OKC Thunder player grades -Poor start leads to another loss vs Clippers

Best OKC Thunder reserve performance:

Hami was all over the floor tonight as he brought his usual energy off the bench. He worked hard to body up Kawai and PG13 and was not afraid to attack the paint on offense.

He was very efficient tonight going 6-9 from the field for fourteen points, five rebounds, two assists, and two steals. The one issue I had with Diallo’s game was his free throw shooting where he went 2-7 including four straight misses in the fourth quarter when OKC was closing in.

Hami will no doubt be hard on himself for those missed shots but the fact he was aggressive and kept attacking the basket to get to the line is a positive step and those shots will fall as he continues to build his game.

Best Opponent:

Kawhi Leonard was surgical tonight as despite the strong effort from the OKC Thunder to contain him he got to his spots all night long, torching the Thunder to the tune of thirty-four points, nine rebounds. and eight assists.

Kawhi has the strength to bulldoze smaller defenders in the post while also possessing guard like handles to beat larger opponents off the dribble. No matter who OKC threw at Leonard he had the answer and always seemed to get a clean look off.

Leonard has an amazing ability to get his shot at any point in the game and can easily rise up over defenders to get a clean look at the basket. He continues to look back to his best and the whole league should be worried if he manages to stay healthy throughout the season.

In Closing:

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At the end of the day, there were lots of positives to take away from tonight’s game. The fact we managed to slow down a player the caliber of Paul George for most of the game was impressive. We were also much better at guarding the Clippers without fouling as they only managed 16 free throws for the game.

Still, tonight definitely showed how much further the OKC Thunder have to go if we want to be competitive in the west. The great news is playing teams like the Clippers provide great learning experiences for the young OKC core.

OKC will go into the film room and highlight the slow start and poor defensive coverages as sticking points to work on if they want to take the next step as a team.

The full ESPN boxscore is available here.

The Thunder won’t have time to rest though as they head to Portland for a match tomorrow taking on Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers. It does not get any easier for the Thunder and they will have to take any little wins they can from games like this as they look to improve and move forward this season.