OKC Thunder capture tiebreak with easy victory over Jazz – Grades

Best OKC Reserve:

Typically the Sixth Man candidate Dennis Schroder gets the nod in this spot but it seemed fair for the hat tip to go to the rookie today.

Darius Bazley made big strides via the work he put in during the hiatus. He demonstrated his growth in the scrimmages but it was great to witness that carry over into the games that count.

Bazley scored 10 points on 4 of 6 shooting, continued his hot 3-point efficiency hitting 2 of 3 deep balls grabbed seven rebounds as well as one block.

Best Opponent:

Rudy Gobert got driven by too often in the paint to collect the nod here so Conley gets the hat tip. The veteran point guard didn’t start out well in Utah between returning from an injury and fitting into a new system.

Watch to see if Quin Snyder reassess how much Donovan Mitchell is tasked with being the primary playmaker as the offense for the Jazz is too predictable with him constantly running it.

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It feels like Conley should be taking a larger role in this regard but we’ll keep that insight to ourselves — just in case this is the first-round matchup.

None of the Jazz was particularly effective in the loss but Conley was the one player fighting to get Utah back in the game and delivered 12 points, four assists, two rebounds a steal, and got to the line for five free throws.

To reiterate, with the victory the OKC Thunder now owns the tiebreaker versus Utah. Since both clubs played 64 games prior to the hiatus this means if they end up tying after the eight seeding games the Thunder would get the higher seed. They also own the tiebreak versus the Rockets which is why they moved ahead of Houston on the seeding ladder after the win.

Next up the Thunder will face the Denver Nuggets on Monday when they’ll look to make it a clean sweep by garnering the tiebreaker against them as well.

For those who prefer to see all the stats, the ESPN box score is available by clicking this link.

Monday’s match versus the Nuggets is a mid-afternoon match with a 4:00 p.m. tipoff. Check with Thunderous Intentions for our gameday preview.