OKC Thunder player grades: failure to execute early costs at the end

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ROUGH start for Jerami Grant. In a matter of :30 seconds Grant missed a layup, committed a questionable foul and turned the ball over.

It was hit and miss on defense all night for Grant as far too often he left his covers wide open or responded too slowly to rotate over. Hield hit at minimum three wide open (or very late contested) 3-balls with Grant his primary defender.

He’s been superb of late, so let’s right this one off as a bad night at the office.

If Billy Donovan wanted to stop the fast break the first thing he should’ve done is given the Kings a steady diet of Adams touches either for easy buckets or via Adams initiating the offense.

By not going to the Big Kiwi early it resulted in missed long bombs which equated to long rebounds. The only thing missing was the starter’s whistle as the Kings grabbed the boards and took off simulating runners in 100 meter events.

To that end, (and I wrote the above portion prior to the second half) OKC tweaked their scheme on both ends with Adams touches increasing and the team recognizing success because of it.

He registered a double-double of 11 points and 15 rebounds (7 offensive) with a single assist, block and steal as well.

Although it won’t show up on the stat sheet (and wish I had counted these) Adams was responsible for several hockey assists.