OKC Thunder fall to 1-3 in Vegas following oust by Pacers

The OKC Thunder played their fourth NBA Summer League game on Saturday versus the Indiana Pacers. It was their worst loss to date and moves them to 1-3 in Vegas. They’ll play once more on Monday, August 16th facing the San Antonio Spurs with tip-off set for 5:00 pm ET (4:00 p.m CT).

Indiana moved to 2-2 with the 95-61 victory over the Thunder and will also play on Monday versus the Wizards. All teams will play five games with the last match occurring either on the 16th or 17th. Eight games are already scheduled featuring the 16 teams who’ve registered the lowest win percentage.

Seeding of the other 14 clubs and times of those final seven games times will be determined depending on the results from Sunday’s eight matches.

OKC Thunder suffer worst Summer League loss to date versus Pacers

Only two teams will get to play in the tournament championship and while the Thunder would’ve loved to be one of those teams the basketball Gods weren’t on their side.

Like much of the regular season, untimely injuries and unforeseen circumstances affected the club. Josh Giddey rolled his ankle early in Game 1 and has been sidelined since. Tre Mann also had to exit Vegas for personal reasons. They represented two of the key players in the Thunder rotation and without them, it put OKC in a downward position.

Despite their depleted roster, up until Saturday, OKC had kept their matches competitive either leading or tied the half. Playing in a back-to-back, however, exposed their lack of depth as they lost every quarter scoring no 18 points in each of the middle frames but only 14 and 11 in the first and fourth frames.  In comparison, the Pacers’ lowest-scoring frame was the first (15) but they registered no less than 24 in each of the other three quarters resulting in a 34 point differential.

OKC utilized 11 players but fatigue was a factor and most evident in their inability to be as effective defensively after the opening frame. Similarly, they struggled to score shooting a meager 30.9 percent from the field and 13.3 percent from the perimeter.

Jaylen Hoard was the most effective offensively leading the Thunder with 16 points.  Jeremiah Robinson-Earl registered a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds while Aaron Wiggins was the only other player (10) to reach double-figures.

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Ultimately the squad is looking to get the youngsters reps and time to develop chemistry. One player who has riden the biggest wave of highs and lows is sophomore Theo Maledon.

• Game 1: 15 points, 11 assists, five rebounds (5 of 8 from deep)
• Game 2:  five points, four assists, three rebounds (1 of 5 from deep)
• Game 1: 18 points, five assists, six rebounds (1 of 7 from deep)
• Game 1: no points, six assists, four rebounds (0 of 4 from deep)

Maledon had two standout games and two where he struggled to score yet the area he clearly needs to invest more time into is shooting from the perimeter. Through four games he’s had only one strong 3-point match (Game 1) and has shot 7 of 20 overall. While the cumulative result is 35 percent the club will be hoping he can be more consistent on a nightly basis.

He’ll get one more chance on Monday and then the OKC Thunder youngsters will hit the lab to work on the lessons learned in Vegas in preparation for next season.