OKC Thunder: Nuggets control pace, stealing OT match – grades
Best OKC Thunder Reserve:
I brought this up during the game — it takes a very special talent to always be ready to produce the minute they check into a game.
Looking back through history there are numerous stars but how many role players can you recall who produced every time they checked into a game? It’s not as easy of an exercise and that speaks to the rarity of players doing it.
Starters warm-up pregame and after half time then immediately begin playing. Reserves check into games needing to be ready in seconds. For shooters, that’s an even more difficult task And yet Nader is growing on me as someone that always delivers.
At 26 it might be asking too much for him to develop his skill set much but if he could add even a slightly better handle I think his minutes could be increased.
He scored 13 points on 5 of 6 from the field and 3 of 4 from deep in 13 minutes.
Hint to SGA: hey Shai – here’s the guy you should be driving the paint looking to kick out to when you fill in for Dennis.
Best Opponent:
While Nikola Jokic delivered a triple-double of 30 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists plus two steals he wasn’t the reason why the Nuggets won. That honor falls to Michael Porter Jr. who put up a career-high 37 points grabbing 12 rebounds to get the double-double and chipped in with an assist, steal and block.
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Ummm yeah – he was really good and there are copious front offices kicking themselves for not taking chance on that back of his in the draft.
If he continues to do this type of thing regularly than Mike Malone has his big three with Jokic and Jamal Murray.
Billy Donovan primarily had the seven-inch shorter Lu Dort defending him which Sam Presti was likely taking notes on in terms of future roster tweaks.
Ironically, Jerami Grant (who had a terrible outing for what it’s worth) will be a free agent this summer. With MPJ ready to take all his minutes he might be on the market again. Grabbing him on an economical contract would be the perfect type of defender to bring in and put on Porter.
The other player who got some burn on MPJ was Roberson who didn’t quite have it on Monday.
The OKC Thunder are back in action Wednesday when they’ll face the Lakers. For a full box score of Monday’s game, head over to this link courtesy of ESPN.