OKC Thunder Player Grades: No LeBron, no problem — for the Lakers!

Player Grades

Yes, he continues to struggle from the field although he was hitting from deep tonight. But, the measure of Westbrook’s game isn’t his shooting it’s everything else he does on the court.

Although it would be nice if Russ could find some balance in his shooting and bring the numbers up as long as he’s delivering dimes, grabbing boards, getting steals and defending it’s hard to complain.

While his superstar teammate seemingly disappeared in the fourth quarter and overtime Westbrook did everything he could to keep OKC in the match including tricking Lonzo Ball into a silly foul at the end of the fourth and then nailing all three of his free throws to even the match.

At game end, Westbrook came up just short of another triple-double with 26 points, 9 rebounds and 13 assists with one steal and one block. Incredibly he shot 5 of 12 from deep and hit 70 percent of his free throws (7 of 10).

https://twitter.com/FanSided/status/1086056661960208384

Terrance Ferguson‘s perimeter shooting remains scorching hot as he delivered another 6 of 12 from deep or 50 percent. In the third quarter, he collected three quick (somewhat questionable) fouls in just under 30 seconds which hurt the Thunder since TFerg was, as per usual doing a solid job defensively.

His 21 points are far more than any Thunder fan expected from his position, so everything he provides offensively is a bonus. And, as long as he’s delivering defensively there simply isn’t much to complain about.

Through three-quarters of this game, Paul George was delivering an A+ grade with 26 points already on the board along with 6 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 steals. Unfortunately, through the fourth quarter and overtime, PG scored just one more point, snagged another steal and a few rebounds.

It’s hard to penalize George when he’s done so much for the Thunder this season, but he needs to be more aggressive in matches of this nature particularly to close games. He’s also regressed defensively in the losses which could be due to wear and tear, but the Thunder need him to be more involved at game end.

Jerami Grant had an uncharacteristically up and down night defensively. Not one of his better defensive performances as his defense on Kyle Kuzma was lacking. Granted Kuzma is a handful but Ingram didn’t have his shot going so perhaps trying George on him would’ve helped. George was the primary on  Brandon Ingram which seemed like a waste since as mentioned he didn’t have it going.

Where he really faltered was in the pick in the roll when Adams was hedging to help, several times Grant didn’t rotate to cover Adams man which hung the big man out to dry. Grant wasn’t the only one responsible as George also got lazy defensively.

Grant managed to score 14 points, grab 3 rebounds, dish 2 assists and block 3 shots. But, he was the only minus starter on the evening and part of that was due to the aforementioned issues on defense. Factor in he’s not been hitting his treys and it only adds more reason to put my top reserve opponent in for additional time on the court.

Steven Adams delivered his typical line of 17 points 15 rebounds (7 offensive) an assist and had four steals. Unfortunately, as he would shift to help in the pick and roll defense his man was left open far too often since no one would rotate to cover.

This points more to defensive team issues for the Thunder who clearly need to revisit the drawing board since they’ve stumbled mightily overall and no longer sit first in defensive rating as the Bucks have surpassed them.

Moving forward OKC needs to restrain themselves from falling in love with shooting from the deep and go inside more often to force squads to stop the Big Kiwi.