OKC Thunder: Player grades features Maledon’s breakout in loss to Nets

The OKC Thunder went into Friday night’s game looking to beat the Brooklyn Nets for the second time this season, but even without Kevin Durant, they were unstoppable, dropping 147 points on the Thunder to roll to their fourth consecutive victory.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 24 points in the game — no surprise there.

The third-year player is averaging 24 points per game over his last 10. Theo Maledon hasn’t scored over 12 points in a game yet this season.

He was due for a breakout, and it came against the Nets.

Maledon shines for the OKC Thunder in the first 20-point game of his career

To say the OKC Thunder struggled defensively against James Harden, Irving and the Nets would be an understatement. The Thunder didn’t lack offensive production.

Against a lesser team, 125 points would have likely been all OKC needed to pick up their third straight win.

The Nets are far from a lesser team. Aside from a brief run by the Thunder in the third quarter that closed the gap to 14 points, the Nets spent most of the game up by 20 or more.

Maledon did his part scoring 24 points on an impressive 8-for-9 shooting night.

Maledon erupted from deep, hitting all six of his 3-point attempts. His 24 points tied Gilgeous-Alexander for the team lead in the game but his efficiency made him the clear player of the game.

Gilgeous-Alexander and Maledon were just two of six OKC Thunder players to hit double digits in the scoring column. Hamidou Diallo finished with 18, Al Horford had 16, Darius Bazley scored 14, and Luguentz Dort added 10.

Despite the loss, the Thunder did some things right.

Free throw shooting was much improved.

The Thunder got to the line for a whopping 34 shots and they converted an impressive 85.3 percent of their shots. Additionally, they were stellar from deep, hitting 16 of their 38 attempts.

But how did each player perform individually?

Let’s take a look: