OKC Thunder: Player grades in loss to hot-handed Hawks

OKC Thunder starting lineup grades:

Aleksej Pokusevski needs work. If there’s anything to admire about his game right now, it’s that he never gives up even when his shots aren’t falling.

The potential for Pokusevski is there. We’ve all seen flashes of the player he can be, but the Thunder need more than flashes – they need consistency. The only thing Pokusevski is consistently doing, at this point, is missing shots.

In a little over 27 minutes, Pokusevski scored four points on 18.2 percent shooting. His six rebounds, two of which were on the offensive glass, saved him from an F.

Roby is the only Thunder starter that should have shot far more than he did against the Hawks. He hit at a high rate, making 60 percent of his shots, but he was reserved, content with letting the better-known players get their attempts in, even if their attempts kept digging a deeper hole for the Thunder.

Roby finished with eight points in the game and pulled down eight rebounds, as well. He was good enough to earn a higher grade, but with the way the game was going for the rest of the team, there are no guarantees he would have remained efficient.

Horford is typically a reliable playmaker for the OKC Thunder. He sinks a good portion of his attempts and gets his fair share of rebounds and assists. Horford has been one of the most efficient players on the team.

That wasn’t the case on Thursday.

While Horford managed to score 11 points in the game, he finished with one of his worst shooting performances this season, making just three of his 13 attempts. He finished with six rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one block, which helped keep his grade above a D.

There are always games you want to forget, and this was one of them for Luguentz Dort.

Dort has bounced back and forth between sensational and awful performances all season long. Against the Hawks, Dort had one of the bad ones.

Dort scored eight points on 25 percent shooting. He finished with one rebound and one block and did little else beyond defense.

It won’t stay that way, and he’ll erupt again this season, but this is one of those games he needs to leave in the past.

If grading just on the first and second quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander would have earned his worst grade of the season. But eventually, he got it together and managed to score 19 points thanks to a second-half in which he made seven of his nine shot attempts.

For the game, Gilgeous-Alexander shot 44.4 percent while pulling down three rebounds and dealing four assists. He recovered from an otherwise terrible performance to produce a decent finish.