In the game against the Golden State Warriors, the OKC Thunder got one of their floor spacing weapons back into the offense as Terrance Ferguson rediscovered his mojo.
In the first two games of the season, OKC Thunder wing Terrance Ferguson played his absolute heart out. His task was defending the best opposition player in both those games. In the season opener against the Utah Jazz Ferguson took on Donovan Mitchell. In this game, Mitchell would break out in the second half, eventually helping the Jazz to a five-point win.
In the second game against the Washington Wizards, Ferguson’s opponent was Bradley Beal. In this outing, Ferguson kept Beal quiet, but the rest of the team got the Wizards the win. The problem for the Thunder? Ferguson took only four shots over the two games. Ferguson was the Thunder’s best shooter from distance last season. In the first two games, Ferguson’s opponent has been able to sag off and help keep Steven Adams quiet.
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Then came the Golden State Warriors into Chesapeake Energy Arena. Ferguson’s task in this game was to keep the Warriors’ best player, Stephen Curry quiet.
However, there was a different feel about this game. The Warriors wounded by a massive injury list, allowed the OKC Thunder to sense blood in the water.
As such, the whole team played with a lot of confidence and this flowed into Ferguson. At the start of the first quarter, I was unsure if it was going to be when Ferguson received the ball in transition, open.
The problem? Ferguson ran into the sideline official and had to give the ball up to a teammate as this allowed a defender to close him out. Sometimes when things are not running your way, these plays can happen, keeping your confidence down.
However, it was not long after that when Ferguson got his first points for the season, hitting a three from the corner with just over 1:30 played in the game. He followed this up with more three’s and a beautiful T-Ferg drive to the hoop.
https://twitter.com/okcthunder/status/1188545450258980865?s=20
At the end of the game, Ferguson had a stat line of 13 points, four assists and two rebounds. He accomplished this on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor and a telling 3-of-4 from deep.
On the other side, Curry had 23 points, eight rebounds and five assists but was only able to shoot 2-of-9 from deep, or 22.2 percent, and he is never going to carry the Warriors to victory with a game like that. Curry also made it to the line for seven free throws. While he hit all seven, again, this will not be enough to carry his team to a win.
All of this adds up to Ferguson having his best two-way game in his NBA career. Here is hoping he can carry it on for the rest of the season. If the OKC Thunder are going to have a relatively successful season, they need him to.