Severely shorthanded OKC Thunder deliver gutsy win – player grades
No one would’ve blamed the OKC Thunder if they’d raised the white flag given their health. Instead, this scrappy team played to their identity stealing the game from the Wolves. Grades break it down.
Devasted by injury and missing five players with Steven Adams‘ presence uncertain the OKC Thunder arrived in Minnesota and delivered their gutsiest effort of the season.
Ultimately, Adams started but he was clearly far from 100 percent and likely only on the court because neither Nerlens Noel or Danilo Gallinari could go
104. 86. Final. 113. 149
The starting rotation featured stalwarts Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Adams along with rookies Luguentz Dort and Darius Bazley.
Without Gallo or Noel and a hobbled Adams, the Thunder frontcourt was paper-thin. Having just jettisoned Justin Patton in the Isaiah Roby trade, Mike Mucscala was the only other available frontcourt reserve.
Karl-Anthony Towns knew he had the advantage and made OKC pay early and often. At the end of the first KAT already had 19 points. And yet inexplicably the OKC Thunder who struggled all season to win the opening quarter were the team with the 28-22 lead at the first frame.
The youngsters on the Thunder stepped into the next man up role each putting their mark on the game and fittingly, at 1:51 of the frame, a free throw by rookie Darius Bazley put the Thunder ahead 23-22. The Thunder never trailed in the match again.
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Although the Wolves made runs and cut the lead this game was similar to the match OKC lost at home to the undermanned Lakers. Minnesota had their stars healthy and even then it was more about the Thunder depth as their bench (already thin from Dort and Bazley in the starting rotation) outscored Minny’s bench 52 to 20.
There are bigger wins this season, large comeback efforts, exciting nail-biting clutch time victories. But there isn’t a game that compares to the degree of grit and guts that this contest served up.
With that let’s look at the player grades from the huge win.