reading, and keep your Intentions Thunderous. The Playoffs are almost upon us.