Chris Paul tried to will his charges into another clutch time victory, scoring two quick buckets to cut the deficit from six to four (which for what it’s worth were the only two baskets he hit on a bit of a cold shooting night). He did, however, dish 10 dimes.
You can argue if he’d hit a few earlier the Thunder would’ve won the game but I’d rather see him growing the young talents and involve them in the game than force more of his own shots (are you paying attention Dennis Schroder?)
The point guard finished with four points, three rebounds, and 10 assists with no turnovers.
It’s an interesting segment of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander time with the Thunder since opponents are clearly game planning for him and he’s struggled a bit with all the extra attention. Although SGA hasn’t shown any frustration outwardly his shot is taking a bit of a hit. Through his last four games, Shai is shooting 18 of 52 or 34.6 percent from the field and 16.6 percent from deep.
https://twitter.com/okcthunder/status/1202425238862127105
The fact he’s still managing to score is a plus — but on this night he led his team in negative plus/minus with a minus 19 which isn’t typical of the youngster (and why his grade takes a dip).
Mind you, Malcolm Brogdon and TJ Warren are beasts to guard and perhaps the positive we can take from this is once Presti does move on to the next iteration of the Thunder and adds either several offensive talents or (fingers crossed) a star with “super” potential it should help SGA’s game take yet another step.
On the night he produced 16 points, three rebounds, three assists, and a steal along with two turnovers.
But — those dunks and his creativity at the rim were fun right?