Bench taking steps:
This game was done from the tip – the Thunder didn’t have it on this night and surrendered not one but two quarters of over 40 points to the Blazers. When the last horn sounded the point differential was 17. But the fact is that doesn’t reflect how badly the Thunder were outplayed.
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Early in the fourth quarter, Portland led by 35 points so the fact the bench was able to narrow the margin in garbage time made the final score seem less egregious. And, in minutes the reserves played when the game was still in the balance they were more of a factor than the starters were.
Dennis Schroder had an off night but the youngsters and Noel were decent on a night when it was hard to find much to be happy about.
The disparity between the clubs benches was significant as the Thunder reserves scored 61 of the 119 points obtained while the Blazers reserves scored 33 points. That’s a 28 point advantage for the OKC reserves and the 61 points represented more than half of the 119 total points the Thunder produced. Rather significant on a night when Schroder wasn’t particularly productive offensively scoring a meager 10 points and had no assists (so much for the ball movement concept).
Side note: could someone on the coaching staff PLEASE spend some time with Schroder to help him perfect the lob pass? It seems like every other game he throws the ball away on what should be a simple toss to Noel for an easy lob dunk. There’s also a number of athletic youngsters who are capable of streaking down the wings and could also benefit from a properly placed lob pass. Yeah, I know this is an ongoing rant – but perhaps if I keep harping on it eventually someone will do something about it.