OKC Thunder: Player grades feature team effort in win versus Blazers

Best OKC Thunder reserve performance:

Mike Muscala could not miss. He had 16 points in the first half. Hamidou Diallo did a great job helping him out by drawing in defenders to get him an open shot. Then Muscala added his magic touch.

It was his magnificent shooting that propelled Thunder’s lead which got to as big as 17. It’s safe to say that Musky as the Thunder likes to call him, is an underrated scorer who we are lucky to have.

Also shout out to the ‘Breakfast Club’ who is made up of Roby, Williams, Darius Miller, Josh Hall, Moses Brown, and Justin Jackson.  After the game, Roby said it was a name given to this second unit who would go in early before practice to play three on three. They’ve all worked hard and are earning minutes because of it.

Williams and Jackson played against Portland and showed that they can be counted on to bring energy off the bench and maintain the offensive flow.

Best opponent performance:

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In addition to his 26 points, Dame also recorded 10 assists and six rebounds. Even in a loss, he had a nice match that on any other night would’ve gotten his team the win.

And to put these numbers up after his 39 point game against the Knicks previously is huge. Though it took a while to get into a rhythm he worked and slowly got his team back into the game, giving them a chance at a possible comeback victory.

In closing:

In this game, the Thunder were without their veterans, yet played like a group of veterans to get a win they can be very proud of.

It would’ve been amazing if this game was on national television. The whole NBA needs to see the quality of basketball this young squad puts up every day.

You can view the full box score of the match here.

Next up the OKC Thunder take on Chris Paul and Suns on Wednesday in Phoenix.