OKC Thunder: Player grades feature 2Q woes in loss to Spurs

The OKC Thunder are yet to win at home this season with a loss to the Spurs. Grades provide more insight into the game.

The OKC Thunder were back at their fortress of Chesapeake Energy Arena on a quest to clinch their first home victory of the season.

Even though a relentless slam dunk from 14 year NBA stalwart Al Horford, was all it took for us to say GAME OVER, we soon realized that the game was from over. The Spurs who were without DeMar DeRozan, held a comfortable lead for most of the game to secure the win.

OKC’s 10 point loss means they are 0-4 when playing at home which shows the huge impact that Loud City has, bringing emotion and fire to the game and helping to galvanize the team to victory.

OKC Thunder falls behind in the second quarter

Confidence was a key component for the Thunder as they opened the match. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was unstoppable, making every tough shot to start the game as the Spurs couldn’t contain him. Many fans on Twitter were predicting before the end of the first quarter, that he’d go off for as many as 50 points. And I’m sure that we won’t have to wait for long until he achieves that.

Both the Thunder and Spurs had six players in double-digits. A second-quarter ascendance by the Spurs put the Thunder behind by eight at halftime.

This ultimately led to OKC having to work overtime to catch up. I would have liked SGA (who was on the bench) to return to the court late in the second quarter to help weather the storm.

However, a positive is that it did give more of the young guys game time and the chance to learn how to respond in tough times. The box score suggests that the game was quite close. Both teams shot 43 percent from the floor. The Spurs also shot 28.6 percent from the three-point line which was almost identical to the Thunder’s 26.9.

Even in a loss, there were some sparks of finesse put on display. Horford went up for this vigorous dunk and Darius Bazley went up for a similar show-stopper. Hamidou Diallo as always took any opportunity to attack the rim at full speed and did make a nice contribution off the bench.

https://twitter.com/okcthunder/status/1349177064293871616

I would also like to take this time to applaud rookie Aleksej Pokusevski who knocked down a couple of hefty shots and made two brilliant blocks to go with five rebounds. He also showed off his magnificent passing skills in pressure situations.

Let’s take a look at how the Thunder starters went with player grades.