OKC Thunder nail down sixth seed with defeat of Bucks, player grades

Player Grades

Westbrook had a quiet first quarter scoring wise with only 5 points, but dished out 11 assists through the first 24 minutes.

He ended the night with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 17 assists. He earned his 34th triple-double to tie Magic Johnson with 138 in his career, second-most in NBA history.

It was a strange thing with Paul George resting with shoulder soreness, Russ had a lot of weight on his shoulders. If I hadn’t watched the game, I’d be shocked to hear we won with only 15 points out of him, but I guess that’s what happens when his assists lead to a new franchise record of made three-pointers in a game. Great way to explore our depth right before the Playoffs.

Dennis Schroder was the MVP of this game. He gained the start in PG’s absence and used it to the best of his ability leading the team with 32 points off 8-15 from deep and forcing four steals. He got in some foul trouble in the third quarter but played wisely to finish the game strong.

Terrance Ferguson was hot in the first half, shooting 50 percent from the 3-point line. All of his 11 points came before halftime along with four rebounds. I thought for sure a double-double would be attainable, but Donovan rotated in Abdel Nader quite often. Ferg ended the night adding just two more rebounds to his stat line in the second half paired with five assists on the night.

Jerami Grant was the second leading scorer for OKC, shooting very well on the night. He ended the game 11-of-20 in the field and 50 percent from deep. He was the only other Thunder player to break the 20-point margin to end the night with 28 points and 5 rebounds.

Much like the last team we faced the Bucks, Steven Adams got roughed up a bit so I wouldn’t put much emphasis on his single-digit scoring. He took a gnarly fall in the second quarter at the hands of Tim Frazier and seemed to baby his right arm. He went to the locker room just before halftime and didn’t start after the intermission.

Much to our surprise, he returned in the bottom half of the third and ended the night with four points, two rebounds, and one block. He had a ferocious dunk in the first half. That part was fun.