OKC Thunder own clutch time versus Dallas Mavericks – player grades

We can quibble over this grade and some will feel it’s too high given the night Luka Doncic had. But, the fact Terrance Ferguson picked up two fouls by the 10:54 mark of the first quarter (one was extremely questionable) and still was able to throw off the superstar at times speaks to the determination of TFerg.

In his post game interview, it was Ferguson who Chris Paul cited as being the guy who does all the dirty work and doesn’t get the accolades for it. And hey, as for Doncic – we’re talking arguably the next great star of the NBA and a player who teams haven’t been able to stop unless they get overtly (and questionably) physical with him – so credit where credit is due.

He missed all three of his shots and only got to play 18 minutes because of that liberal whistle but did his best to be a factor at throwing off Luka the best he could.

Not many players accept the role of being that defender who has to guard the best player on a nightly basis but Ferguson deserves praise for doing so and as CP3 said ‘doing all the dirty work’.

Welcome back, Gallo!!!!

For anyone who wondered how Danilo Gallinari affects the team or what the OKC Thunder would look like if (or when) he’s traded the past few games have provided the answer.

As expected after such a long lay off his shot, particularly from deep was rusty and especially early. But as the second half kicked in suddenly it began to fall with that smooth as butter stroke. With the team having shot 2 of 16 from deep to that point in the game Gallo hit three 3-pointers in a row in under two minutes. Welcome back indeed!

In his return to the court, Gallinari collected 20 points, three rebounds, two assists, and one VERY BIG steal. He shot 7 of 15 from the field and while his 3 of 8 from deep wasn’t the type of efficiency Thunder fans are used to – those three made shots represented HALF of the total made (the Thunder shot 6 of 27 for 22.2 percent from deep).

It looked early on like the Thunder were going to give Steven Adams a steady diet of easy baskets as no one seemed capable of stopping the Big Kiwi. Unfortunately, the team went away from what was working although Adams still collected a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds. In addition, Adams offered two assists and a steal.

For all the success Adams had early he took only seven shots in total. If there is a small knock on Adams it’s him getting out to the perimeter to defend the 3-point shots of big men.

Fortunately, Kleber missed his late game attempt but Adams’ reluctance to get out deep allowed Kleber a wide-open attempt. Part of the reason was the big man was trying to help on Doncic and he did recover pretty quickly. It’s a small quibble but as per usual his presence in the game is always about more than the stats listed in the box.