OKC Thunder player grades – start east road trip with oust of Detroit

OKC Thunder blow out the Detroit Pistons in one of their easiest victories of the season to kick off the three game road trip with a bang.

Entering the match with the Pistons many NBA analysts were all citing how great Detroit was playing. If you caught the OKC Thunder game preview you know I wasn’t of the same mindset. The Pistons have benefited from an extremely easy schedule and although they’ve registered quality wins against elite teams those victories have come with what I would deem necessary of asterisks beside them.

Sure, Blake Griffin has more closely resembled the star he once was at the beginning of his career, but this Pistons team is far from the upper four (possibly five if you count the Pacers) in the East. No one will ever convince me Reggie Jackson is a starting caliber point guard and his performance this evening only serves to add credence to my opinion on the matter.

From the tip the Thunder jumped on Detroit utilizing stifling defense and scored with relative ease. By the end of the first quarter OKC had built nine point lead. But, the true sign of this iteration of the Thunder being different than last season was how they came out of the lockers at the half. Already up by 10 they laid a sound beating on the Pistons in the third to the tune of 37-19. This is NOT the club who squander leads or lose to teams they shouldn’t like the past two season. OKC senses the top of the West is ripe for the picking and they intend to do everything in their power to claim that position.

In another overwhelming positive the Thunder reserve unit bested their opponent. This hasn’t happened frequently enough this season. Albeit, with Russell Westbrook missing eight games and multiple injuries to the roster there hasn’t been much time for the unit to gel or develop an organic flow. Games like this allow that to occur organically.