OKC Thunder win ugly in OT vs. Hornets – player grades
It was far from pretty but the OKC Thunder got back on track with an overtime win in Charlotte to move back over .500 again. Player grades offer insight.
It took until 7:35 of the first quarter for the OKC Thunder to register points and there was this overwhelming feeling of — oh no — it’s going to be one of those nights. But, once Shai Gilgeous-Alexander broke the seal his teammates jumped on board and followed suit.
After the first frame, the Thunder cleared the initial hurdle winning by a margin of eight points (26-18).
OKC continued their aggressive play and led by 10 going in at the break (53-43).
The third quarter was another adventure as OKC coughed up copious scoring opportunities to the point Charlotte pulled within two points. Donovan reinserted his ‘hustle lineup’ and Dennis Schroder took over scoring six consecutive mid-range shots that sliced through the net like a hot knife through butter.
Final/OT. 104. 149. 102. 170
The Thunder bent but didn’t break as they finished the frame still with a lead of seven (72-65). However, the final frame witnessed an aggressive Hornets squad who finally recognized the Thunder were playing in a back to back and likely tired. They pushed the pace, ran at OKC and their perimeter shots began to fall.
With the Thunder up by two, inexplicably Billy Donovan elected to let Devonte’ Graham run the length of the floor and score without even trying to foul him although OKC had several fouls in hand they could’ve utilized to stop Charlotte and use up the clock. The result was a tie game and overtime loomed.
Unlike most fan bases it’s hard for Thunder Nation to get scared or worried in these moments because OKC has entered so many clutch time situations it’s almost like we feel more comfortable in those close game situations.
Ultimately, it came down to rookie PJ Washington shooting free throws to tie the game and missing both but the Hornets were unable to corral the ball quickly enough to do anything with it.
An ugly, ugly game but all that matters is the ‘W’ that belongs to the Thunder.
With that let’s look at the player grades from the loss.