OKC Thunder Player Grades: Paul George scorches Heat as team wins 7th in row

Closing Thoughts:

More from Thunderous Intentions

• Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
• Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
• 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

As mentioned this game was one of my favorite of the season. It might not have been as important as victories over the Blazers or other Western foes, but in the grand scheme of things, it was how they won which resonated.

Great end of game moment when Dwyane Wade and Paul George exchanged jerseys in what has become a signature offering from the Flash as he closes out his final season.

Kudos to Billy Donovan who seems to be discovering a perfect mix of who to play and when to play them. In particular how he’s staggering Westbrook and George’s minutes with the reserve unit is paying solid dividends.

On an off night of shooting for all three reserve wings (Abdel Nader, Hamidou Diallo, and Alex Abrines) it served to highlight the need for Sam Presti to add one more wingman who can consistently score off the bench.

The book was out on the terrible perimeter shooting OKC Thunder team so what’s happening is opponents are backing off the arc and it’s costing them big time. OKC delivered once again (albeit George and Schroder were the main villains) connecting on 53.3 percent of their 3-balls.

However, the more important lesson from the 3-point line is the Thunder seemingly have kept in their minds a lesson from the Spurs which is to only have specific snipers shoot the 3-ball and only when it’s an open opportunity – hence they only took 30 shots from deep but hit 16.

OKC is just the second team in the Association to have two separate seven game win streaks this season (the Warriors being the other squad to accomplish that feat).

Next up the OKC Thunder, they continue their road trip in Boston to play the Celtics on Super Bowl Sunday. The full ESPN box score can be viewed here.  Check back for the Topic: Thunder podcast crew who’ll serve up the postgame analysis and tomorrow for the key takeaways.