Player Grades: OKC Thunder third quarter malaise leads to Pelicans victory in final pre-break game

The OKC Thunder fail to close out the game versus the New Orleans Pelicans as the drop their final game heading into the All-Star break.

Hey, it’s been an impressive season to date for the OKC Thunder who’ve been humming along in a secure third place seeding in the West. The hopes were to finish on a high and take a five-game win streak into the All-Star break. Unfortunately, OKC came up just a bit short following a lapse to start the third quarter which allowed the Pelicans to gain enough of a lead to take the match.

The good news is the Thunder exited this match without any players getting seriously injured. That might seem like an alarmist’s attitude, but the last game prior to the All-Star break and the last game before Christmas are always the matches players tend to lose focus.

As it was OKC Thunder fans held their breathes twice in the first half as Russell Westbrook tweaked his ankle late in the first quarter, and took a knee to the thigh from Anthony Davis late in the second quarter, but fortunately, he was okay.

New Orleans wasn’t quite as fortunate as first E’Twaun Moore hurt his knee forcing him to the leave the game at the end of the first quarter (though he did return) and then the Pelican’s disenchanted star Anthony Davis left the game in the closing seconds of the first half with what was deemed a potential injury.  TV reports indicated Anthony hurt his shoulder on a play where he attempted to block Nerlens Noel shot and had gone to get an MRI.

If the injury to Davis is significant it will open a can of worms after the Association apparently put pressure on New Orleans to play Davis despite knowing he will likely be traded this offseason.

Get to the break healthy:

In truth, if you were sitting there thinking Davis took the opportunity to leave so he could get an early start to his All-Star weekend you wouldn’t be alone. We’ll hope he’s fine, but this does again point to a key fact. If the Association if forcing the Pelicans to play Davis why then didn’t they do the same thing with the Grizzlies (Chandler Parsons), the Rockets (Carmelo Anthony) or the Cavaliers (JR Smith)?

Bottom line,  Thunder Nation be thankful OKC players got through the game and made it to the break healthy!

For those questioning the last games being tough to maintain focus a glance at some scores from Wednesday and Thursday punctuate the point. For example, the Charlotte Hornets (the All-Star Game hosts) finished on the road and were beat soundly (38 point differential) by the Magic. Even the mighty Warriors struggled to score in their final pre-break game getting beat by 22 points.

As it was both Dennis Schroder (paternity leave), Jerami Grant (ankle) was absent in this match and although Steven Adams suited up he’s been nursing both a shoulder and ankle injury.

Despite being shorthanded OKC cut the lead to three points with a little under a minute and a half remaining on Westbrook’s free throws. Unfortunately, the squad couldn’t push past that threshold and lost the game.

Suffice to say the Thunder would have preferred a victory, but the bigger picture of getting everyone out of New Orleans healthy is the win. To that end, let’s dive into the player grades from the match.