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

Best OKC Thunder reserve performance:

Let’s be honest, the only time Diallo shouldn’t grab this honor is when he’s starting. There simply isn’t another OKC Thunder player who has had the kind of impact Diallo has had this season.

While other players have done well, Diallo has exceeded expectations in nearly every minute he has spent on the court.

On Friday, Diallo scored 18 points on 44 percent shooting in just 23 minutes.

He scored nine of his points at the free-throw line where he finished 9-for-9, a huge improvement from the rest of the season where he has shot just 58 percent. Additionally, Diallo finished with three rebounds and two assists.

Of the 37 points scored by the bench against the Nets, Diallo was responsible for just under half.

Best opponent performance:

Harden was by far the hottest player on the court on Friday for either team.

In 32 minutes, Harden scored 26 points while shooting an efficient 64.3 percent. He hit half of his six 3-point shots, pulled down 10 rebounds, and dished out 11 assists to complete the triple-double.

The Thunder simply had no answer.

Although his performance was one of the best of the night, it’s hard to not call this a team effort. The Nets had nine total players finish with double-digit scoring, and that’s without Durant.

The Nets were firing on all cylinders. They shot 57 percent from the floor and knocked down 19 of their 45 3-point attempts.

In closing:

The Nets are a tough team to beat, that much is obvious.

The last time the Thunder played the Nets, Brooklyn was without Irving and Harden was still a member of the Houston Rockets. This time, there was no Durant, but Harden and Irving proved to be too much for the Thunder without him.

That’s not to say the Thunder played poorly. The Thunder played well enough to beat most teams. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough of a defensive effort from OKC the slow down the hot shooting of the streaking Nets.

Even with the loss, the Thunder are far beyond where most people expected. At 8-10, they’re just slightly below .500.

A lot of experts picked them to win no more than 17 games this season. They’re on pace to exceed that easily, especially with a confident Gilgeous-Alexander leading the way.

It’s a long season, but so far, there has been plenty of upside to this young OKC Thunder roster. This team could be scary good in just a few years.

The Thunder take on John Wall and the Houston Rockets in OKC on Monday, Feb. 1 at 7 p.m.

You can view the full ESPN box score here.