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

Best OKC Thunder reserve performance:

The OKC Thunder bench had the best performance of the night, overall. Ty Jerome led the way.

Jerome hit exclusively from deep, having a career night with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting from 3-point territory.

Jerome certainly deserves Player of the Game honors for his performance, one of the few bright spots in an otherwise awful game for the Thunder.

Best opponent performance:

Trae Young is often going to be the best player on the floor for the Hawks. But he was neck-and-neck with Bogdan Bogdanovic for this honor.

Both Young and Bogdanovic scored 23 points in the game, and each finished with six rebounds, but Young also finished with nine assists, which earned him the edge over Bogdanovic.

Young is capable of going off each night he’s on the court, and the OKC Thunder are lucky he didn’t do more damage than he did on Thursday.

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In closing:

The OKC Thunder are going to have good games and bad games. It’s been a while since we’ve seen them shoot as poorly as they did on Thursday, but it likely won’t be the last time we see it this season.

There are still lots of areas in which the team can improve. It hasn’t been as important this season as it will be moving forward in 2022 and beyond, but this season is also allowing us to look in on who will stay in Oklahoma City and who likely won’t stick around past 2021.

The younger players are getting more minutes on the court to develop, and the older veterans are getting a chance to rejuvenate their careers in hopes of finding a good landing spot in the future.

Click here to view the full box score.

The OKC Thunder will be back in action at 1 p.m. CT on Sunday in Houston when they take on the Rockets.