OKC Thunder Best Reserve:
The Thunder need to give Deonte Burton more minutes. He is oozing talent and confidence and continuously puts me into a state of confusion by making me ask myself a simple question: how did no one else want this kid last year? His unrelenting confidence is enough to make me take a flier on him in the second round of the draft. Looks like the Thunder might have two candidates for the steal of a draft.
P.S. The boy can dunk! We saw some pretty spectacular slams from Burton in preseason, but he is just getting better and better.
Best Opponent:
You know what the problem is when you score 60 points one night and 43 the next? Scoring 25 only gets you a B+ now. I’m only kidding. Kemba Walker played a good game all night long. He played with confidence and never backed down even when his shot wasn’t falling, yet he was consistently passing well and trusting his teammates throughout the night too.
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The reason he has a B+ instead of an A is his 3-point shot, or the lack thereof. He also seemed to have gum stuck to the soles of his shoes since he seemed to stop moving on defense a lot which is a shame knowing how good he can play on that side of the hardwood.
Final Thoughts
- The Hornets are a great 3-point shooting team, but the Thunder did an amazing job running them off the line while playing solid and tough defense whenever they pulled up for a trey.
- OKC’s bench seemed to let the Hornets back into the game, but it was a good opportunity for the Thunder’s starters to practice closing tight games like tonight’s.
- Westbrook is clearly trying to be a more efficient scorer and better overall decision-maker and it is noticeably helping the Thunder win games.
- The Hornets fought hard near the end of the game and made it a tight one. Had they played that way all game, they might have won. Even with the loss, the Hornets have a lot of positives to take away from this game, like their efficient nights from a few key players and their lack of turnovers.
The Thunder play again tomorrow when they host the Denver Nuggets at home.
For the full box score visit this link and for game highlights, click the video above. Check back tomorrow for the Topic: Thunder podcast analysis and key takeaways.