The OKC Thunder youngsters 3-1 Summer League record failed to make top eight seed tournament cut but will play in the consolation round Friday at 6:00 ET vs. Team Croatia
As if July 11th wasn’t already turning into what may forever be known as Terrible Thursday the events of the Summer League ended up adding fuel to the fire. Mid evening the OKC Thunder formalized the trade of Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets.
But, despite winning three of their four contests the Thunder Summer League squad were the only team who amassed three wins but failed to make the eight seeds who move onto the tournament portion of the event.
The Boston Celtics took the top seed with an unbeaten 4-0 record along with the Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves who rank second and third respectively.
Eight teams lost a single game amassing a 3-1 record including the OKC Thunder. Yet, only five of those squads advanced by virtue of their quarter-point scoring and point differential. Based on those tiebreaking parameters the Clippers (+3.8), Warriors (+3.4) and OKC Thunder (+1.0) had the lowest point differential of the teams with 3-1 teams. Subsequently, they miss out on advancing into the eight seeded tournament portion placing 9th through 11 respectively.
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Eight teams move on:
- Boston Celtics
- Detroit Pistons
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- New Orleans Pelicans
- Miami Heat
- Dallas Mavericks
- Brooklyn Nets
- Memphis Grizzlies
The eight seeded teams will start this portion of the event on Saturday with the final two teams tipping off Monday in the championship game at 9:00 p.m. EST on ESPN 2.
Consolation Round:
The Thunder join 24 teams who’ll enter the consolation segment of the event which begins Friday at 4:00 p.m when the Raptors and 76ers meet. The OKC Thunder play Friday at 6:00 p.m. facing Team Croatia who the Thunder defeated 84-76 on Tuesday.
For a full list of the consolation and tournament schedule visit the NBA.com site.
In previous seasons the tournament was handled differently with the top two seeds receiving a by while the other 28 teams played in a single elimination round with the 14 winners joining those top two seeds to continue on in a similar style to the Sweet 16 of March Madness.
Instead, as per above, 2019 is the first year only the top eight teams advanced. Those squads will get the day off Friday while the consolation rounds begin and culminate on Saturday.