The NBA Summer League will wrap up today with a champion being crowned. The OKC Thunder finished their tournament on Monday evening with a victory against the San Antonio Spurs. It was a bookend of success for OKC as their only wins came in Game 1 and Game 5.
OKC began the five-game tournament with a victory versus the Detroit Pistons, lost three games in a row, and then pounced on the Spurs in their final Vegas match. Finishing strongly is a great way to send the Thunder youngsters off to work on their games until training camp.
Vegas threw all sorts of curveballs at the team as top draft pick Josh Giddey only played five minutes in the debut match prior to rolling his ankle. That sidelined the rookie for the remainder of Summer League. Tre Mann got off to a solid start but had to exit midway through the games for personal reasons.
The resulting effect of missing two key players was the club struggled to produce offensively.
OKC Thunder rout Spurs to finish Summer League event
Fortunately, the Thunder saved their best for last via their 116-91 victory versus San Antonio.
Six players registered double-figures with Rob Edwards leading the scoring (23 points) off the bench
Joining Edwards in double-digit scoring was Josh Hall (17), Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (15), Emmitt Williams (14), Theo Maledon (11), and Aaron Wiggins (10).
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The Thunder won the opening frame 26-16 closing out the quarter on a 20 to two scoring run. That scoring barrage continued into the second frame with OKC tallying 33 points (to the Spurs 21). Each team scored 27 in the third quarter and the Thunder made it four strong quarters by winning the last frame 30 to 27.
OKC hadn’t shot the ball efficiently the entire tournament but that changed in this final game as they shot well from all areas of the floor. The Thunder shot 57.5 from the field 40.7 percent from the perimeter and 76.5 percent from the charity stripe.
The OKC Thunder rookies will set off with specific game plans from Daigneault of things to work on in the lab. Yet, there are other decisions to be made such as what Sam Presti wants to do with Edwards who isn’t under contract.
In 15 G-League games for the OKC Blue, Edwards delivered 12.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and shot 44 percent from deep on 6.1 attempts
Arguably, he was the most consistent player for OKC and with his ability to stretch the floor will likely be coveted by a few teams if OKC doesn’t lock him up.
The 116 points the Thunder scored came close to breaking the Summer League record of 120 set by the Nuggets.